William Shakespeare can be intimidating for teachers, never mind students. But love him or hate him, he appears on pretty much every English literature exam specification in this country.
The best thing to do when approaching the Bard, especially for the first time, is to keep things simple. At the heart of it, the reason Shakespearean plays have survived the centuries is because of gripping narratives and fantastic characters. Start there and you can’t go far wrong. Here are a few brief ideas to help you tackle Shakespeare in the classroom.
Admit the language is hard
The number one challenge students tend to cite when trying to articulate why they don’t “get” Shakespeare, is the language. It is challenging, there is no way around that. Let students know that, even for you, the descriptions are amazing but sometimes they are tricky.
Model how to tackle a confusing line: if we don’t understand a word, what’s the first thing we do? Think of another word we do know that sounds similar. Still nothing? If we were to replace the word in the sentence with one we’re familiar with, what word could we pop in that would still make sense? Can we take a guess?
Give away the ending
It doesn’t sound very dramatic but your students will find following the language much easier if they know what happens over the course of the whole play. Read a synopsis, watch a short video, ask students to put the 10 key events into a storyboard they can refer back to. It will make life easier later down the line.
Do brief character studies
You want your students to know who the villains are, who the comedians are, who the tortured damsels are. There are more clues when tackling the language if they know the general outlook of the character. For key stage 3, you could make students an expert in one particular character, creating a profile, drawing their image and finding their key quotes.
Have them hear it out loud
Films are sometimes seen as the antithesis of studying English but, with Shakespeare, it really helps students to see and hear small sections of the play on screen. The Globe Theatre has some fantastic films of its productions available online that are entirely true to the text. Pick the action-packed giggle scenes to grab their attention: for example, Pyramus and Thisbe from Midsummer Night’s Dream and yellow-gartered Malvolio in Twelfth Night.
Let them act it out
Originally, in the 16th century, even Shakespeare’s actors wouldn’t have read the play through - full scripts didn’t exist. It was meant to be said out loud, walked around with. You don’t need a stage or a drama classroom, just the desks pushed back a bit and plenty of enthusiasm.
Have a go at staging those fantastic group scenes - “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” - together as a class. Play some atmospheric music, perhaps the sounds of swords clashing in the background, and have students reflect on the atmosphere.
Have fun with it
Above all, assure students that Shakespeare is complex. Academics have been tackling his plays and poetry for more than 400 years and they still don’t have all the answers. Even having a go at interpreting a character is a pretty amazing feat. And try to have fun with it: Shakespeare wrote for the crowds, the hoards, the people who paid a penny to stand and eat, drink and heckle their way through the plays. It’s not meant to take itself too seriously.
Hetty Steele is an English teacher and author of How to get a 9 in Shakespeare, published by John Catt Educational
