How can teachers build students' interest and engagement in reading texts in the high school English curriculum while still providing access to challenging texts from the canon? Teachers typically expect their secondary students to read texts from the English canon because these texts offer opportunities for meaningful reflections on essential…

Reading skills are vital to student success, and those skills could be practiced with Shakespeare "if students are taught reading skills in the classroom." The problem is that many teachers of English do not consider themselves reading specialists and do not teach reading skills to their students. Fred L. Hamel notes that teachers in a recent…

YouTube, the video sharing website that allows viewers to upload video content ranging from cute dog tricks to rare rock videos, also supports a lively community devoted to the performance of Shakespeare and Shakespearean adaptations. YouTube is also a popular site for student producers of Shakespeare performances, parodies, and other artistic…

Maryellen G. Paquette reveals the excitement and learning that can occur when high school students are presented with multiple opportunities to play. Activities that employ playful language and the whole body allow students to embody, name, and identify with complicated emotions and situations in Shakespeare's plays. In addition, play can be…

Offers six high school teachers' suggestions about using adolescent novels to introduce students to a literary classic. Reports that this approach can help young readers relate the literary experience to their own lives. (SR)

Argues that the 1996 film of "Romeo and Juliet" (starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes, and transposed to inner-city gang culture) is a gripping presentation of Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers in an impulsive, hot-headed, violent world. Suggests that the film is practically guaranteed to make students love Shakespeare.…

Argues that when introductory activities to the classics begin with background information, it can upstage or confine the life of the story, and shows little faith in the students as readers or in the literature itself. Suggests sometimes letting the literature begin, and then helping students make sense of it. Discusses examples from "To Kill a…

Reports what various educators believe classics are and what their place should be in the English curriculum. (JL)

Describes how pairing Wordsworth's poem ("Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey") with a contemporary novel ("The River Why" by David James Duncan) makes the classic poem come alive for students. Argues that, regardless of the poem, Duncan's novel is ideally suited for classroom study. (SR)

Reviews Dover Publications' new series of literary classics published as inexpensive paperback editions. Finds the books able to withstand physical abuse. Recommends selecting the volumes that comfortably fit the curriculum and enlarge the choices within the department. (RS)

Argues that lists of great books ought to reflect both the comic and tragic sides. Discusses problems of censorship and of translation when presenting comic works to classrooms full of teenagers. Describes how the author approaches the teaching of Aristophanes'"Lysistrata," offering students a bowdlerized text and inviting them to improve it. (SR)

Offers four avenues to teaching classic literature. Describes how the author helps students connect with classic literature through assignments that look for connections between literature and: (1) art and music; (2) dramatic interpretation; (3) video/technology; and (4) other literary works. (SR)

Argues that using parallels between popular culture and the classics in literature brings greater understanding and appreciation of literature to students. (RL)

Describes an effective but new twist on the use of young adult books as bridges to the classics. Considers how "Frankenstein" is a novel written for today. Aims for his students to see that literature can be a way to discuss important issues. Discusses how to bridge Walter Dean Myers' novel "Monster" to…

Reviews nine novels for young adults written before 1967 which are now considered to be "classics" by many English teachers. (PRA)