Shakespeare Forever!
HOW IT WORKS
Shakespeare Forever! is a four-week author
study of William Shakespeare, in which students study his life and three plays: Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. This program focuses on specific
reading strategies during these four weeks. Students learn to find word
meaning in context by listening to lines from Shakespeare and writing in
their own words what he means. For example, one student elaborated with
the quote “The course of true love is very bumpy.” Students also sequence
the play’s events by creating storyboards and illustrating the events
in order. The students love pretending to be Shakespeare’s characters and writing
letters to other characters in his plays. This activity elicits incredibly
expressive language, and is an excellent way to discuss the use of figurative
language in literature.
THE STUDENTS
Nineteen students with various academic levels participated in this program,
and met daily in a second-grade inclusion classroom. One classroom
computer was employed and students only needed to know how to use the
mouse. This program can easily be adapted to students in a general-education second- or third-grade
inclusion class by incorporating many hands-on activities, including dramatic play, rhythmic
lessons, and graphic organizers. Children who read below grade level can participate in
guided reading with the teacher, while independent readers work in small
peer groups or on their own.
THE STAFF
Molly Buck began teaching elementary school in February of 2001. She
implemented this program for the first time this year in her second-
grade inclusion classroom at P.S. 142 in District 1.
WHAT YOU NEED
All that is necessary for Shakespeare Forever! to be successful is a
classroom with at least one computer with PowerPoint software, a space for
sharing books and writing, the Shakespeare plays and books, and writing
journals. It is also highly recommended that the students be
exposed to the presentation of a Shakespearean drama. The participating class read Macbeth in the fall and then went to Belvedere Castle in
Central Park to see Shakespeare’s Haunted House, a theatrical program that involves a
number of Shakespeare’s characters and Shakespeare himself. This program is
performed every year specifically for children.
OVERALL VALUE
Instilling recognition and appreciation for William Shakespeare and his
classic works in a child will enrich his or her understanding of
literature in the present and in the future. The themes that Shakespeare’s plays touch upon
are universal, so that they appeal to children as well as to adults. This
approach to Shakespeare will make students confident and engaged about
leading literate lives both in and out of school. Shakespeare has motivated
the participating students to become better readers and more creative
writers. Their eyes light up at the simple mention of Shakespeare, and they
are more engaged in listening to, reading, and writing about his plays and
characters than about any other author they have studied before or since.
Shakespeare Forever!
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