{"id":36,"date":"2014-11-22T12:34:01","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T12:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/?p=36"},"modified":"2014-11-22T12:34:01","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T12:34:01","slug":"mistaken-identity-shakespeare-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/2014\/11\/22\/mistaken-identity-shakespeare-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistaken Identity: Shakespeare in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"untitled\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NOTE FOR NON-ENGLISH TEACHERS: Please don\u2019t be put off by what appears to be English heavy content. My needs are far reaching!<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an age old struggle for an English Teacher: I love Shakespeare and the kids hate him. Worse still, I understand exactly why they hate him. I hated him too. Passionately. Actively even. And so, this is the ongoing discussion throughout my career (notice my defiance).<\/p>\n

Student: \u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I hate Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No, you just think you hate Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

Student:<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, I really hate him.<\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You don\u2019t even know if you hate him.<\/p>\n

Student: \u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mr. Vogt!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve taught Shakespeare to kids in South America, North Africa, The Middle East, Ontario and now the Maritimes, and this exchange has varied little from year to year. Last year, the conversation climaxed when a ninth grader threw a copy of \u2018The Merchant of Venice\u2019 from my 3rd<\/sup> story classroom window, striking a science teacher in the head (this really happened).<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ok, I believe you.<\/p>\n

I should say my general approach to Shakespeare in my class hasn\u2019t necessarily been driven by my defiance. My defiance, I think, is born from a belief that my classroom is somehow different. My approach to Shakespeare doesn\u2019t resemble my high school experience, because I\u2019ve tried everything and my high school teachers, beyond sitting in rows reading, tried nothing.( Actually, that\u2019s not quite true. Some teachers, in some inspired homage to the 1950s would ask us to memorise famous speeches and then recite them beside their desk as they made ticks on a sheet of paper deducting grades with every stumble.) Anyway, each year, it seems, begins with the enthusiasm of a new innovation in terms of experiencing Shakespeare as well as expressions of learning Shakespeare. And this makes my students experiences with Shakespeare vastly different from what my own were. Except, of course, the outcome is basically the same:<\/p>\n

Student:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shakespeare\u2019s boring and he sucks.<\/p>\n

They are tortured by him!<\/p>\n

(This is hard to admit, but, at times, I\u2019ve even sunk to shifting my perspective: \u201cOK, so they hate him. No matter what, they\u2019re going to hate him. They\u2019re supposed to hate him. At least I\u2019ve provided meaningful and lasting engagement that will finally resonate at that more mature moment in life when it inevitably hits them that they do, in fact, love Shakespeare. At that time, a time when they will barely remember my name, they will thank me.\u201d And, of course, I\u2019m forever buoyed by the inevitable few – a very tiny minority – who decide they love him: \u201cSee,\u201d I reassure myself, “I\u2019m doing something right.\u201d All of this represents a kind of cop out.)<\/em><\/p>\n

In more recent years, I\u2019ve found myself adding something peculiar to the conversation.<\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 OK, of course you find him boring. You know, I\u2019m pretty sure that when Shakespeare was imagining these plays he didn\u2019t intend for a bunch of high school students to be sitting around reading them from a text. They are plays! They are meant to be performed and experienced in that way.<\/p>\n

Indeed, I have used performance in my classroom. Over the years, I\u2019ve used it in all kinds of ways: dramatic readings, contemporary retellings, even performances of short scenes. This is, I have learned, an effective approach to Shakespeare. It adds a layer of interpretation forcing a deeper and more meaningful engagement with the text. It is through performance that Shakespeare\u2019s language finally begins to reveal itself and, in some way, resonate. The overall level of student engagement is high when performance is the focus. If students are to in fact thank me later in life for exposing them to Shakespeare, it will be because I asked them to perform it. I firmly believe this.<\/p>\n

Well, this marks yet another year of \u201cteaching\u201d Shakespeare and, with it, yet another innovation. But this year\u2019s different!<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s innovation builds on the concept of performance. No, it flips the entire approach to Shakespeare by emphasizing performance. Until this point, performance, within any study of Shakespeare, has been a mere element in a larger goal of teaching the text. And oh my goodness, do I ever hate admitting that! However, with this confession I also hope (and goodness do I ever hope!) I\u2019ve identified the single biggest factor in the student\u2019s dread of Shakespeare. No matter how many innovations I\u2019ve thrown at the wall, my general approach has remained. I have, throughout my teaching been determined to bring the students to larger understandings of the basic elements of literature within Shakespeare: theme, character, specific stylistic choices, plot even. Really, the end goal in my classroom has been for the student\u2019s to be able to compose formal, literary essays. Sorry, why do the student\u2019s hate Shakespeare?<\/p>\n

(Isn\u2019t this by far the most difficult part of truly and meaningfully changing what\u2019s happening in the classroom? Being truly honest about what it is you’ve been doing and the effect you\u2019re actually having on learning?)<\/em><\/p>\n

So this year, in my tenth grade class, the students are performing! I mean, I still \u201cteach\u201d the text but this is something closer to modelling (to borrow from Kelly Gallagher\u2019s \u2018Readicide\u2019) rather than an insistence on full comprehension. From time to time I select a key passage or exchange and I\u2019ll model my approach to interpretation and analysis. The students, meanwhile, are primarily focused on the larger and daunting goal of performance. In the spirit of PBL, the basic idea looks like this:<\/p>\n

Broken into groups of four or five, students create a five to ten minute performance of an important (or memorable or particularly entertaining) moment, any moment, their choice, from \u2018The Tempest\u2019. Within each group (or company) are particular roles: lead actors, director, designer. The company creates an identity with a name, logo, slogan, and mission statement. All of this is posted on the company website where each member maintains a blog (various prompts for reflection are provided throughout the experience). The company has a twitter account. There\u2019s a research element where each member creates an annotated bibliography of sources that might inform their artistic choices. Final performances occur in the theatre before a live audience. My absolute favourite piece of this entire project is that the Grade eights\u00a0are making documentary films of this entire process (hilarious!).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been roughly three weeks since I\u2019ve introduced the project and we\u2019re now four weeks from final performance. It\u2019s going OK, but here\u2019s what I would love to know from all of you:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They\u2019re still really only taking a \u201cgetting the work done approach\u201d. I\u2019m sure fear, at some point soon, will play a huge motivating role. However, I would love some insight or innovations to enhance overall engagement in the meantime.<\/li>\n
  2. I understand the twitter piece in terms of sharing the experiences of our classroom with the larger community. I\u2019m struggling, in this instance, to understand how it might enhance learning. Help!<\/li>\n
  3. The question framing the project is \u201cShakespeare: why do we still care?\u201d I would love some creative ideas on how the students can go about synthesizing their ideas and concisely answering this question at the end of the process beyond just a written reflection or personal essay.<\/li>\n
  4. Anything! Really, help me out. This is a messy experiment at best. I would LOVE to know what\u2019s working in your classroom.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    NOTE FOR NON-ENGLISH TEACHERS: Please don\u2019t be put off by what appears to be English heavy content. My needs are far reaching! It\u2019s an age old struggle for an English Teacher: I love Shakespeare and the kids hate him. Worse still, I understand exactly why they hate him. I hated him too. Passionately. Actively even. … Continue reading “Mistaken Identity: Shakespeare in the Classroom”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classroom-reflections","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/grahamvogt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}