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Teaching Shakespeare in the 21st Century

Lowe (2013) recognises that 'Active Learning' is beneficial to students but reflection of the activity through discussion with peers and teacher must take place to cement the learning. My experience of using drama within the class is that one weaker and one stronger group should show work back to the class where peer assessment can take place; providing the teacher has made it clear what the students should be looking for when assessing the demonstration. I ensure that I set out expectations and rules (limiting them to avoid over confusing the task at the beginning) and provide a success criteria for use when performances are to be shown. .
             It is vital the students see that all abilities can produce work to help break down any inhibitions and an inclusive experience is achieved. When performance is shown, pupils should be encouraged to recognise an element that is successful and an element that could be improved upon from the success criteria provided. In the case of the stronger group, the teacher can direct questions so that all pupils (performers included) can see how improvements can be made. Due to actively participating in a task, the students have something personal they can relate to and include in their written work. By including personal opinion a student shows their teacher that they have grasped a concept and can use their own considerations in a summative piece of work. A whole-class involvement in the 'Active Learning' process will help cement understanding among the students. This also works outside of teaching Shakespeare as I have used this model for other topics, including poetry, where students can witness each other's efforts, build on and learn from such evaluative exercises.
             Giving pupils the opportunity to have ownership and responsibility during the scheme of work where Shakespeare is the focus seems to be key in engaging students. A leading figure advocating that Shakespeare should be included at a creative level in the classroom is Rex Gibson who believes in 'Active Methods' for teaching and learning: .


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Anthony Burgess has been labeled as one of the greatest literary geniuses of the twentieth century. ... Also, the book adds the advantage of the 21st chapter, which gives a new point of view to the entire story, while the movie leaves out this very important part. ... At the end of the war, he held teaching positions at Birmingham University, the Ministry of Education, and Banbury Grammar School. ... Lawrence, and William Shakespeare " (http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/burgess.bio.html). ...

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