Are there any online Shakespeare classes for teens?

[helena]

My 17yo is hoping for something live online. It could be for spring, summer, or next school year. 

I've been trying to find something, anything... and I'm not having any luck. 

 

 

 

[Rosie_0801]

Bravewriter does. I've never used them, so can't comment further.

[quark]

Roy Speed offers R&J, Hamlet and Macbeth. No personal experience but have heard others give nothing but praise for these classes.

 

ETA: OnlineG3 also offers Shakespeare but please check with them on level.

Edited March 28, 2016 by quark

[crazyforlatin]

Are you requiring high school level output? If not, onlineg3 has a summer class. If it's the same Shakespeare class that DD took, then it was a lot of fun with appropriate amount of work geared more towards gifted younger kids. It was a mixed range of ages. They offer fall and spring Shakespeare classes as well. DD took a fall class, and I think the output required more, like writing your own sonnet, which I thought was hard.

 

You may want to wait until CLRC comes out with their summer schedule. We took a Shakespeare class 2 summers ago with CLRC and I thought the teacher (who I don't think is there currently) did a great job leading the class in discussions. Again, the age range was wide. 

 

In my area, there are a few Shakespeare summer camps. 

[Jamee]

Not a class but the Shakespeare Undercover series is very good at background info and a look into the plays.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Lukeion Project is offering a Shakespeare class next spring.

 

http://www.lukeion.org/Literature_Shakespeare.html

[Julie of KY]

Brave Writer has both a family class and a high school class in the spring.

 

Center for Lit has a 1 week class discussing a play this summer.

[GoVanGogh]

Center for Lit class mentioned above:

http://www.centerforlit.com/seminar-macbeth

July 11-15

Macbeth

[Chrysalis Academy]

Not a live class, but Futurelearn has a couple of really neat Shakespeare offerings coming up:

 

https://www.futurelearn.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=shakespeare

[Haiku]

Impact Virtual Learning has a Shakespeare class.

[Penguin]

My son is signed up for the Bravewriter class. They will be doing Hamlet in May.

[RootAnn]

DD took Roy Speed's Macbeth last school year. There is a mix of ages in the class (middle school & up). The homework is almost all reading. There is no 'output' other than an optional test at the end. She got a lot out of the class & really liked it (especially that there was no writing). You pretty much just have to attend class (and, hopefully, read the assignments). You don't have to talk. There is no grade given.

 

If that is what you are looking for - that they learn a lot about the play & Shakespeare from a teacher with huge amounts of enthusiasm - then this class is great.

 

If you are looking for more, then this class is not for you. We haven't taken a Center for Lit class yet, but from what I've read, it is run similar to those.

 

Roy Speed offers R&J, Hamlet and Macbeth. No personal experience but have heard others give nothing but praise for these classes.

 

[Abeille]

My son has taken both the G3 classes this year (they offer Comedies in fall and Tragedies in spring) and has enjoyed them very much. They use the Lightning Literature student books, but the instructor adds a lot of extra activities. DS likes G3 because the assignments are creative and there isn't any busywork. From our discussions it's clear he's learned a lot about the plays. I do add in some Shakespeare lectures from The Great Courses and film viewings, but I haven't added essays because my biggest goal for ds with these classes was to foster a love of Shakespeare - a goal that's definitely been met. :)  If you want your student to produce more written output, there are lots of prompts in the LL book used in the course.

[Cosmos]

Wow, so many choices! I had no idea about some of these. Looking at Roy Speed with interest. I'm glad I clicked on this thread, and thanks to all those who posted.

[foofoobunny]

We signed up for Roy Speed's Romeo & Juliet class for fall.  He says that you can give a 1/2 credit for his class.  The class runs from Sept-November.  Yes, please!

 

FYI - I emailed him last month and he was very helpful.  He said the class fills up quickly so I wouldn't wait until summer to enroll if you are hoping for this class.

 

Edited March 28, 2016 by foofoobunny

[Cosmos]

We signed up for Roy Speed's Romeo & Juliet class for fall.  He says that you can give a 1/2 credit for his class.  The class runs from Sept-November.  Yes, please!

 

FYI - I emailed him last month and he was very helpful.  He said the class fills up quickly so I wouldn't wait until summer to enroll if you are hoping for this class.

 

Thanks, that's good to know! We studied Hamlet this year and Romeo and Juliet last year, so I was considering the Macbeth class that's next spring. But I see that registration for it opens THIS April, so that does seem to indicate a need to register early.

 

Ds and I have had a lot of fun reading Shakespeare together for several years now, but I also know the value of learning from a teacher who is a true expert (and I am definitely NOT when it comes to Shakespeare).

[helena]

She's watched Great Courses How to Read and Understand Shakespeare and plans to complete William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.

She just finished up season one of Shakespeare Uncovered along with the teacher guide Q&A.

She's watching everything she can get her hands on. 

 

As far as output levels, I think over the next year and a half she'd like both types of classes. 

 

I'm so excited about all the recommendations! Thank you!

[madteaparty]

Are you requiring high school level output? If not, onlineg3 has a summer class. If it's the same Shakespeare class that DD took, then it was a lot of fun with appropriate amount of work geared more towards gifted younger kids. It was a mixed range of ages. They offer fall and spring Shakespeare classes as well. DD took a fall class, and I think the output required more, like writing your own sonnet, which I thought was hard.

 

You may want to wait until CLRC comes out with their summer schedule. We took a Shakespeare class 2 summers ago with CLRC and I thought the teacher (who I don't think is there currently) did a great job leading the class in discussions. Again, the age range was wide.

 

In my area, there are a few Shakespeare summer camps.

Agree with the online G3 characterization; check how much output you require. Ds loves their classes and always wants to be in one. It's almost like an extracurricular here.

[royspeed]

Hi, everyone.

 

I noticed my Shakespeare courses being discussed here, and I thought I'd provide a little information! 

 

Key features of my courses:

• Close reading. This is what really distinguishes the way I teach Shakespeare from other courses â€” working through scenes line by line, sometimes word by word. What I've discovered is that teachers aren't really doing this any more, not even at the university level. As a result, students merely skim the surface, never quite understanding precisely what Shakespeare wrote. To illustrate: Students who have actually performed in productions of Romeo & Juliet tell me that my course on that play is a revelation, that they discover things they never learned during months and months of memorization, scene study, and rehearsal. 
• Shakespeare's art. Students find the close-reading approach thrilling, and for good reason: it's the only thing that enables them to perceive what Shakespeare was up to in every scene and really appreciate the magnitude of what he accomplished. — And make no mistake, his work represents a towering achievement. I love Dickens, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Charlotte Brontë, et al., but none of those writers even comes close to Shakespeare's art and achievement.
• Study skills. Along with close reading, I teach the kids to annotate their text. Equally important, I show them why it's important (see here). My aim is twofold: first, to build their confidence with tackling any kind of difficult text, equip them with real tools for getting beneath the surface; second, to show them that a text may look like a boring, barren patch of ground but conceal buried treasure.

In my lineup of courses, each course represents a different stage in the student's learning:

1. The Romeo & Juliet series serves as my introduction to Shakespeare, i.e., in addition to tackling that play, we go over the fundamentals of Shakespeare's biography, his verse, the Elizabethan theater, and so on. 
2. The Hamlet series leaps to a play that's more sophisticated in every way — mature themes, psychological complexity, subtle effects, astonishing innovation — but I show my students how to make sense of it all. 
3. With the Macbeth series, we study a play that's like a perfect gem (it makes Hamlet seem like a sprawling mess). The writing is dense and expertly crafted; when students discover what Shakespeare accomplished in this play, their jaws drop.

Hope all this is helpful.

 

—Roy Speed