Shakespeare's history plays make up nearly a third of his corpus and feature iconic characters like Falstaff, the young Prince Hal, and Richard III--as well as unforgettable scenes like the storming of Harfleur. But these plays also present challenges for teachers, who need to help students understand shifting dynastic feuds, manifold concepts of political power, and early modern ideas of the body politic, kingship, and nationhood. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," introduces instructors to the many editions of the plays, the wealth of contextual and critical writings available, and other resources. Part 2, "Approaches," contains essays on topics as various as masculinity and gender, using the plays in the composition classroom, and teaching the plays through Shakespeare's own sources, film, television, and the Web. The essays help instructors teach works that are poetically and emotionally rich as well as fascinating in how they depict Shakespeare's vision of his nation's past and present.

Describes a performance approach to teaching Shakespeare's plays in high school and college, using performance activities that include analyzing casting, rehearsing, and performing parts of plays.

This teaching guide for high school college instructors begins with an introduction on "Shakespeare and the American Landscape," by Samuel Crowl, and includes the following 32 essays: "Some 'Basics' in Shakespearean Study" (Gladys V. Veidemanis); "Teaching Shakespeare's Dramatic Dialogue" (Sharon A. Beehler); "Shakespearean Role Models" (Ruth Ann Gerrard); "The Use of Quotations in Teaching Shakespeare" (Leila Christenbury); "Getting To Know a Play Five Ways" (Martha Tuck Rozett); "Toward a Teachable Shakespeare Syllabus" (Robert F. Willson, Jr.); "Shakespeare off the Page" (J. L. Styan); "Goals and Limits in Student Performance of Shakespeare" (Charles H. Frey); "Using Improvisational Exercises to Teach Shakespeare" (Annette Drew-Bear); "Enacting Shakespeare's Language in'Macbeth' and 'Romeo and Juliet'" (Elizabeth Oakes); "Sparking: A Methodology to Encourage Student Performance" (Joan Ozark Holmer); "Changing the W's in Shakespeare's Plays" (Michael Flachmann); "Love, Sighs, and Videotape: An Approach to Teaching Shakespeare's Comedies" (Michael J. Collins); "Shakespearean Festivals: The Popular Roots of Performance" (Demar C. Homan); "Introducing Shakespeare with First Folio Advertisements" (Daniel J. Pinti); "Versions of 'Henry V': Laurence Olivier vs. Kenneth Branagh" (Harry Brent); "Picturing Shakespeare: Using Film in the Classroom to Turn Text into Theater" (James Hirsh); "Shakespeare Enters the Electronic Age" (Roy Flannagan); "Shakespeare Is Not Just for Eggheads: An Interview with Two Successful Teachers" (Linda Johnson); "Teaching Shakespeare against the Grain" (Ronald Strickland); "Shakespeare and the At-Risk Student" (David B. Gleaves and others); "Decentering the Instructor in Large Classes" (Robert Carl Johnson); "Where There's a 'Will,' There's a Way!" (Mary T. Christel and Ann Legore Christiansen); "Digging into 'Julius Caesar through Character Analysis" (Larry R. Johannessen); "A Whole Language Approach to 'Romeo and Juliet'" (John Wilson Swope); "'Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care': Responding to 'Macbeth' through Metaphorical Character Journals" (Gregory L. Rubano and Phillip M. Anderson); "Building a Bridge to Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' with Cormier's 'The Chocolate War'" (Margo A. Figgins and Alan Smiley); "Three Writing Activities to Use with 'Macbeth'" (Ken Spurlock); "The Centrality of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'" (Hugh M. Richmond); "If Only One, Then 'Henry IV, Part 1' for the General Education Course" (Sherry Bevins Darrell); "Teaching 'The Taming of the Shrew': Kate, Closure, and Eighteenth-Century Editions" (Loreen L. Giese); and "'Measure for Measure': Links to Our Time" (John S. Simmons). (SAM)

What does it mean to teach Shakespeare with purpose? It means freeing teachers from the notion that teaching Shakespeare means teaching everything, or teaching “Western Civilisation” and universal themes. Instead, this invigorating new book equips teachers to enable student-centred discovery of these complex texts. Because Shakespeare's plays are excellent vehicles for many topics -history, socio-cultural norms and mores, vocabulary, rhetoric, literary tropes and terminology, performance history, performance strategies - it is tempting to teach his plays as though they are good for teaching everything. This lens-free approach, however, often centres the classroom on the teacher as the expert and renders Shakespeare's plays as fixed, determined, and dead. Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose shows teachers how to approach Shakespeare's works as vehicles for collaborative exploration, to develop intentional frames for discovery, and to release the texts from over-determined interpretations. In other words, this book presents how to teach Shakespeare's plays as living, breathing, and evolving texts.

The continued place of Shakespeare in the classroom and how various critical theories inform current pedagogy are at the core of this conversation among an international group of educators. Its scope ranges from the theoretical background on the subject to new research and practical tips for the teaching of Shakespeare. Digital Shakespeare, Shakespeare through performance, protecting Shakespeare, and Shakespeare for the new millennium are a sampling of the topics covered. Contributing to the discussion are representatives from Northwestern University, Colgate University, Western University, and Black Hills State.

This collection of essays is multidisciplinary and wide-ranging. The authors, literary and theatre specialists, scientists from various fields, and a psychiatrist, present Shakespeare’s works from very different perspectives, highlighting a new outlook on the current ways of tackling Shakespeare. Teachers of English all over Europe will find this book an eclectic tool which allows them to present Shakespeare in a challengingly vibrant way. To explore Shakespeare’s plays, the authors deploy a range of filters such as nutrition, plant sciences, geography, art history, costume design, music, comics and street art. They show how the Bard can still be relevant to our lives in the 21st century.

The impetus for this Approaches to Teaching volume on The Taming of the Shrew grew from the editors' desire to discover why a play notorious for its controversial exploration of conflicts between men and women and the challenges of marriage is enduringly popular in the classroom, in the performing arts, and in scholarship. The result is a volume that offers practical advice to teachers on editions and teaching resources in part 1, "Materials," while illuminating how the play's subtle and complex arguments regarding not just marriage but a host of other subjects--modes of early modern education, the uses of clever rhetoric, intergenerational and class politics, the power of theater--are being brought to life in college classrooms. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," are written by English and theater instructors who have taught in a variety of academic settings and cover topics including early modern homilies and music, Hollywood versions of The Taming of the Shrew, and student performances.

In each area, the authors discuss a range of issues by applying and debating key critical approaches to Shakespeare including new historicism, cultural materialism, feminism, and postcolonialism."--BOOK JACKET.

Shakespeare and Digital Pedagogy is an international collection of fresh digital approaches for teaching Shakespeare. It describes 15 methodologies, resources and tools recently developed, updated and used by a diverse range of contributors in Great Britain, Australia, Asia and the United States. Contributors explore how these digital resources meet classroom needs and help facilitate conversations about academic literacy, race and identity, local and global cultures, performance and interdisciplinary thought. Chapters describe each case study in depth, recounting needs, collaborations and challenges during design, as well as sharing effective classroom uses and offering accessible, usable content for both teachers and learners. The book will appeal to a broad range of readers. College and high school instructors will find a rich trove of usable teaching content and suggestions for mounting digital units in the classroom, while digital humanities and education specialists will find a snapshot of and theories about the field itself. With access to exciting new content from local archives and global networks, the collection aids teaching, research and reflection on Shakespeare for the 21st century.

This book tells the story of the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed and influential project to transform the teaching of Shakespeare in schools. It examines their approaches to making his plays more accessible, enjoyable and relevant to young people, describing the innovative classroom practices that the Company has pioneered and locating these within a clearly articulated theory of learning. It also provides evidence of their impact on children and young people's experience of Shakespeare, drawing upon original research as well as research commissioned by the RSC itself. Authoritative but highly readable, the book is relevant to anyone with an interest in the teaching of Shakespeare, and in how a major cultural organisation can have a real impact on the education of young people from a wide range of social backgrounds. It benefits from interviews with key policy makers and practitioners from within the RSC, including their legendary voice coach, Cicely Berry, and with internationally renowned figures such as the writer and academic, Jonathan Bate; the previous artistic director of the RSC, Michael Boyd; and the celebrated playwright, Tim Crouch.