Description
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Postcards from Shakespeare was written for teachers who want to strengthen their students' creative abilities while teaching about the greatest playwright of all time. Shakespeare communicates to students through "postcards" written to the student giving pertinent information about the particular work being studied. Students then engage in projects, products, and activities in all learning styles. Use the problem-based learning activity to celebrate his birthday, have a Shakespeare Festival as a culminating activity, participate in the Historic Whodunit, recreate and Elizabethan market, and visit web sites. Includes Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and Julius Caesar.
Sample Pages
CLC0316A.pdf
Loyal Customer –
This book includes many clever ideas for teaching some of Shakespeare’s plays that are not usually taught in middle school, but could be. The plays for which materials are given include Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth. I am hoping to teach Macbeth to my seventh graders in the spring, so I bought this book.
The most elaborate project described is a school-wide “Shakespeare Festival,” up to which all the other smaller projects can lead. There are projects on Elizabethan music, clothing, food, etc. that would all be fun and instructive for middle schoolers. Numerous print and web resources are cited on Elizabethan life and the Globe theater. While I am not ready to undertake a school-wide event, there are many activities that can be done within a single classroom. An intriguing activity is a “Whodonit?” court case in which two teams debate before a jury whether Shakespeare wrote all of his works or not.
Each play is introduced by a “letter” to the students from William Shakespeare himself which gives an overview of the play and some details about the inspiration for the play, the playwright’s circumstances when it was written, etc. Discussion and writing prompts are given in different formats for each play. For example, a “Scamper” activity is proposed for Julius Caesar. I was interested in the “Synectics” questions listed for Macbeth. (“Synectics” was a new term for me; it is apparently a questioning technique originated by William Gordon that involves interpretation of imagery, especially analogies.) These questions will be useful to me as discussion guides when I teach my unit on Macbeth.
Many pages of the book are reproducible, including the “letters” or “postcards” from Shakespeare and a number of graphic organizers. I expect that this book will be a very helpful addition to my library.
Loyal Customer –
“The Postcards are fantastic! Great ideas and simple to implement. The students loved them. So teacher-friendly!”
-Janice O’Connor, MO