By Folger Education In this month’s Bard Notes, Peggy O’Brien asked our teaching colleagues one question: What’s the most compelling sentence—from the mouth of a student or a teacher or a principal — that you’ve heard in the last week? And…wow! Here’s what you shared: “We are ALL here to learn.” – Maureen Berzok… Continue Reading »
Posts Tagged: tales from the classroom
By Jennie K. Brown After my summer experience at the Folger Shakespeare Library, I decided that I was going to get my students up and moving around my classroom in some sort of Shakespeare activity within the first three days of school. And guess what? I did just that! On day two of the… Continue Reading »
We revisit Julia Perlowski’s active lesson surrounding Romeo and Juliet‘s Prologue from 2014. By Julia Perlowski If the use of Shakespeare’s early modern English is under attack in some “regular” and “honors” English classrooms, just think about what the reaction might be to the use of such rigorous text in an Intensive Reading class!… Continue Reading »
By Casey Christenson “Yeaahhhhhh, a close reading. So, liiiikkkkkeeeee, what do you mean?” Inevitably and understandably this is a strategy I must visit and revisit with my students each year. This time it’s while I’m handing out photocopies of Barbara Ascher’s “On Compassion,” and it has only been about twenty-four hours since the… Continue Reading »
By Greta Brasgalla This year, I became the English Instructional Coach at my school. My job includes creating and modeling lessons for a huge English department (we have over 3000 students in grades 10-12). One of the best activities that I modeled was using the prompt book. Of all of the Folger activities, this… Continue Reading »
By Angela Ward “Ay, is it not a language I speak?” All’s Well That Ends Well 2.3 As a drama and US history teacher in Southern California, I use a cross-curricular approach to Shakespeare because of my passionate belief that Shakespeare connects us, to our past, to ourselves, and to each other. This… Continue Reading »
By Greta Brasgalla As a “veteran” teacher in my 22nd year of teaching, I sometimes look back at how I used to teach when I first started. It makes me cringe. And the teaching materials I used? Of course, I don’t have any of them because they are outdated and irrelevant. And then… Continue Reading »
By: Stefanie Jochman At the end of the year, no matter how I try to avoid it, I always end up feeling like that frazzled owl in the popular “Teacher at the end of the year” Facebook meme, but this time, I’m not going to worry so much about smoothing my feathers. One lesson… Continue Reading »
By Folger Education Here’s another great teaching video on Act 1 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, this time from Teaching Shakespeare Institute 2014 alum and English teacher Alli Gubanich. Here’s Alli’s message for you as you watch her iMovie tutorial on using technology and movement to teach language and imagery: BEFORE YOU… Continue Reading »
By Gina Voskov NYC teacher and Folger National Teacher Corps member Gina Voskov is back with the third installment in her series “Inside the Classroom,” in which her students share their experiences with Shakespeare at different points throughout their Twelfth Night unit. You can read the first installment here. We are about five classes… Continue Reading »