Teaching Shakespeare
A Handbook for Teachers

An improved, larger-format edition of the Cambridge School Shakespeare plays, extensively rewritten, expanded and produced in an attractive new design.

Rex Gibson (Author)

9781316609873, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 April 2016

237 pages
24.6 x 18.9 x 1 cm, 0.47 kg

Teaching Shakespeare has been a major contribution to the knowledge and expertise of all teachers of Shakespeare from primary upwards for two decades. This full-colour second edition is in a larger format, updated to reflect modern classroom practice. It includes new contributions by leading practitioners from Shakespeare's Globe, the Shakespeare Schools Festival, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Cambridge School Shakespeare editorial team. Teaching Shakespeare makes explicit the 'Active Shakespeare' principles which underpin Cambridge School Shakespeare and includes activities and advice to help teachers develop their existing good practice, making the learning of Shakespeare valuable and enjoyable for all involved.

Foreword
Introduction: Active methods
Teaching Shakespeare: an overview
1. Why teach Shakespeare?: Abiding and familiar concerns
Student development
Language
Otherness
2. Principles: Treat Shakespeare as a script
Make Shakespeare learner-centred
Shakespeare is social
Shakespeare celebrates imagination
Shakespeare is physical
Make Shakespeare exploratory
Address the distinctive qualities of the play
Choice and variety
Shakespeare and plurality
Negative capability
Shakespeare is about enjoyment
3. Perspectives: Feminism
Psychoanalysis
Structuralism
Deconstruction
Political perspectives
Reception theory
Using perspectives
4. Shakespeare's language: Introduction
Dramatic language
Imagery
Personification
Antithesis
Repetition
Rhyme
Lists
Verse
Prose
Rhetoric
Bombast
Hyperbole
Irony
Oxymoron
Puns
Malapropism
Monosyllables
Pronouns
Changing language
Inventing language
Everyday language
Two types of language
The development of Shakespeare's language
The Sonnets
5. Story: The Story of the play
Enacting the story
Stories in the play
Recapitulating the story
Point of view narratives
Ariel's story
6. Character: Introduction
Fundamental questions
Complexity of character
Language and character
Introduction to activities
Cast the play
Job interviews
Absent characters
This is your life
Obituaries
Point of view
Hot-seating
Public and private
Props
Free-wheeling associations
List of characters
Ranking characters
Journeys through the play
Relationships
Exploring character
Character types
Character names
7. Themes: Introduction
Four common themes
Levels
Particular themes
Fathers and daughters
Acting and theatre
8. Stagecraft: Introduction
Stage directions
Critical incidents
Creating atmosphere
Opening scenes
9. Active methods: Content
The teacher's role
Organising the classroom
Introduction to activities
Acting a scene
Beginning the play
Sense units
Speaking Shakespeare
Teacher leading
Five investigations
Sections and headlines
Student as director
Point of view: theory
Improvisations
Warm-ups
A memory game
Tableaux
Chroal speaking
Insults
Using films
Trials and inquiries
Writing and design
Sequencing
Shakespeare's life and times
Theatre visits
Staging a Shakespeare play
Shakespeare festivals
Researching the classics
Other resources
10. Shakespeare for younger students: Introduction
Shakespeare's life and times
Storytelling
Dramatic storytelling
A co-ordinated approach across the curriculum
A Shakespeare term
A puppet Macbeth
11. Assessment: Process or product? Principles
Student self-assessment
Assessment of performance
Essays
Assessment tasks
Examinations
Evaluating a lesson
Quotations used in the text
Index

Subject Areas: Educational: drama studies [YQD], Educational: English language & literacy [YQC], Teaching of a specific subject [JNU]