Connecting the Bard

I sent a tweet out to Web English Teacher asking her how she gets students interested in Shakespeare in today's modern world were we seem so disconnected from time of quills, ink, handwritten plays and no twitter. Her response was short, but that is to be expected when working with only 140 characters. Connect Shakespeare to modern life was her answer, and after brainstorming on her five word answer I have realized the potential for teaching Shakespeare, and how giving a stronger effort to connect Shakespeare with the student's modern life is how they will become interested. I feel like I am walking in that direction with my research: modern teaching methods of Shakespeare.


I also sent out a wide range of emails to current teachers asking them which plays they teach most often. All of them mentioned Romeo & Juliet since it is mandated in some states and practical in others. However, The Taming of the Shrew is the second most taught play according to the teachers I surveyed. I have started reading the play in its entirety, and plan to see the adaptations of the play as well.

Anonymous

This afternoon I watched the movie Anonymous, and it is now my favorite movie tied with Midnight in Paris. The movie weaves a plot about the existence of William Shakespeare. There are many conspiracies about Shakespeare being a mere pen name for another author or multiple authors. Anonymous takes the stance that he is a pen name, but many twists require the real identity to be hidden. It was a great movie in my opinion. I don't know if I believe the plot, but seeing the plays being acted as they were in Shakespeare's time was incredible (I actually skipped back and watched that scene twice). Also, seeing the political effect the plays had was great. I know the movie is fictional, but the purpose of the plays as a political statement was beautifully acted in the movie. It's at Redbox. Go get it.

Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?

"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art though, Romeo?" I know where he is; he is in a state mandated curriculum in Wyoming! I issued a question to several teachers asking them what Shakespeare works they teach. I was more surprised by the unanimity of their answers than anything. In previous questions, the answers varied far and wide, so I assumed since they all disagreed on when to teach Shakespeare, they would also disagree on what Shakespeare to teach. I was wrong. I've wondered why Romeo and Juliet is so commonly taught in schools when there are better plays to be read. A teacher in Wyoming's public education system, Holly Peralta, explained why. The Common Core insists that in order to prepare students for state standardized tests and the ACT, Romeo and Juliet needs to be taught at the 9th grade level.

Along with Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer's Nights Dream and Taming of the Shrew, tied for second place as to what plays are taught to first time readers of Shakespeare. I found this interesting. A romantic tragedy and two comedies? A bit on the opposite ends of the scale, right? I'm interested to research more into the selection of first time Shakespeare reads.

Jim Burden = Ophelia

In my Women's Literature class we were discussing the significance of Antonia to Jim Burden in the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather. I realized that Hamlet and Antonia are the same character, just as Ophelia and Jim Burden are the same. Ophelia does not exist without Hamlet, and without Antonia, Jim Burden wouldn't exist! This is known as the Ophelia Syndrome, or the lack of individualism. Jim does what Ophelia did, he does what Antonia expects or tells him to do--even when she doesn't intend to tell him anything. He is dependent on what she says. If she were tell him to go to a nunnery, he probably would...

Audio vs Text

I realize my post about the audio version of Hamlet is late, but I was waiting on a response from Mrs Gardner, currently teaching advanced placement and 11th grade English. After listening to a BBC Radio production of Hamlet and the commentary version, I wondered how these could be used effectively in a classroom. I asked Mrs. Gardner how or if she uses audio in her classroom. Surprisingly, she said she tries to use audio clips as much and briefly as possible. Clear as mud, right? She explained that giving the characters a voice is great for interesting students, but simply sitting and listening and possibly reading along will not work in a classroom. The students aren't doing anything. They aren't engaged in the text. However, she gave several ideas for using audio.

• Play the audio while the students do the acting on the spot. They'll have to carefully listen to know what to do, and because it is so impromptu it is fun. Have students rotate out for different roles to ensure participation.
• For scenes such as the ghost scene in Hamlet or the Lady Macbeth dream scene in Macbeth, turn down the lights and listen to those excerpts to create a mood.
• For dramatic soliloquys ("To Be or Not To Be," St Crispin's Speech, Romeo's final lines, or Iago's dark planning), play the clips, and if it is required to have student's memorize them, play them, stop them and have the students pick up where the character left off.

I understand why audio wouldn't be effective for the whole class period, but implementing them often and in appropriate amounts is brilliant.

Any other ideas on how to use audio in a classroom?

It's All About the Grammar

Today I took a moment to read my Google Alerts on both Shakespeare and Grammar. I looked through the Shakespeare ones, and I was as surprised as always to see so much Shakespeare activity in just one day--all the updates on productions, the Supreme Court quoting a line from King Henry IV, and a review on Shakespeare in Love. I opened my second email from Google Alerts about the fascinating facets of participles and participle phrases--I really do find them fascinating by the way--and, wait a second...I just read that article in my Shakespeare Google Alerts! I loved that my alerts for Teaching Grammar and Shakespeare have something in common! The article discusses Shakespeare's genius use of grammar in his writing, and how he doesn't just use commas to follow the rules, but each pause, semicolon and adjective are important to the analysis of Shakespeare.

Now to connect this even further! While listening to Hamlet's famous "To Be, or Not To Be" soliloquy, I realized I have been reading those lines wrong for so many years. It is not read "To die to sleep to sleep perchance to dream ay there's the rub." No, no, no! "To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;" Each comma, semicolon and colon are important. They give the words meaning and substance.

I love grammar, but it wasn't until Google alerted me that it is the grammar in Hamlet's speech that made me love the sound of his voice ringing through my room this morning as I put on my mascara.

Play Review: The Merchant of Venice

I just got back from the play tonight, and I loved it! Overall, I think the play was great, but three aspects stuck out the most to me.

• The Narrator-- I liked the narrator addition to the play the most. Shakespeare's original piece does not have a narrator. Henry V had the chorus which acted like a narrator, but The Merchant of Venice had not outsider parts such as a narrator or chorus. The narrator was a sort of relief during the play. Throughout the hour I had to pay attention to Portia and Nerissa, Antonia, the kids on the ground and whoever was taking main stage at the time, so when the Narrator took stage I could take a moment and appreciate what I had just watched.
• The Impromptu-- I'm sure the actors spent hours memorizing, practicing and rehearsing for tonight's production, but I loved the vagaries of the plays. There were no scene changes or backstage action. I was able to see what most plays take great pain in concealing. When Bassanio was talking to Gratiano at the conclusion of the court scene, I was able to see acting at its rawest talent. No time to rehearse or memorize; the play had a one shot rule.
• The Costumes-- Did anyone else notice the clothes? Bassiano's blue tinted hair? As a once blue haired person, I loved this unique costume decision. Did you notice Antonia was wearing heels? The actress playing Antonia was tall already, but when she had 3 inch heels on she could look Shylock level in the eyes. During their conversing scenes it would have been weird had Shylock been looking down at Antonia! Did you notice Portia also had blue hair tints? This blue hair idea intrigues me, and I can't figure out why they did that. Ideas?...

King of Kings: Google

Go to Google.com

Click More at the top

Now click Even More

Scroll, scroll, scroll to the bottom

See the Google Alerts? Click it.

Fill it out!

In my Teaching Grammar (a wonderful class despite its less than adrenaline pumping title) we set up Google Alerts for grammar related topics, but as I subscribed to alerts on prepositional phrases, I decided alerts on Shakespeare would be interesting. For the last week I've been getting a daily email from Google with 10 or so links and abstracts of high traveled sites about, referencing or linking to Shakespeare. Some of the links aren't super helpful and some are. Did you know they have big hooplah birthday party for Shakespeare in London? Have you heard about the protests because of the Hebrew version of Merchant of Venice? Did you hear that a judge quoted Merchant of Venice in a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania? Everyday I see people referencing, planning or quoting Shakespeare packaged in one nice email from Google.

To Graduate, Or Not To Graduate...

One day I will graduate...one day. When I graduate I will finally be able to do what I've wanted to do since I was a little girl. For most of my life I have wanted to be a teacher. I feel scared for those that don't know what they want to do. When a class roll is passed around for attendance I always scan the major section and shudder in fear for any "open major" people. My only decision of what to do for my life was picking what I wanted to teach. Math? Ha! Not a chance in this world or any other world. Science? Can I pass Chemistry? Nada. Music? 7 years of piano lessons and I can play exactly one song. History? Utah History is required for the major at BYU--never mind. By default and love I will teach English...one day.

Because I will one day be teaching Shakespeare, I want to steer my paper in that direction. My over-all question for my paper is "How is Shakespeare taught in schools?" I'm sure this will change over the next week, but for now I jumped off that question. I sent out 6 emails and a tweet to current English teachers asking 5 questions about their experiences teaching Shakespeare. I have had 3 teachers reply so far to my emails, and my tweeter has returned some great results.

I started following Web English Teacher. She really is great. She has led me to several website on teaching Shakespeare that I love. I can't wait to see what else I can learn from her.

A couple of the sites she has lead me to so far:

Cliff Notes Films: A great and creative way to get a quick overview of the plays. This site is really worth looking into.

Henry V Teaching Plan: Web English Teacher's personal and well done lesson plan.

Digital Classrooms: An interesting article on modern teaching techniques and equipment. Did you know there is a whole day devoted to digital teaching? It's in 7 days!

I've got some great feedback so far from several different geographical areas, grades and if my token male teacher replies hopefully some gender differences as well!

Personal Learning Video

Be kind. I have a one time take rule, so this was the first go at it.

Sunday Musings

1) Daily Shakespeare sighting comes from Ben Wagner

B) Thank you Jake for your post about Good Will Hunting quoting Henry V. I watched the movie as I got ready this morning, and it is now one of my favorite movies. That is one of my favorite parts about these blogs. We get to learn and try new things based off what others have recommended.

3) Have you ever searched "Shakespeare" in Twitter? Well, I did, and I could literally watch the tweets pile up. People are tweeting about Shakespeare every minute. I could barely keep up with the incoming tweets on Shakespeare let alone read the past tweets. My favorite tweet was from Kennedy-Nicole about her weekend drawing a comic about Shakespeare.

D) I was researching a bit of the history from Merchant of Venice before I start reading the play, and I ran across this article from PBS. Honestly, I didn't learn so much from the article's main point as I did a passing line from the author saying, "He was also an exceptionally good business man with a keen sense of what his audience wanted." I've always thought of Shakespeare as a writer not a business man. This line threw my preconceived perception of Shakespeare out. He was a business man. His plays aren't only famous now; they were famous as they were being written! Maybe this is obvious to some, but to me it was a revelation that Shakespeare wasn't writing for us, but he was running his own business. He was observing the world around him and writing plays that would appeal and relate to his neighbors. But they relate to as well? Has society not changed at all in the last 250 or so years? Are these characteristics of envy, war and love so ingrained in a person that whether they be good or bad characteristics they will not go away?

The Fate of Jake Spoon...I Mean Bardolph

If you haven't watched Lonesome Dove I suggest you use the nearest 6 hours you have free you sit down and watch one of the best western films you will ever see. Low and behold, it helps in understanding Shakespeare!

When reading the scenes about hanging Bardolph for his crimes, another scene came to mind from Lonesome Dove. The plot is the same; a friend is caught in crime, and the punishment is hanging by a piece of "cheap rope." Just as King Henry had to approve of the law, and Pistol had to accept his friend's fate, Gus and Captain Call are bound by the law to approve Jake's hanging as well...

I See Shakespeare...

I see Shakespeare everywhere! He simmers in the back of my mind, and I see or hear a reference to him at least once a day. Yesterday I was walking down the 4th floor of the JFSB towards a professor's office and it was like The Merchant of Venice was haunting me! Every door had a small flier on it. I stopped, took a picture of the time and date and continued down the Hall of Venice. Later I saw the same flier in the basement and at the bookstore. It's a sign that I need to see this production!

Today I was looking up what movies are opening this week, and I laughed as my Spearedar caught a reference to the man in question. Apparently the movie "Coriolanus" sounds like Shakespeare.

Now I am cooking Shakespeare and watching a movie that sounds like Shakespeare this weekend. Looks like there just won't be any time left to do that Grammar homework...

TaDa!

It is here! I spent a good portion of my weekend just flipping crisp page after crisp page. It is filled with all sorts of recipes from Scallop and Shrimp Soup to Rose Water Cakes. It has modernized recipes and beautiful pictures to go with certain dishes. Now if only Henry V would catch my interest as easily as this cook book as done...

Sick of reading? Try listening to research!

Ever heard of the Sea Venture? Well, apparently Shakespeare had! While researching around on Luminarium I found this great podcast on how the Sea Venture and Ferdinand's ship met a similar end. It is only a couple minutes, but it is interesting to see the obvious connections between The Tempest shipwreck and the Sea Venture.

Listen to the Podcast here!

If you are new to Podcasts you should check out Derrick Clements' blog. He does great work! Subscribe to both his Podcast channels "The Porch" and "The Pixar Podcast" on iTunes.

Tempestuous Running

Last night I broke my routine just for this class. I go to the gym most every night for several reasons:

1. My apartment doesn't have TV, so if I want to watch a program I take advantage of the gym's cable.
2. I use exercising as an excuse to further procrastinate homework.
   
3. Exercise.

Tuesday night is Cupcake Wars night. Unless you watch the Food Network channel this doesn't make sense. All evening long the Food Network plays episode after episode of Cupcake Wars. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you go watch it now! I forfeited my favorite pastry competition and reason #2 in order to read The Tempest. I have been reading the real book format of The Tempest, but I also have it on my . I opted to bring the Kindle with me instead of

the "real" book. As I was rounding the backstretch of Act III I looked over to the poor soul trying to read the fifth Harry Potter book as he ran. Running with a book that size appears to be extremely awkward, either that or he was just an awkward runner in general. I'll give him an A for effort though. I was bitterly grateful I had a lightweight, one handed, page-less format of The Tempest which allowed me to bypass the fumbling, off-balanced, flippity flipping of pages that running with real books offers.

Literature is changing. Had I wanted to, I could have bought The Tempest on audio, clipped on the iPod shuffle, stuck in tiny earbuds and ran without any interference at all. Technology has created easy access to hundreds of books online, audio an via Kindles, Nooks or eReaders.

Did you know:

• A Kindle weighs 8.5 ounces
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix weighs 2 pounds

Did you know:

• A Kindle smells like rubbery, plastic batteries.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix smells like fresh cut grass and sugar cookies...

• 

The First Folio

-“incomparably the most important work in the English language.”

I looked into the publishing history of Shakespeare's sonnets in my post La Sonnet, so I decided to do some research on how Shakespeare's plays were published, and I surprised myself with what I found. The First Folio was made postmortem by John Heminges and Henry Condell. They compiled 36 of Shakespeare's plays as a sort of memorial to his life. I doubt they realized that had they not compiled The First Folio, 18 of Shakespeare's plays would be lost. This compilation holds the only record of Macbeth, Julius Ceasar, Twelfth Night, As You Like It and The Tempest. So thanks to Heminges and Condell, we get to read The Tempest.

Excerpt from The First Folio of Shakespeare plays in 1623 (marks added later).