How to bring Shakespeare to life in the classroom

Anna Roslaniec
Anna Roslaniec
A girl holding a pile of books smiling in a room with large sheves of books.

The 23rd of April marks the birth (and death) of William Shakespeare: poet, playwright and pre-eminent dramatist. His poems and plays have been translated into 80 languages, even Esperanto and Klingon.

It is remarkable how Shakespeare¡¯s iconic body of work has withstood the test of time. More than four centuries on, his reflections on the human condition have lost none of their relevance. Contemporary artists and writers continue to draw on his language, imagery and drama for inspiration.

But, despite the breadth and longevity of his appeal, getting students excited about Shakespeare is not always straightforward. The language is challenging, the characters may be unfamiliar and the plots can seem far removed from modern life.

However, with the right methods and resources, there is plenty for teenagers and young adults to engage with. After all, love, desperation, jealousy and anger are feelings we can all relate to, regardless of the age group, culture or century we belong to!
So, how can you bring classic Shakespearean dramas like Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth to life?

There are many ways for your learners to connect with Shakespeare and get excited by his works. Here we¡¯ll show you three classroom activities to do with your students and some indispensable resources to ensure that reading Shakespeare is as accessible and enjoyable as possible!

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Three ideas to shake up Shakespeare

1. The Bard¡¯s epic burns

The very word ¡®Shakespeare¡¯ is enough to strike dread into the hearts of some youngsters. That¡¯s why it¡¯s so important to highlight the lighter, more humorous side of his work from the very beginning. Based on some of Shakespeare¡¯s finest insults, this activity will help transmit a crucial idea: these plays were designed to entertain.

The Bard was renowned for his linguistic creativity; nowhere is this more evident than in his?. Some of them still sound as hard-hitting as they would have done back then. Take these for example:

¡°Thou crusty batch of nature!¡±?(Troilus and Cressida)

¡°Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, thou lily-liver¡¯d boy.¡±?(Macbeth)

¡°I do wish thou were a dog, that I might love thee something.¡±?(Timon of Athens)

Once your students have tried some Shakespearean slurs and enjoyed some gentle verbal sparring, you can draw their attention to important grammatical differences.

For example, in Early Modern English, the language of Shakespeare, there were various ways of saying ¡®you¡¯. As the subject of a sentence, it would be ¡®thou¡¯ (for example, I do wish thou were a dog). As the object of a sentence, they would say ¡®thee¡¯ (e.g. ¡­I might love thee something).

We certainly don¡¯t want to encourage name-calling among students, but if conducted carefully, it¡¯s a great way to give them a feel for the jocular power of Shakespeare¡¯s language.

If that¡¯s not enough, you can let them loose to compile their own Shakespearean burns with this??and?.

2. Use film adaptations

Not only has Shakespeare inspired scores of artists and writers, but many of his plays have also been adapted to film. Showing students a??of one of Shakespeare¡¯s best works is a surefire way of creating interest and promoting an appreciation of the plot. It is not a substitute for a more in-depth text analysis but can be an effective complementary activity.

Video and audio are more familiar formats for many young people. Here are some more recent adaptations that you might consider showing in class:

  • ?¨C This is Kenneth Branagh¡¯s excellent remake of the tragedy about justice and revenge.
  • ?¨C Shakespeare¡¯s classic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, is recreated in the hip modern suburb of Verona.
  • ?¨C Directed by Joss Whedon, this is a modern retelling of Shakespeare¡¯s classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance.
  • ?¨C Justin Kurzel¡¯s take on Shakespeare¡¯s tragedy about power, ambition, deceit, and murder.

3. Practice the sounds of Shakespearean English

Another great way to engage your students is to get them performing! It¡¯s easy to forget that most playgoers in Shakespeare¡¯s time would have been illiterate. His words were written not to be read but to be performed and watched.

To begin with, you can present your students with a??or, at least, recorded for the first time in his works. They can put on their actors¡¯ hats and make short sentences with these phrases, pretending they¡¯re on stage at Shakespeare¡¯s famous Globe Theatre.

As their theatrical confidence grows, you can move on to longer texts. Shakespearean dialogues offer an excellent opportunity for pair work. They can practice their lines in pairs before performing in front of the class.

Here are a couple of scenes that lend themselves well to this type of activity:

  • Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2
  • Othello, Act 3 Scene 4

Literary resources for your classroom

Engaging and effective classroom activities depend on having quality resources. When it comes to using Shakespeare¡¯s work with learners of English, accessibility is everything.

So, instead of diving into the original text, your students can experience Shakespeare¡¯s iconic plays as?ÃÛÌÒapp English Readers. These are abridged versions of Shakespeare¡¯s finest tragedies and comedies, with carefully-graded language that stays true to Shakespeare¡¯s unique style. Students can develop their language and communication skills by reading, listening and performing these plays.

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    Mindfulness activities for kids to reduce stress

    By Amy Malloy

    How can we help children (and ourselves) deal with turbulent situations?

    As humans, we are programmed to position ourselves according to the constants around us: people, structures and boundaries. When those constants shift, it can be unsettling for adults and children.

    Sometimes we find ourselves in unprecedented situations, and we each have our own approach to managing things. If you feel confused and without direction because of a turbulent situation, please know that that is okay.

    We¡¯ll look today at why that is, to help us understand ourselves a little more and why these simple mindfulness activities can help us navigate it.

    What causes social stress?

    There may be many reasons for feeling stressed in life, but during turbulent times in society, it is often due to not feeling safe.

    Something in our environment is alerting our survival instinct. This makes our brains produce stress hormones, which get us ready to fight the threat, run from it, or freeze until it¡¯s gone away.

    The threat might be to our physical or even social survival ¨C and the two are linked. Things can feel even scarier when we also feel isolated from our social group, which keeps us protected from that threat.

    Human beings are social by nature. We live and work in communities, we connect through love and empathy and we protect each other. There¡¯s truth to the saying?¡°there¡¯s safety in numbers¡±.

    But it¡¯s not just about safety. We also define ourselves by comparing ourselves to others and working out what we are not.

    Research has found that we identify deeply with our role in society and the ¡®pack¡¯ to which we belong. This holds deep ties with our sense of safety, contentment and self-esteem. If the boundaries by which we define and position ourselves have shifted or continue to shift, we will feel unsafe, threatened and therefore stressed.

    Are children affected by social stress in the same way?

    If we then apply this to children, the constants to whom they look for security are the adults in their life. If the adults are behaving differently, the children will feel a shift and feel unsafe and stressed too. If they don¡¯t have their friends alongside them for social positioning, this too can lead to them feeling confused and uncertain.

    Here are some key ways we can help:

    Communicating and listening

    Children may often lack the language to express what they are feeling, or even to recognize it themselves. Therefore, we must offer ways to help them make sense of the world around them, to help them feel safe and to help express their concerns.

    Communication provides the necessary social interaction and models for them on how to handle the new situation. It firms up their boundaries, and provides a safe space where they feel listened to and acknowledged and this, in turn, helps diffuse their stress.

    The activity below is a lovely way to invite children to express any worry they might be feeling, mindfully and with support ¨C and give them something to do with their feelings. It also has the benefit of helping them breathe fully and slowly, which will calm down their nervous system.

    Breath activity: Worry bubbles

    1. Sit together and invite your child to put their palms together.
    2. Invite them to take a big breath in. As they breathe in, they can draw their palms further and further apart, spreading their fingers as they imagine blowing up a big bubble between their hands.
    3. Invite them to whisper a worry into the bubble.
    4. Invite them to blow the breath out nice and slowly. As they breathe out, they can imagine blowing the bubble (and the worry) away with a big sigh.
    5. Twinkle the fingers back down to the lap, and start again, either with the same worry or a new one

    Helping them find a safety anchor inside themselves

    By helping children focus on breathing, we can teach them that even if things feel wobbly around them, their breath is always there. The act of focusing on the breath also helps settle the fight or flight branch of their nervous system into a calmer, more balanced state.

    Breath Activity: Counting breaths

    1. Invite your child to sit with you.
    2. Invite them to place their hands on their tummy and breathe in slowly so they push into their hands, counting slowly up to four.
    3. As they breathe out, invite them to count up to six, as they slowly empty the belly and their hands lower back down.
    4. Continue until they feel calmer. You can do this every morning or evening to help sustain balance. With younger children, they might like a teddy on their tummy to push up and down!

    These two activities can be lovely daily practices to try and provide some safety and structure to your child or students¡¯ mental health right now. They are also enjoyable activities to try for yourself ¨C you may like to increase the in and out count of the breath a little bit for an adult breath.