IS SHAKESPEARE STILL RELEVANT IN THE CLASSROOM?

INTRODUCTION For my final project, I decided to have students try to answer a question that many of my prior classmates have asked me for years: “Why do we still study Shakespeare? Is Shakespeare even still relevant?”

WHO IS THIS FOR? This project would be designed for 11 th or 12 th grade students finishing up a unit in Shakespeare.

A DEBATE Every year when Shakespeare units start, teachers are met with the same audible groans from their students, which has caused some teachers and students to ask an important question: are Shakespeare’s works still relevant in the classroom?

PRO SHAKESPEARE Some teachers think that Shakespeare should always have a place in the classroom. They think that his work transcends time periods; and that the complexity of Shakespeare causes students to think more critically about the text and makes them grow to be better readers.think

ANTI SHAKESPEARE Some teachers believe that Shakespeare’s relevance has come and gone. They think that the language makes it difficult for students to critically read Shakespeare. And if students so strongly dislike Shakespeare, won’t they have twice as much trouble with the critical reading of his works?dislike

THE ASSIGNMENT Create a remix of your response to this question: is Shakespeare still relevant in the classroom?.

WHAT’S A REMIX? A remix is a project that uses “artifacts that already exist to craft an argument. These artifacts might include papers or projects you’ve previously written, or they might include other artifacts to which you have access.” Here is a remix that I did about my favorite movie Click Here!

EVIDENCE What evidence did I use in my remix? In your own remix, be sure to provide evidence to support your argument. This can be anything from video testimony to articles.

UH, MADDI, THAT SEEMS LIKE A RISKY PROJECT FOR STUDENTS. While I’m sure some students would try to just say, “the language is hard, no one talks that way anymore. We shouldn’t study this.” I would want them to think more critically about it. If they think that Shakespeare is irrelevant, tell me why; what makes him so irrelevant? What should we study in place of Shakespeare? Is the irrelevance only limited to Shakespeare or is it all premodern literature?

WHY IS SHAKESPEARE’S RELEVANCE SO IMPORTANT? Anti Shakespeare: If school districts decided that Shakespeare was irrelevant, then what would we teach instead? What else would we teach that would give us the same analytical skills that we get from Shakespeare? Shakespeare’s works are very dated texts, this is true. But if Shakespeare is deemed irrelevant, then what else is? The Iliad and The Odyssey? The Scarlet Letter? Where is the line of relevance? When does a text become “irrelevant?”

UH, MADDI, THAT SEEMS LIKE A RISKY PROJECT FOR STUDENTS. And on the other hand, I wouldn’t want a student to just think “Oh, well she’s the teacher, she obviously thinks he’s still relevant. So, I’ll just say that he is.” If a student argues that his work is still relevant I would want to know why they think teachers should still teach it? What makes his works so special?

WHY IS SHAKESPEARE’S RELEVANCE SO IMPORTANT? Pro Shakespeare : Shakespeare’s language is incredibly difficult to get through. Why teach something that is so hard to understand that students may hate anyway? What makes Shakespeare’s works so special? What makes these plays and sonnets be worthy of studying after over 400 years?

A FEW THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND  This wouldn’t be a summative assessment in a Shakespeare unit. I would try to have this as a second assignment after a test, a paper, or some other project. This would just be a way to reflect on 3-4 years of Shakespeare and think about whether or not it made them better critical readers. It’s also a good way for students to fine tune skills for making persuasive arguments for future assignments that they may have.  I would tell students that if they’re unsure about an “artifact” that they are using, then to run it by me.

THE END Questions or comments?