Question of the Week
I attended my 20-year high school reunion on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to see what everyone’s up to now. It was also a bit strange, because we were only 18 when we graduated, so it really was half a lifetime ago that we all knew each other. We’re all different people now, almost strangers, yet we have a knowledge of each other that in some ways is far more intimate than the friends we make today.
I also saw my 9th-grade English teacher, the first teacher ever to assign me to read Shakespeare. Of course, I very much enjoyed letting him know what I’m up to now, and he seemed very pleased as well. It made me think of my first Shakespeare experience, reading The Tempest in his class. I didn’t really understand it, but I was determined that I was going to, and eventually I did.
The Tempest seems like kind of an odd choice to use to introduce students to Shakespeare for the first time, though I can’t really see anything wrong with it. He also had taught us the Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It, which might also have been a good first play. Usually when I’m working with 5th-graders, I’m introducing them to Shakespeare for the first time, and I generally go with Macbeth or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I recently did Cymbeline with an 8th-grade class, but they had already read Romeo and Juliet, another good choice.
Then there are other plays, like King Lear or Troilus and Cressida, that I don’t think are good choices for young children. I was once asked to teach Antony and Cleopatra to 6th-grade students, and it went well, but I think Julius Caesar might have been a more appropriate choice. I also worked with a teacher who, against my advice, wanted to teach Othello to his 8th-grade class. I was so wrong; that went really well. I thought the play was too mature for them, but those kids taught me a thing or two.
So the Question of the Week, if it’s not obvious by now, is this:
What play would you choose to introduce Shakespeare to a group of students for the first time?
Does your answer change with the grade level? What if an adult friend of yours who had never read Shakespeare asked for a recommendation? Do you go with one of the masterpieces, or a fun easy read? Is one genre better than another for a first-timer? Or do you go with something you’re passionate about, so your enthusiasm can be infectious?
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 am
A topic near and dear to my Geek heart, as I’m sure you well know. My 6, 4 and 2 year olds can explain to you the story of The Tempest, and have been able to for a good while now (many stories about this on the blog). If you look at it relative to Shakespeare’s career, and feel the need to explain the different between the “late”, romance plays versus the more traditional tragedy/comedy distinction, then yes, it’s somewhat tricky. But if you start with plot, it’s a near perfect fairy tale — little girl on a faraway island, mother out of the picture, father can do magic, discovers she’s a long lost princess, prince comes to rescue her and they all live happily ever after? Great stuff, very easy for kids to understand. You know you’re doing something right when you hear the 3 year old calling her dolls Miranda and Ariel and even Sycorax.
I found Dream harder to explain, actually. I thought it would be straightforward, what with all the fairies and such things, but there’s some fairly dark sexual overtones to the story that you have to dance around. How do you explain the plot point that basically says “Oberon wanted the boy that Titania was taking care of, so he drugged her and then just took him?” That hardly makes him out to be a good guy, to a child. It wasn’t until Alan pointed out to me that Oberon is doing the boy a favor, that Titania is keeping him from growing up, that it began to form into something more understandable.
What would I teach? Honestly, I might still go with Romeo and Juliet, purely out of the popularity factor. You can only imagine what it’s like when my toddlers make Tempest references in front of adults, and they’re left with a blank stare because nobody got it. Everybody, however, gets Romeo and Juliet. I’ve never turned on the tv and seen a random sitcom doing a version of Troilus and Cressida. It’s always R&J, or Dream.
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December 4th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
I think MUCH ADO is a great one for teens. R&J sets up a bad model for teen love, equating it with rebellion, bad choices and self-destruction – but MUCH ADO is romantic in a way that challenges both participants. It’s fun and funny and shows how hard it is to resist romance, something teens are exploring for the first time in their lives….
Also – what about Henry VI and his struggles to grow up and be a responsible leader? Some kids might relate to that…
December 10th, 2008 at 3:55 am
Depends on the age, depends on the nationality, gender make-up, etc, etc …
Classic English school of early 20th century – Julius Caesar: No sex, short, violent.
Wishywashy liberals who don’t understand the play choose ‘The Dream’.
Macbeth was the first I was ‘taught’ – jolly good too.
R and J only if you explain the sex.
May 24th, 2016 at 10:41 pm
[…] ShakespeareTeacher asks the question that is near and dear to my heart: What play would you choose to teach? Does it matter the age group? What are the pros and cons of Dream versus Romeo and Juliet? How about The Tempest, my own personal favorite? […]
February 6th, 2017 at 11:06 pm
[…] ShakespeareTeacher asks the question that is near and dear to my heart: What play would you choose to teach? Does it matter the age group? What are the pros and cons of Dream versus Romeo and Juliet? How about The Tempest, my own personal favorite? […]