In ten short years as an educator, I have taught every grade from sixth through twelfth, and every level of ability from AP to self-contained special ed. I say this not to impress you with how many different preps I have tackled in ten years, but to highlight this fact: I teach Shakespeare to every… Continue Reading »
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records, […] And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmixed with baser matter. (Hamlet 1.5.103-110) Last Thursday, October… Continue Reading »
Over the summer, the Rochester Community Players decided to try something we had never done before—put together a Shakespeare-specific summer youth program. Peter Scribner, president of the RCP’s Shakespeare Players, envisioned from the start a program that would have Rochester kids out doing Shakespeare, rather than passively reading the text. To implement this plan, he… Continue Reading »
By Folger Education Last week, the Folger hosted a book launch for our colleague James Shapiro’s The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606. Shapiro, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and member of the Folger Board of Governors, discussed how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and shaped the… Continue Reading »
This summer I had the privilege of participating in the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Teaching Shakespeare Institute: Summer Academy. During this week-long intensive program, I was given multiple strategies for teaching Shakespeare’s Hamlet and other Shakespearean works. I learned that I should allow the students to perform scenes according to how they interpret the language…. Continue Reading »
This past July, I had the great fortune of attending the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Summer Academy in Washington, D.C. There, I attended lectures given by master teachers and scholars; I played the part of the Ghost in a performance of Act One of Hamlet; I held—in these two hands—Walt Whitman’s copy of the… Continue Reading »
