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7 Quirky Ways Students Learn Shakespeare

First Posted: 05-17-11 09:48 PM   |   Updated: 05-17-11 09:48 PM

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.

San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival
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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.
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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 ch...
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 ch...
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umbrarchist
21 hours ago (7:00 PM)
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
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
carmenalex
18 hours ago (9:24 PM)
Yeah...kid­s should just think reading People magazine and Game Informer is enough culture.
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Sarah Enloe
23 hours ago (4:55 PM)
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
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MikeyJaii
Fan me ... or else!
02:25 PM on 5/18/2011
The picture that they show as a cover. It will probably only happen in that school.
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kidjudas
02:17 PM on 5/18/2011
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.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
ecotopian
In the fields of Ecotopia...
01:03 PM on 5/18/2011
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.
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SangZe
08:16 AM on 5/18/2011
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.
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Joel Redman
Proud liberal
23 hours ago (4:08 PM)
Shakespear­e must be seen in action, preferably live, to be appreciate­d. Dead words on the page don't do him justice.
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eceresa
22 hours ago (5:53 PM)
No, but even as dead words on the page, Shakespear­e is pretty great.
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carmenalex
18 hours ago (9:28 PM)
..sure its meant for the stage...bu­t those words are definitely not dead on the page!
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