HSKLNG Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 to have a full year of studying Shakespeare? Which resources would you use and which books would you consider "important" for the child to study? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skissugar Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 we wont get to it for a few years but lightning literature has studies of his comedies and tragedies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liza Q Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 (edited) OK - I am not an expert but I like Shakespeare and enjoyed sharing him with my children! He is hysterical and profound, often in the same scene. And SWB told me, in 1999 and on page 344 of the WTM, what to do!!! 1. Read a summary. We love Nesbit's Beautiful Stories form Shakespeare for Children and Garfield's Shakespeare Stories. Usborne (I think?) had a nice series (got them from the library) but I can't remember the author. 2. Watch a version! 3. Read the play. We "did" 2-3 plays a year for a few years but never a bunch at once! We read only 9 actual plays out of the ones we watched. We did use Sparknotes and Smarr for several. Honestly, we did not do a great deal of analysis - we just discussed a lot! My daughters did write about the ones we read for High School but, again, we did not go into great depth. For example, one year we read the Garfield version of Macbeth, read the play, watched the version with Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth and discussed a lot. A few months later we saw it in Central Park and we discussed it again. Then about a year or two later we saw a BBC modernized version,read and discussed it again and, finally, my daughter wrote about it. By then she had something to say! The Lightning Literature selections look great! I have used three other LL books and thought they were quite good so I expect that the Shakespeare guides will also be good. So, if you are looking for a program I think that you should check them out. Which are most important? Hard to say. I can give you a list of the ones we read/discussed and/or watched. There are a lot of "important" ones missing but I figure that my approach has worked fairly well. A Winter's Tale is coming to the park this summer and my girls are excited! It has been one of their favorites for years - we listened to Nesbit's version on a cassette many years ago and, apparently, they have both read the play because they remembered the story fondly. I had no idea they had read it! So they are familiar with the plot of several more than we have *studied* and they are willing to read on their own...my work here is done! Anyway, we found these all accessible and have been able to watch most of them, sometimes in multiple versions. Netflix is great! A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing The Tempest As You Like It Twelfth Night The Merchant of Venice Taming of the Shrew Macbeth Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Julius Caesar Henry V Richard III Last point - I would make any play that is coming to my area a priority! Oh - I forgot. Another point ;) - SWB (in the WTM) suggested Henry V, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream as a good place to start. I started with these and it worked well. HTH Edited April 12, 2010 by Liza Q Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 (edited) to have a full year of studying Shakespeare? Which resources would you use and which books would you consider "important" for the child to study? The easiest and most thorough way to spend a year studying Shakespeare is to go with the 2 Lightning Lit. programs (each is 1 semester long): Shakespeare Comedies and Sonnets = http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/book/blightshcom.asp Shakespeare Tragedies and Sonnets = http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/book/blightshtra.asp Other Helpful Resources: Brightest Heaven of Invention (Leithart) Christian guide to 6 Shakespeare plays: - Macbeth - Hamlet - Henry V - Julius Caesar - Taming of the Shrew - Much Ado About Nothing Parallel Text Shakespeare Materials for individual plays: a parallel text (original text on one page, with modern translation on the facing page); student workbook; teacher guide; teacher manual/answer key. See them at: http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1271116500-249534&subject=6&category=1471 Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Merchant of Venice Midsummer Night's Dream Othello Romeo & Juliet Taming of the Shrew The Teaching Company, The Great Courses DVD lecture series: Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (36 lectures, each 30 minutes long) http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=280 - Absolute Shakespeare website = http://absoluteshakespeare.com/index.htm - List of films based on Shakespeare plays = http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/films/films.htm - View BBC televised versions of all of Shakespeares plays (some of these are better than others) on Nexflix instant view -- the series is: The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, produced by BBC & Time-Life Films As for which works to cover over the course of a year: at least 1 tragedy, 1 comedy, 1 history, and some sonnets. Here are the most common or most accessible to high school study: Tragedies - Macbeth - Hamlet - Romeo and Juliet - Othello Comedies - Midsummer Night's Dream - Much Ado About Nothing - Twelfth Night - Taming of the Shrew - The Tempest Histories - Julius Caesar - Henry V - Richard III Sonnets (most famous/most quoted) - Sonnet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?..." - Sonnet 2 "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow..." - Sonnet 109 "O never say that I was false of heart..." - Sonnet 130 "My Mistress eyes..." - Sonnet 116 "Let me not to the marriage of true minds... - Sonnet 147 "My love is as a fever..." - Sonnet 29 "When in disgrace with fortune..." - Sonnet 55 "Not marble nor the gilded monuments..." Edited April 13, 2010 by Lori D. added info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Wisc Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 to have a full year of studying Shakespeare? Which resources would you use and which books would you consider "important" for the child to study? 1) Read the No-Fear Shakespeare version of several plays. 2) Watch several videos. 3) Read out loud your choice of the "real" thing. 4) Write papers. I used Highest Heaven of Invention (Christian) to go along with the study. No-Fear is a modern translation of the plays put out by SparkNotes. I wish I had known about them years ago. SO MUCH BETTER than the books that retell them like children's stories!!!! BTW, I did a unit of Shakespeare--not a whole year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choirfarm Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 to have a full year of studying Shakespeare? Which resources would you use and which books would you consider "important" for the child to study? We did the read an easy version, watch the play on Netflix and analyze the actual version way as well. I will also add that it takes several days to watch the play as I am always stopping it and checking plot points or hauling out the play itself to really look at a couple of important lines. As a result my sons love it. We have a Shakespeare festival here every summer as well. One thing they haven't mentioned is studying the Globe itself. Find some books that talk about the theater at the time. Perhaps you could build a model. My boys also enjoyed some videos by the Standard Deviants. It talked about what made a tragedy and used lines from the plays and it was silly, but VERY educational especially for preteen/teen boys. I can't remember which episode we got. I think it was the one with Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet: http://www.netflix.com/Search?oq=&v1=standard+deviant+shakespeare I know our library has some as well, so it may not have been these exactly either. Shakespeare Stealer might be good as well to study the time period. One caution. May I ask why you want to spend a whole year on it? I LOVE Shakespeare, but I think I would be burned out on it. We spent a month last year and it was plenty. We studied the Globe, Shakespeare's background, diffferences and qualities of comedies, hitories and tragedies. We studied Hamlet, Much Ado and Henry V. We had fun. I would rather do a month study of Shakespeare every year than a whole year at once. The first year I taught in Oklahoma, I was hired in October when a teacher dropped dead from a heart attack. I just did whatever the department chair did. They spent a whole 9 weeks listening to Julius Caesar.:tongue_smilie:(Those awful records!! I'm showing my age, huh!) They spent a week studying the Globe, even though they had built a model the year before. I hated it!! The next year I spent 3 weeks on Shakespeare and we did Julius Caesar and watched the movie Much Ado About Nothing. They loved it, especially Much Ado. They were rolling on the floor and told me that this couldn't be Shakespeare!!! It was funny! (All they ever study is tragedies in school!!) So don't kill a love for Shakespeare!! Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 You didn't mention how old your kiddo(s) so I will tell you what we did. :) Asimov's Guide to Shakepeare The Standard Deviants Shakespeare dvds Brightest Heaven of Invention We read a selection of his works with the Riverside Shakespeare, some of the comedies and some of the tragedies and a couple of the histories using Leithart and Asimov books. And with Netflix we watched, compared and contrasted a traditional version of some of the plays with a contemporary version of them. Copywork and memorywork with a selection of quotes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSKLNG Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 My dd is 17 and working on 11th grade work. This is for her last year of High School....next year, that by the way begins in January 2011:blushing:, just like this (2010) year. We have never read any of Shakespeare. We have read "about" Shakespeare, but not the plays on a formal setting. Thanks for all the information, ladies. I do have a good idea on what to do. You all are awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Bill Bryson wrote a wonderful, thorough, easy-to-read biography called Shakespeare. Definitely read it--it's well worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 I second the Bill Bryson biography. He writes so entertainingly but the book is also well researched. I've tagged this thread 'Shakespeare'. You might read the other threads with this tag; there are quite a few of them. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSKLNG Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Thank you ladies, I will look into this biography. I went to The Teaching Co. and got the Shakespeare set below. I will then get the LLC Shakespeare and see if we will work with Nexflix to watch the performances. Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies & Shakespeare's Tragedies (Set) Thank you all again.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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