Loads of smart, famous people, that’s who. What’s more, the program wasn’t even really supposed to be about teaching or school. It was about Shakespeare. But—no big surprise here—it seems that for many actors, community leaders, students, teachers, artists, and scholars, “Shakespeare” and “school” go together like “Romeo” and “Juliet.” What are we talking about?… Continue Reading »
Posts Categorized: Shakespeare
There’s been a lot of buzz lately around the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, which we commemorated on April 23, 2016. (Yes: tradition says that poor Will died on his birthday in 1616.) Last week we invited you—teachers and students everywhere—to text Shakespeare your birthday wishes, and the responses were honey-tongued, well-wishing, and OVERWHELMING! And… Continue Reading »
Thank you, teachers and students everywhere, for texting Will Shakespeare your fabulous birthday messages! We’re sharing a few today on this blog and on Twitter (@FolgerEd), and we’ll even read some more on The Wonder of Will LIVE, our live streaming event on CSPAN2 and Folger.edu… taking place on the big day itself, April 23rd!… Continue Reading »
Woo Hoo! This is the birthday and deathday week. And this could be the week of a tiny bit of creative mayhem in your classes. On Saturday, the 23rd, the Folger will host an international live streaming event—called The Wonder of Will LIVE — from our historic Paster Reading Room. Broadcast live via C-SPAN2 and… Continue Reading »
On Super Tuesday, March 1, 2016, forty teachers from five New Jersey counties met at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. As the nation turned toward the primaries, this group focused on strategies for teaching Shakespeare. The Folger undoubtedly gives us the tools and strategies to attempt new teaching methods and collaborate with… Continue Reading »
Whether it’s the PARCC, Smarter Balanced, IB, AP, or another high-stakes assessment, we know lots of you and your students have testing on the brain… which is why we thought you might enjoy reading a few lines from Shakespeare, all on the subject of—what else?—tests. The word “test” appears 4 times in Shakespeare’s works: … Continue Reading »
*This piece originally appeared as “Teaching Shakespeare (And Literary Analysis!) with Prompt Books” on the blog Moving Writers and is cross-posted here with permission.* This April, English teachers, Anglophiles, all buddies of the Bard will commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. Museums, libraries, schools, and theater companies are marking the occasion with special… Continue Reading »
The Folger—actually, the world!—is in full swing celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare, as we send Shakespeare’s First Folio to every US state, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico this year. You’ve heard us talk about the tour before, but today I want to share what great opportunities are awaiting you and your students. For YOU:… Continue Reading »
I work at a school for students with learning differences, so I’m always looking for ways to create multiple points of access for every text my students study. One of my favorite ways of doing that is through multimedia creation. In my experience, students learn immensely through making and doing. Among other methods, video production… Continue Reading »
Part IIa: A Brief Narrative Interlude: Other Inspirations and a Metaphoric Preamble On January 21st, I left you with a promise that I’d be back to talk about specific and pragmatic plans for applying the student-centered learning credo I learned, or at least had recharged, this summer at the Folger… but because I’m an English… Continue Reading »
