Shakespeare in a High School

After reading Alan Hoffman's post about teaching Shakespeare, I felt inclined to examine my own thoughts on teaching the subject.  Alan and I are both English Education majors and will actually be focusing on teaching Shakespeare during one of our methods courses this upcoming week (as a result, I may have more ideas on this later so stay tuned).  However, at this point I am positive I want to teach Shakespeare at the high school level.  Many of my students will probably hate me for this decision.  Unfortunately for them, Shakespeare is a required part of nearly all English curricula.  However, I do not want to teach Shakespeare because "I have to."  I want to teach Shakespeare because he is a writing genius.  I strongly believe that even high school students can find some interest and value in his writings.  Many students dislike Shakespeare because his name brings up a moment of panic.  Students have this preconception that Shakespeare is extremely difficult, dry, and boring.  I think most of us know this is not the case.  I want to teach students that Shakespeare can be fun, accessible, and interesting.  To do this, I plan to expand my teaching beyond simply reading Shakespeare.  A teacher told me once that Shakespeare "must be read, watched, and performed to truly appreciate its value."  I have come to agree with this statement.  When reading Shakespeare, it is easy for less experienced readers to become distracted by the unusual language.  However, many students find the content easy to understand when they are watching a rendition of the play.  Therefore, reading and watching must go hand in hand.  I think the performing aspect is essential to making Shakespeare relevant.  I have completed several exercises requiring me to translate a scene from some Shakespearean play into a modern day setting.  This requires students to analyze what portions of his works they can apply to modern society and their own lives.  Relevance has been proven again and again to be essential in capturing student interest.  As a result, my future students will read, watch, and perform Shakespeare.

However, I don't necessarily want to stick to just the typical plays and sonnets read in high school.  I think Romeo and Juliet is pertinent to their age level.  Hamlet is also fascinating, so I would love to teach those two plays.  Personally, I had the opportunity to read some plays less-frequently done in the high school classroom.  Namely, I really enjoyed reading Othello and Much Ado About Nothing.  I think it's fun to break away from the stereotypical plays all students have heard about.  I think A Midsummer Night's Dream would also be fun to teach as a prime example of a romantic comedy.  Granted, I will have to see how much my future curriculum allows me to pick my own classroom reading material, but for now I plan to introduce my students to the wonder of Shakespeare and let them explore some works that fly under the typical high school radar.