7 Quirky Ways Students Learn Shakespeare

Springtime may bring April showers and May flowers, but the spring weather also brings students out to parks to perform Shakespeare.

Outdoor public performances are one of the many ways educators choose to tackle Shakespeare -- a subject saved for the end of the year in many schools. In the spirit of the season, HuffPost has decided to bring you a roundup of some of the great ways teachers are using to make the Bard accessible to young students.

Have any favorites of your own? Let us know about them in the comments below.

1 of 7

San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival

1 of 8

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

On April 30, the San Diego Shakespeare Society hosted its sixth annual Student Shakespeare Festival. The event welcomes over 300 K-12 students who perform 10-minute segments of a play on five stages throughout San Diego's Balboa Park. Bringing Shakespeare out of the classroom and out of the theatre makes for a lively atmosphere."Babies crying, people playing musical instruments, things that in a regular theatre we would think of as distracting elements, it's all there in Balboa Park," high school teacher Monica Hall told KPBS. Visit the San Diego Shakespeare Society's website for more information.

Reading In American Schools: Will Common Core State Standards Improve Literacy?

Oklahoma Middle Student Seriously Injured In School Bullying, Undergoes Surgery (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

Teacher Rap Video At Jennings High School In Missouri Gets Students Pumped For Standardized Tests

General Education

Missouri Teacher Forced 6-Year-Old To Sit In Her Diarrhea

Manuael Ernest Dillow, Virginia High School Teacher, Arrested For Lining Up Students, Firing Blank Gun Shots

On April 30, the San Diego Shakespeare Society hosted its sixth annual Student Shakespeare Festival. The event welcomes over 300 K-12 students who perform 10-minute segments of a play on five stages throughout San Diego's Balboa Park.

Bringing Shakespeare out of the classroom and out of the theatre makes for a lively atmosphere."Babies crying, people playing musical instruments, things that in a regular theatre we would think of as distracting elements, it's all there in Balboa Park," high school teacher Monica Hall told KPBS. Visit the San Diego Shakespeare Society's website for more information.

comments(18)

Total comments: 18 | Post a Comment

1 of 8

This Way To Learn Shakespeare

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Much ado about nothing Play on!

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Top 5

loading...

Top 5

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[Fergus Kelly]

05:55 AM on 06/12/2011

now is the winter, summer, autumn, spring of our discontent, thanks to the useless irish government

[Max Ransom]

11:50 PM on 06/08/2011

and no Michael York this year...yea to Ian McK!

[Valerie Stancil]

11:35 PM on 06/05/2011

Now this is true engagement, wonder, and learning at work. If all schools had arts opportunities like this, can you imagine how much better our world could be? Shakespeare has something for everyone. His work is an example of the truly universal human qualities that the arts can help us share and recognize in one another. That's why it works everywhere from prisons to third grade classrooms. Shame on principals and districts who cut programs like these. Talk to your local board and support your arts teachers!

[novabird]

07:41 PM on 06/04/2011

Rafe Esquith is one of my teaching heroes. His book "There are no Shortcuts" is pure inspiration for any teacher. You can read a free excerpt here.
http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400030835

[umbrarchist]

07:00 PM on 05/18/2011

Wikipedia says he died in 1616. 5 more years to the big five oh oh.

Some time ago I had a conversation with a teenager who said she knew what an electron was and then said it was in the nucleus. I had 4 years of English Lit in high school but only 3 of science. I still don't see why they think Eng Lit is so important.

C.P. Snow's Two Culture War is still going on.

What LASER through yonder window breaks? It is the Terminator with a 30 kilowatt rifle.

Null-ABC, by H. Beam Piper
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18346/18346-h/18346-h.htm

[carmenalex]

09:24 PM on 05/18/2011

Yeah...kids should just think reading People magazine and Game Informer is enough culture.

[Sarah Enloe]

04:55 PM on 05/18/2011

The American Shakespeare Center hones in on Shakespeare's staging conditions--he was writing for a specific place and a specific company and way of performing-- to bring the plays to life. A troupe of 11 doubles roles in a rep of 3 plays, travels up and down the East coast giving workshops, doing full length plays, and introducing students to Shakespeare with the lights on. Back at home in Virginia, at the Blackfriars Playhouse (Shakespeare's indoor playhouse--a sister theatre to the Globe), actors do the same for audiences four seasons, 52 weeks a year. www.americanshakespearecenter.com

[Clemgo3165]

03:01 PM on 06/23/2011

Yay, American Shakespeare Center! The org I work for has provided some grant funding for its great work.

Back in my college Shakespeare class we were asked to rewrite a piece in a different dialect or style. It being the 80's, my friend and I rewrote Ophelia's speech in Valley Girl. It was a great way to learn to internalize the language.

[MikeyJaii]

02:25 PM on 05/18/2011

The picture that they show as a cover. It will probably only happen in that school.

[kidjudas]

02:17 PM on 05/18/2011

I teach high school Language Arts. After years of idleness, I reinstated a Shakespeare Honors class. I covered the classics, Macbeth, Othello, Richard III...even got old school with Titus Andronicus. Due to our esteemed Wisconsin governor's budget cuts, the class- like many other programs in public schools- has been shelved permanently by the powers that be in my district. It's a shame that many kids graduate high school without ever having more than one dose of Shakespeare as Freshman. Shakepeare will never die, he'll just be imitated and fed to a largely uneducated public.

[JoeyDee2]

02:32 PM on 06/07/2011

Bravo for you but Titus Andronicus? Yikes!

[ecotopian]

01:03 PM on 05/18/2011

You forgot the Reduced Shakespeare Company. They are the condensed version of the Bard. You can do a search and find their videos. These guys are very funny.

[SangZe]

08:16 AM on 05/18/2011

Students should learn turn off their phones, TV sets and other games and learn the pleasures of reading. No gimmicks are necessary. All they need is a good book.

[Joel Redman]

04:08 PM on 05/18/2011

Shakespeare must be seen in action, preferably live, to be appreciated. Dead words on the page don't do him justice.

[eceresa]

05:53 PM on 05/18/2011

No, but even as dead words on the page, Shakespeare is pretty great.

[carmenalex]

09:28 PM on 05/18/2011

..sure its meant for the stage...but those words are definitely not dead on the page!