Mention Shakespeare for kids to anyone in the junior to senior high programs and don’t be surprised when you are met with groans. Unless you happen to have a student that is in love with the old classics, children simply are not interested. Turning that attitude around can be difficult at best.
When it comes to the masters, most students will hope that it ends with a brief hello. Subject matter that involves a young couple in love hundreds of years ago sheds no light on today’s young loves. In addition, others will wonder who this King Lear is that some speak of so highly? Take apart each scene and put the bards words into ours, and it offers the option of passing the semester with a decent grade.
Emphasizing the word play may just pique the interest of some of today’s students. Good instructors will relay information about Shakespeare on a level that they can relate to. Once you know the background of the works done by this playwright, it is possible that the wording of his era will make some kind of sense in our modern day. Surprisingly, it will be found that this great man even wrote some very famous comedies but oddly enough we cannot grasp the humor in the words.
How much a student learns about anything depends greatly on how the subject is taught. Ask a math teacher to stand in for an English teacher and there is much to be desired in his or her performance. The passion and desire for that subject becomes lost when the educator shows no love for the work they teach. A show of enthusiasm and passion on the other hand, will keep a student interested the entire length of he class.
Parents also have a role to play in this genre. When they know the topic will be approached in the coming school year it is a good idea to make their children aware of the great works in literature. It may not be met with eagerness but in time they will thank you for your efforts. It is the parent who works to break the language barrier between these two forms of the English.
Children and teens that are given parts in a play from the Shakespearean era, often are quicker to gain a fondness of the writer and his characters. Being free with congratulatory remarks will make a student feel they have accomplished something rather then having just having taken part in it. There will be expected errors and forgotten lines but the point is they tried to do their best and in doing so they learned much of the topic at hand. Some will go on to perform these works on stage with a flourish.
Others may not be introduced to these great masters until college. Until then these writings have been kept a mystery. The open question and answer genre of the college classroom allows for a much deeper insight into some of these classics. Through the questions posed and the replies given, it supplies the classroom with a faster method of explaining what the bard was speaking of.
Understanding comes with clarity. Shakespeare for kids demands the clarity of his written word before any young scholar can grasp what lies on the page of a book. Memorizing is easy when the words are repeated often enough, but what good is this if the meaning of what is said is lost.
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