Teaching Shakespeare at KS3

I have always loved teaching Shakespeare, but I’m not sure, on reflection, that I have always done it well. This year I have been thinking about my approach to teaching Shakespeare, especially at KS3.

Big questions about teaching Shakespeare at KS3:  

•         How do we open up debate on why we prioritise and teach Shakespeare?
•        How do we remove barriers to language that can seem inaccessible?
•        How do we negotiate between Shakespeare as ‘literature’ and the play as a piece of theatre/drama?

Why Shakespeare?

This might seem like an obvious question to an English teacher. As an English teacher it is highly likely that throughout your secondary and higher education that the question of Shakespeare’s place in the canon is one that is taken for granted. Similarly, I have read and agreed with many teachers who have eloquently argued why teaching Shakespeare and other canonical writers (such as Dickens) is an almost moral obligation, giving pupils access to the cultural capital which expands their perception and understanding of our cultural heritage. Whilst an idea of a shared ‘cultural heritage’ can be in itself problematic, I understand and tacitly agree with this view of the importance of teaching language rich text over more modern texts which seem more accessible and ‘relevant’ to pupils’ lives. Fundamentally great literature negotiates our understanding of the world through that which is universal and that which explores the specific context of that piece of literature. That being said, the question of the value of Shakespeare in the current curriculum can and should be an open question. I have recently been listening to various podcasts on Shakespeare and one that particularly got me thinking was the BBC Shakespeare Sessions podcast ‘Shakespeare: For and Against’ by Mark Ravenhill. One aspect which the podcast explores is the question of the universality of Shakespeare, something I myself am quick to use as an answer to the perennial ‘Why do we study Shakespeare?’. Whilst the podcast was thought provoking I still very much see the value Shakespeare’s prominent place on the curriculum, especially at KS3, for the following reasons paired, however, with the following issues:

We should study early modern texts as they are an important part of the British literary canon. Pupils should understand Literature as a body of work and not as discrete texts.	We should however acknowledge the problems with the idea of canon, the lack of diversity of voices and how this might impact the ‘world view’ that the text presents.
Amongst other great early modern texts, Shakespeare (in my experience) is the most accessible in terms of narrative and theme for younger readers/ audiences.	There are many ‘lenses’ we can view Shakespeare through and this can be more easily differentiated and then built upon for KS3, KS4 and KS5. There is scope to approach the same text in different ways which suit the age and level of the class you are teaching.
Shakespeare is language ‘rich’ which gives us the opportunity to challenge and expose children to a rich vocabulary that is out with the language they are exposed to on a daily basis.	Not all language needs to be ‘translated’. I explicitly explain that there is a lot of language in Shakespeare that I don’t understand on a word-by-word basis but that doesn’t stop me understanding the broader meaning of the text as a whole.
There are elements of Shakespeare that discuss the ‘human condition’ and universal themes/ideas and emotions such as ‘jealousy’, ‘revenge’ and ‘love’.	It is important not to present the idea that Shakespeare gives a universal solution to problems of the human condition. Analysis should be critical, looking at perspectives and viewpoints that are missing is equally as important.

Most importantly, pupils should not be indoctrinated into the ‘cult of bardolatry’. After studying Shakespeare pupils should be entitled to think that Shakespeare should not have such a prominent place on the curriculum, but this should be through thoughtful critique of these issues, not simply because they ‘don’t get it’.

‘Once more unto the breach’: Breaking down barriers to Shakespeare

The very ‘rich’ nature of a Shakespearean text presents with it the challenge of giving pupils the ability to breakdown language which is often seen as intimidating and impenetrable. Even the strongest readers at KS3 will face very similar barriers to those with low levels of literacy. After recently reading Andy Tharby’s ‘Making Every English Lesson Count’, I have been working on honing my teaching of the Merchant of Venice with my Y8 class. We are currently about half way through studying the text and I have seen a big improvement in the engagement of my pupils and I feel this is down to the following things:

•  In the first lesson, instead of going straight in with the plot or context (which was my usual go to method), I extrapolated some of the ‘dilemmas’ or ‘moral questions’ faced by the characters in the play. I abstracted these and gave them to pupils on slips of paper to discuss. In the Merchant of Venice, an example of this would be ‘You have fallen in love with someone your parents don’t approve of. What would you say to them? What would you do?’, ‘Is it ever acceptable to disobey your parents?’ or ‘Are there some things that are unforgivable?’. These ‘questions/dilemmas’ opened up a rich discussion and by posing further problems or questions pupils were thinking deeply about some of the issues that are central to the plot.
• After this discussion I introduced them to the whole plot of the Merchant of Venice and asked pupils to try and spot which ‘problem’ went with which character. Pupils really engaged with this and felt a knowing confidence that they were able to understand and make connections to the plot in an immediate way.
•         I had been conflicted about whether to tell pupils the plot at the beginning of the SOW as I agree with some critics of this approach who argue this robs pupils of the experience and enjoyment of the plot revealing itself. However, with a Shakespearean text I feel that we do need to sacrifice this to remove an important barrier to the text as pupils are much less likely to be able to understand and fully enjoy or appreciate the play if these barriers remain in place. I will explain later why I did not want to show them a production of the play at this point.
• Before starting teaching the Merchant of Venice (which I had not taught before and had not read since I was in High School) I re-read the text and listened to a version recorded for the Shakespeare Sessions podcast series. I thought about the key scenes I wanted to focus on in my lessons and collated these together in a booklet that would be printed out for pupils to annotate and keep as a working document. In the booklet I included a summary page and a character list which is completed during the first lesson. I also made a space for pupils to write a short summary of each scene as we read it as we progress through the text. At the back of the booklet I created a page which acts as a glossary for pupils to add new vocabulary as we go (from words outside the text such as ‘anti-Semitic’ to words from inside the text such as ‘usurer’ or ‘ducats’). I am lucky enough to work in a department where we have access to the full text so whilst reading we can use these but this would be a particularly useful approach for departments who do not have full class sets of the text).
• The process of making the booklet and selecting these scenes made me think deeply about the narratives, ideas and characters I wanted to focus on and which were most appropriate for my Y8 class. I feel teaching Shakespeare well is about consciously curating the text (just as a director might) for the level of the class you teach.
• In ‘Making Every English Lesson Count’ Tharby argues that we need to break down the process of reading challenging texts to lessen the cognitive load. Based on this I have been using the following method in lesson:

Step 1	I will discuss what has happened previously to give context to the scene and I will pose questions to get pupils predicting what characters might think or do based on these previous events.
Step 2	The class will read through the scene as a whole. I have very confident readers in my class therefore I usually read the key role (such as Shylock) so I can ensure I can emphasise key lines whilst they take on smaller roles. If I had a weaker class I would probably play an audio version of the text rather than let the pupils read and risk losing the flow and meaning of the scene.
Step 3	Whilst this first reading is happening I might pause and explain what is happening or pose questions to ensure that the pupils get the ‘gist’ of what’s happening.
Step 4	After we have read the scene I will summarise what has happened and pose some discussion questions based on the scene so that pupils have the chance to process what has happened.
Step 5	I will then use a visualizer to annotate the key section of the scene I wish to analyse further. Pupils will annotate their own booklet. At this point I will break down the text on a line by line basis posing questions to the class to help them work out the significance of key words and phrases.

I have found that the booklet is a very useful tool to build confidence with the text. To build this confidence, every week I have been getting pupils to think about a different aspect of the play so far (such as ‘How has our opinion of Shylock changed?’). Once the pupils have had time to discuss with their partner and we have fed this back, I have asked them what has happened in the play to make us think this. Once we have agreed on certain events I ask the pupils to go back through and find a quotation to support this. By using their summaries at the front of their booklet they can locate the scene they want and by reading through their annotations they can find the quotation they need. By repeating this skill on a weekly basis they have now become very confident in selecting quotations to support their ideas. I feel that by having ownership of their own booklet with their own annotations, this has broken down some of these barriers and negated the idea of it being an ‘impenetrable’ text.

‘The play’s the thing’: Negotiating the balance between the text as Literature and the text as theatre

When teaching Shakespeare at KS4, I have often felt on reflection that I have not spent enough time exploring the unique literary characteristics of a play-text. This in turn limits the analysis of the text, particularly when considering structure and characterisation. Given the enhanced freedoms that KS3 should offer, I have tried to actively explore this element of the text alongside the more traditional ‘language analysis’ in a complementary way.

When teaching Act 3 scene 1 (which includes the famous ‘If you prick us’ speech) we went through the scene as outlined above. Once the pupils were confident and understood the gist of the scene and had explored the speech line by line to understand the meaning, I wanted pupils to explore it as a ‘speech’ not simply a text. I printed out a new copy of the speech and gave them the following task:

Pupils then had ten minutes to annotate their speech with a focus on HOW it would be performed. At the end of this we had a few willing volunteers perform their version. All the speeches had slight nuances in emphasis, tone and pacing and the pupils could explain and justify their reasoning for after their performance.

After this I set them the homework of watching two different versions of the speech and asked them to explain which they felt was more effective and why. Again, the pupils had differing opinions and could justify their views clearly and articulately.

It is for this reason that I have chosen not to show the pupils a performance of the play at the beginning of the SOW. When the pupils understand the meaning of the text through close analysis they can engage with the performance and offer a more critical perspective. One of the problems and opportunities with a Shakespearean text as a piece of theatre is that there is so little evidence of the authorial intent when it comes to performance, there so few stage directions compared to modern play texts, therefore the scope for interpretation is extremely wide. This can be a barrier but it is also a fertile opportunity for pupils to discuss the wide range of interpretations and think like a stage director has to think when tasked with putting on a performance of a text like the Merchant of Venice. By actively exploring this critical perspective, the responses to the question ‘How does Shakespeare Shylock presented in Act 3 scene 1?’ went beyond the standard language analysis with pupils offering personal engagement with how they felt Shylock’s emotions were being explored. The end result was a much greater range of genuine personal engagement with the text.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…

So, beyond grades on a marksheet, how do we know that our teaching of Shakespeare at KS3 has been successful. Here is my alternative success criteria:

•        Do the pupils have a solid understanding of the play?
•        Will they remember the central ideas of the play next month, next year or even in 10 years’ time?
•         Can they watch a production and think ‘I would have done it differently’?
•        Do they have an opinion on the characters?
•         Do they know the problems or limitations of play’s ‘worldview’?
•        Do they understand the place of Shakespeare in the canon even if they don’t agree with it themselves?
•         Do they know the reasons you love the play even if they don’t agree with them?