Shakespeare. Just the name alone can feel daunting. Once you say the name, your students will inevitably moan, roll their eyes, and beg to study something else – anything else. But, as we all know, Shakespeare is cool! And learning Shakespeare can be fun. There is a whole world of possibilities present in his plays. Situations and characters which your students will recognize, understand, and relate to... If they can just get beyond the stigma of the name.
What if we can make it so that when you say Shakespeare, your students are excited and interested and looking forward to what comes next? What if we can take the stigma away? Wouldn’t that be great?
Here are five (fun) Shakespeare activities that you can use with your students to help make lessons more accessible and interesting. These activities work for all levels of learners and age groups, and are a great way to get your students engaged with Shakespeare.
1. Shakespeare Circle
From Shakespeare in your Space: Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth
Shakespeare… Let’s address the elephant in the room. Taking away any sense of anxiety or uncertainty early on in the exploration encourages fuller participation. The following short exercises get your students talking about the playwright and the play.
This activity can be extended to explore responses to specific characters or groups. For example, if you are studying Macbeth, you could ask ‘The witches are…’? Or if studying Hamlet, you could ask ‘Queen Gertrude is…?’. Invite the students to give their responses to the question. Follow up each circle/question with the Wall Notes activity.
2. Tableaux
Found in multiple Discover, Explore, Assess: Teacher’s Notes including Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, and Twelfth Night
Assign characters from the play to your students and ask them to create tableaux showing the relationships between given characters in various.
Proxemics refers to the physical space between the actors and how it can be used to show different relationships. The different shapes and spacing created on stage will tell the audience different things about the action and the characters. For example, different interpretations would be made about two characters sitting very close to each other on a sofa, in comparison to two characters sitting on opposite ends of the sofa.
Consider the following:
3. Hot Seating
Found in multiple Discover, Explore, Assess Teacher’s Notes including Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, and Twelfth Night
Have students perform roles in the play you are studying and further develop their understanding. This activity works well with a class that has high energy. Students will take turns to sit in the "hot seat" and answer questions in character from other members of the class. Students in the "hot seat" should be encouraged to adopt the appropriate characterization when they are in a role.
If they do not know the answer to a question, students should be encouraged to improvise based on their initial understanding of the character from any classroom discussions and their own prior knowledge. This strategy will allow all students the opportunity to become more comfortable performing while learning more about the characters.
As you prepare, you could consider the following ideas:
4. Working with the text: Soliloquies
Found in Shakespeare in your Space: Macbeth
The following exercise can involve your whole group or you may wish to divide the group in two. The aim of the exercise is to give your group an experience of speaking and hearing the text in the most connected way possible and to realise its potential.
Select a soliloquy from the play and then ask a student to volunteer to read this aloud in the middle of the circle.
5. Working with the text: Scenes
From Shakespeare in your Space: Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth
This sequence peels back the text and helps students get closer to the characters and what they are saying. Choose a good section of the text you are studying for your students to work with and have them do the following:
These activities and more can be found within various resources on Digital Theatre+. Each one has been created to encourage student engagement and make Shakespeare accessible to all.
I hope your students enjoy these exercises, and discover that Shakespeare is cool and that learning Shakespeare can be fun!