Date of Award
11-2008
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
English: M.A.
Department
English
College
College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
Judith Dorn
Second Advisor
Joe Hillard
Third Advisor
Brenda Wentworth
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
Shakespeare, Teaching, English, High School, Performance
Abstract
For many high school English teachers, it is still common practice to teach a few of William Shakespeare's infamous plays to their students. While the teacher's own enthusiasm for the subject might keep her excited about teaching Shakespeare, unfortunately the students often feel bored and frustrated when studying the bard. This having been my experience as well, I began to question both why we teach Shakespeare and how we teach him.
Knowing that successful teachers always consider the purposes behind their lesson plans, I begin by looking at the reasons teachers continue to teach Shakespeare. In this section I also reflect on the many rewards teachers experience when they teach him. Next, I review the numerous methods of teaching Shakespeare that are currently in use, and the obstacles teachers encounter when utilizing these methods, as well as ways to overcome them. The remaining chapters concentrate on one particular method, performance-based pedagogy, not only because it captures the essence of Shakespeare, but also because it contains elements of all the other methodologies in its practice. I conclude by providing lesson plans to teach a Shakespeare play using performance-based pedagogy.
Recommended Citation
Gjerde, Lisa M., "Shakespeare in Performance: Teaching Shakespeare via Performance-Based Pedagogy to the High School English Student" (2008). Culminating Projects in English. 50.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/eng_etds/50
