Students need to be thoroughly prepared to identify an analyze their purpose and effect. They get used to that soon enough with support from the teacher, but when it comes to figurative language, that’s another story. When students struggle to understand Shakespeare’s language, it’s partially due to iambic pentameter and nuances of Early Modern English. Plus, the allusions to his work alone warrant spending a longer time grasping the context and meaning behind the references. If the point of reading Shakespeare is to help students comprehend and analyze complex texts, I want to give them time to do that enjoyably, incorporating discussions, activities, and readers’ theater along the way.
Having learned the hard way, I never ask students to read the play outside of class because 1) they don’t, 2) it makes them hate it, and 3) that’s not the right context for a play that is meant to be experienced. While I could easily hurry through more quickly, I find value in this approach. One of the staples of my Shakespeare unit every year is that I take my time teaching the play.
I have a few tricks in my bag that I use with all of my students to scaffold their experience – regardless of their reading level. Struggling readers aren’t the only ones who get frustrated while reading Shakespeare. It can be difficult to scaffold Shakespeare’s plays to make them accessible to various levels of learners, but it’s not impossible. Teaching in a school with a tracking system that contains multiple levels as well as co-taught situations, I’m constantly reflecting and tweaking. Perhaps your students feel the same general sense of ennui that many mine have exhibited over the years at the mention of the Bard’s plays. “I cannot WAIT to be challenged by the rigor of Shakespeare’s complex texts this year!” said no student ever.
#10 ways to scaffold learning how to
Ever wondered how to teach Shakespeare so that all students are engaged and learning? Are you searching for scaffolding approaches that work? Keep reading.
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