5 Mistakes That Will Make Teaching Shakespeare Even Harder – and How to Avoid Them
Introducing young people to the Bard can be a challenge – but you could probably make it easier for yourself, says Helen Mears
- by Teachwire
He’s the one author that all secondary English teachers have to cover. But not everyone enjoys teaching him – and indeed, some people feel a creeping unease about Shakespeare lessons.
It’s not hard to see why; there is a huge burden of expectation and centuries of scholarship that can hold us back.
There are also many pitfalls littering the path, waiting to snare us. So what are the common hazards that we need to watch out for?
1. Choosing the wrong text
Opting for A Midsummer Night’s Dream for year 7? Romeo and Juliet for year 9? Why? Because everyone else does? Well, not everyone else is necessarily right.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is actually an incredibly complicated story with four interlinked narrative strands. And Romeo and Juliet may be about young ‘love’, but is it a relatable love, or a type of love that we want our 14-year-olds to start emulating? It may start with a beautiful sonnet, but it ends in a double suicide!
For younger students, try The Tempest as an alternative. It’s a relatively straightforward story with storms, shipwrecks, monsters, spirits and romance without the daggers and poison.
Do you want something relatable for older teens? What about Henry IV with its issues of teenage rebellion and searching for a father figure because yours is ashamed of you?
Or King Lear, enabling you to explore favouritism among siblings?
When it comes to GCSE your choice of Shakespeare play will be dictated by exam boards, so why not exercise some choice with KS3 while you can?
2. Showing the film first
This is a sure-fire route to confusion. Even the best Shakespeare films are confusing to the uninitiated, others are a complete mystery.
Just because you know the plot it doesn’t follow that your students will pick it up easily.
Choose your film or filmed theatre production carefully and watch it act by act, but not until you have done some work on the story and the characters first. Students will follow the film better if they know what’s happening, and to whom
3. Using a modern translation
There are now shelf loads of guides with titles like ‘Shakespeare Made Easy’ or ‘Shakespeare for Dummies’. You and your students don’t need them. We still use around 95% of the words that are in Shakespeare’s works.
Demystify the language by getting your students to read and speak it.
Starting with insults is a good route in, or you can select short phrases from your chosen play where all the language is still in everyday use.
Start with the words they know and then work on that lost 5%. Most copies of the play will have a good glossary to help with the process.
4. Teaching the whole text
Most theatre and film directors cut Shakespeare’s text – and so should you! Don’t be afraid to pick and choose.
Students don’t have to read every word of the play. What are the scenes, conversations or soliloquies that really matter? Concentrate on those and precis the rest.
Have you ever managed to sit through Kenneth Branagh’s uncut Shakespeare film? Probably not; and there is no way any of us would get through an uncut text at the theatre.
Shakespeare clearly cut his own texts for performances. Follow his lead and do the same for your teaching.
5. Making Shakespeare seem serious and important
Don’t do this, because he’s not. Yes, there are the great tragedies, but there are also comedies, romances and history plays. There are jokes and puns and clowns and fools. There are people falling in love, out of love and people doing ridiculous things, because they are human.
Shakespeare is about people, characters who are like us and to whom we can relate. It is sad, it is funny. Make studying his work enjoyable. Stand up and act, dress up, go outside and find an environment that suits your play. Make props, draw character maps, create timelines, explore and laugh.
Create experiences that will stick with your students and make them want to find out more. Don’t be scared or intimidated. Own and share Shakespeare… and have fun.
Helen Mears works in a secondary English department in Suffolk, and sits on the education committee of the British Shakespeare Association.
Browse our Shakespeare Week teaching resources.
