Joan in GE Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 (edited) We're finally watching Henry the V. With the older (there is probably a name for the English spoken at that time - Elizabethan?) English, we were fairly lost, barely understanding the conversation. But then we got out the text and read along while watching (not difficult because of action, speeches, etc). It made such a difference that I thought it useful to share the idea and find out what other things people have done to enrich their Shakespeare experiences...we are such novices... So any words for the inexperienced you Shakespeare lovers? SWB proposes the Branagh production of Henry V which is good. For Shakespeares other plays, does anyone have favorite productions? Best, Joan Edited March 5, 2009 by Joan in Geneva typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 We started with Logos' Study of Shakespeare and Lambs Tales of Shakespeare. Elementary but it gives the kids a good understanding, orients everyone to if the play is comedy, tragedy, history, major players and themes. We are hoping to do a play this spring that is a soap opera comedy where the kids will learn several lines from the more famous plays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 Hi Joan, Here is an old thread with a few ideas. There have been some others for which I'll search later. Jane (who needs to remember to tag these old threads as well pull them up!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 I've done several things. The best was inviting my mother (an English major) over and splitting up the parts and doing a play reading. My mother added background and can act her part, so I was careful to give her a major role. I gave the children major roles, too, so they wouldn't get bored. With four people, we all could take lots of parts, but we seldom had to double up within a scene. Although our reading of the Elizabethan English was pretty stuttery, nobody had trouble understanding it. Since my children have been little, I've been getting DVDs of plays from the library and letting them watch them as a special treat. I've chosen ones that were a Shakespearian reproduction play on a stage that was filmed rather than the movie version of the play possibly set in something other than Elizabethan England. I saved the movie versions (much more emotionally impacting) for when they were older. I have no idea whether this was useful. I did it because we all enjoyed it. We enjoyed the bits of the book Everything Shakespeare that had information about how much a loaf of bread cost and how much the actors were payed and other details of everyday life. Now that the children are teenagers, we've been getting the movies. I love the F-something Z-something version of Romeo and Juliet, the Twelfth Night with Helena Bonham Carter, things with Kenneth Brannof sp? in them. For the older one (18), we paired Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare in Love and Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead. We haven't done a whole lot with Shakespeare other than enjoy it, but we've been very successful at that. -Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted March 5, 2009 Author Share Posted March 5, 2009 Hi Jane, Sorry to make you do my work. I forgot to search before asking. That is a useful thread. It helps so much to read personal comments about these plays! Waving over the ocean! Joan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted March 5, 2009 Author Share Posted March 5, 2009 (edited) I was posting when you were Nan and missed your input. Thanks too Lisa! I bet my children would love acting out some plays - maybe something to do with our speech group....it doesn't have to be fancy either. Thanks for the tip of the difference between the theater vs the movie version too as I hadn't realized that. Best, Joan Edited March 5, 2009 by Joan in Geneva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 Hi Jane, Sorry to make you do my work. I forgot to search before asking. That is a useful thread. It helps so much to read personal comments about these plays! Waving over the ocean! Joan Waving back at you, Joan! We studied the Bolingbroke cycle with great success last spring. I had made my inquiries beforehand and I remembered having helpful replies in that thread. By the way, we also enjoyed Brannagh's Much Ado (but be forewarned--there is a scene that is perhaps inappropriate for young eyes). We saw a production of the play at the Globe in London. Wow, just wow. My son insisted that we buy tickets for the pit. As luck would have it, we were able to lean on the stage where the ladies skirts from their gowns brushed our fingertips. It was pure magic. When my son was younger, I read the Leon Garfield short stories aloud to him. They were a terrific introduction. Sometimes it helps to know the storyline first so that one can focus on the poetry of the lines or the character dynamics. The Teaching Company's lectures on Shakespeare by Peter Saccio are worthwhile as well if you care to launch a deeper study. Best, Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 Now that the children are teenagers, we've been getting the movies. I love the F-something Z-something version of Romeo and Juliet, the Twelfth Night with Helena Bonham Carter, things with Kenneth Brannof sp? in them. For the older one (18), we paired Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare in Love and Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead. -Nan Nan was referring to Franco Zeffirelli. Of course, Romeo and Juliet makes a great pairing with West Side Story. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spock Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 We're finally watching Henry the V. With the older (there is probably a name for the English spoken at that time - Elizabethan?) English, we were fairly lost, barely understanding the conversation. But then we got out the text and read along while watching (not difficult because of action, speeches, etc). It made such a difference that I thought it useful to share the idea and find out what other things people have done to enrich their Shakespeare experiences...we are such novices... So any words for the inexperienced you Shakespeare lovers? SWB proposes the Branagh production of Henry V which is good. For Shakespeares other plays, does anyone have favorite productions? Best, Joan We are reading Hamlet now. We got a DVD from the library with Sir Laurence Olivier which all 4 of my children enjoyed watching (even the 1st and 3rd grader, who aren't reading the play). We did turn on the captions to read the lines as they were spoken, and that helped a lot, especially at first. As the play progressed, the language began to seem more natural. I have noticed that watching the DVD made a big difference in understanding the play for my high schoolers. They had read most of Act I before watching it, and their narrations were sometimes sketchy. Since watching the play, their narrations are much better. Another thing that helps when I have time for it is for all 3 of us (both boys and me) to read the play out loud, choosing a few characters each. Unfortunately, the 2 little ones take up a lot of my time, and the high schoolers often decide to read on their own rather than wait until I am free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Now that the children are teenagers, we've been getting the movies. I love the F-something Z-something version of Romeo and Juliet, the Twelfth Night with Helena Bonham Carter, things with Kenneth Brannof sp? in them. For the older one (18), we paired Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare in Love and Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead. We haven't done a whole lot with Shakespeare other than enjoy it, but we've been very successful at that. -Nan Nan, you inspired me to watch the Franco Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet again. Thanks for the nudge. The film is more beautiful than I remembered it from my youth. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Last year dd was in a Hamlet production (which they somehow turned into a comedy while sticking quite closely to the script!) and so I got out a BBC production on CD form the library, of Hamlet. Just listening to that for 15 minutes a week, along with having teh script in front of us, allowed us "access". As in, we enjoyed it enough to not dread it each week. It helped me to enjoy my daughter's play, too. I intended to do Henry V at the moment but I got out teh Branagh version of the play and just coulndt get a feel for it at all. TOo much was going over my head. Both the kids asked to stop it, it was just too boring. I agreed. So we are not Shakespeare experts. So I decided to try Romeo and Juliet instead, since my pubescent teens seemed to relate to things romantic at the moment (reading Twilight and all), and so far we have watched the Leonardo de Caprio version, and been to a university production that was word for word, 3 hours long, and cast teh Montagues as Moslem and the Capulets as Catholic! It was interesting but too long. But its enough that now we will be able to read, or listen to another BBC production of, the play. My kids are better at catching the language than I am. They often understnad teh gist of what is going on better than me. But they are very good listeners. I cant understand much unless I am also reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choirfarm Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 My boys are in 6th and 8th and LOVE Shakespeare. We are going to have a test next week. Last year we did Julius Caesar( We were studying Rome.) This year we did Much Ado, Hamlet, and we will do Henry Vth this week. What I find helpful is to have them read a graphic novel orother easy version. This about Hamlet is excellent. It has cartoons that summarize part of the story and then pages that have actual of the most famous lines of the play: Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, The Author: Edited by Lacie, Christina For Much Ado, I used 2002 3. Much ado about nothing for kids Add to My List by Burdett, Lois, 1952- ... William, 1564-1616. Much ado about nothing Adaptations Juvenile ... Publisher, Date: Willowdale, Ont. : Firefly Books, 2002. Description: 64 p. : col. ill. ; 24 cm. They have these for other ones as well. I read this out loud to them. Then we watched the movies for about an hour at a time while we ate lunch. I also had them watch the short Standard Deviants videos about Shakespeare tragedy and the major thems of each play. So basically, they knew the whole story and themes before they ever watched the plays and that helped A LOT. They weren't trying to figure out what happened as well as understand the language. We stop the films after famous speaches and talk about what the speeches meant. For Hamlet, it really helped that the speeches were in that book. As people have noticed. The Kenneth Braughnau films need to be edited, but that was easy to do. We LOVE Shakespeare around here. They are currently memorizing a speech: one to be or not to be and the other one firends, Romans, countrymen.. Have fun! Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thanks for all the ideas everyone! Christine, can I ask you how you test them? Peela, it is funny the contrast because our children, mine (11 & 15) are enjoying Henry Vth...dd hides her head over any violence..the script in front helped a lot and then when we got to the French girl trying to learn English, they found that hilarious.... We saw a production of the play at the Globe in London. Wow, just wow. My son insisted that we buy tickets for the pit. As luck would have it, we were able to lean on the stage where the ladies skirts from their gowns brushed our fingertips. It was pure magic. When my son was younger, I read the Leon Garfield short stories aloud to him. They were a terrific introduction That sounds like the best way to see his plays! What a treat! We are reading the short stories first which does help a lot and have the TC lectures. Quote from Spock We did turn on the captions to read the lines as they were spoken, and that helped a lot, especially at first. This is a good idea and I tried it but couldn't find any captions with our version... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dooley Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 I am teaching Shakespeare next year, I have read plenty, will use the PBS production called In Search of Shakespeare", the book Brightest Heaven of Invention (a Christian view of 6 of his plays), I read Shakespeare for Dummies (actually very useful), found some wonderful exercises on the PBS site, will watch lots of movies. I was introduced to Shakespeare as a senior by watching Taming of the Shrew, the one with Marc Singer (yeah, baby). Was very funny! Loved Hamlet with Mel Gibson (helps bring the kids in, you know). THere is also a wonderful documentary called Shakespeare Behind Bars, you will love this, you will get excellent insight as to how a director and the actors bring their experiences into the production Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thank you for helping with the name. Isn't it lovely? When I was in 4th grade, we did a comparison of Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. My mother did quite a lot of explaining about West Side Story to make sure I understood the city/immigrant background. I'd never met the idea of a gang or a ghetto before. When I was in 8th grade (next town over), we had it pointed out to us that we were the same age as Romeo and Juliet and we watched the movie, read the play, and memorized a passage. They are some of the only bits of my education (other than my math) that I remember. Later, as older teens, we rented the movie to watch again and discovered my husband's 13yo brothers watching it over and over. They liked the dualing scenes. Something for everyone, I guess LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekarl2 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 I just wanted to share some things my mom did in her class that worked really well. 1. She always explained the story to the kids before they read the play. Because the language is difficult, knowing the story in advance really helps. 2. Assign a paraphrase of a scene. This is so much fun (well, fun for comedies)! Pick a scene and then rewrite it in your own words. You can even change the circumstances (make the characters southern or New Yorkers, etc). It needs to be line-for-line, but it really helps the understanding and is a lot of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Katia Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Nan was referring to Franco Zeffirelli. Of course, Romeo and Juliet makes a great pairing with West Side Story. J We did this earlier this year and it was a big success. The Zeffirelli film was stunning. I found a book on amazon.com that had Romeo & Juliet AND the original script for West Side Story both together. Having the script for WSS was amazingly helpful...those songs go by so quickly when you watch the film, but taking the time to read and ponder the words was powerful. They are truly part of the script. DD wrote the best compare/contrast essay that she has ever written, she was so inspired! We are just finishing up Brannagh's Hamlet video right now after reading the Shakespeare. It is wonderful as well. Something we found really helpful for Hamlet was Adam Andrew's Literary Analysis lecture on DVD from The Classic's Club (The Center for Literary Education). http://www.centerforlit.com I also like the literary analysis found in Hewitt Homescholing's Shakepeare Lightning Literature and Composition courses. I purchased both guides (Tragedies and Comedies) and we pick-and-choose which plays to cover. These have been interesting and helpful, but we don't use it as 'intended'. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Buckin' Longhorn Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Whenever we have trouble understanding the meaning of Shakespeare we get the "No Fear Shakespeare" version of the book. It has side by side breakdown of the text in the Shakespeare vernacular beside the common English translation. Then we act out both versions. It's lots of fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted March 11, 2009 Author Share Posted March 11, 2009 Thanks for all the ideas everyone - I'm saving them as now we have enough to keep us busy for a long time! Dooley - my daughter just begged me yesterday if we couldn't find a DVD of the Taming of the Shrew. I had no idea it even existed since I don't normally hear about it. Thanks. 2. Assign a paraphrase of a scene. This is so much fun (well, fun for comedies)! Pick a scene and then rewrite it in your own words. You can even change the circumstances (make the characters southern or New Yorkers, etc). It needs to be line-for-line, but it really helps the understanding and is a lot of fun. This sounds like a good exercise - thanks for sharing! Best, Joan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Dooley - my daughter just begged me yesterday if we couldn't find a DVD of the Taming of the Shrew. I had no idea it even existed since I don't normally hear about it. Thanks. Best, Joan After Shrew, you could watch Kiss Me Kate, one of my favorite musicals! I love the song "Brush Up Your Shakespeare!" Jane (Cole Porter fan of the highest degree) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Isn't there a Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor? We watched one from the series at the library. I liked it better than the ET one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyL in Canada Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 I am teaching Shakespeare next year, I have read plenty, will use the PBS production called In Search of Shakespeare", the book Brightest Heaven of Invention (a Christian view of 6 of his plays), I read Shakespeare for Dummies (actually very useful), found some wonderful exercises on the PBS site, will watch lots of movies. I was introduced to Shakespeare as a senior by watching Taming of the Shrew, the one with Marc Singer (yeah, baby). Was very funny! Loved Hamlet with Mel Gibson (helps bring the kids in, you know). THere is also a wonderful documentary called Shakespeare Behind Bars, you will love this, you will get excellent insight as to how a director and the actors bring their experiences into the production Similar here: started with a a story version of the given play, then listened to it on CD while reading along, then watched a film version. Also used BHoI and In Search Of Shakespeare. And don't forget to finish off with the DVD of the Reduced Shakespeare Co--all of the Bard's plays summarized in about 90 hilarious minutes. We actually saw a live performance of this and almost died laughing!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 And don't forget to finish off with the DVD of the Reduced Shakespeare Co--all of the Bard's plays summarized in about 90 hilarious minutes. We actually saw a live performance of this and almost died laughing!! We have also seen a performance of the Reduced Shakespeare Co which particularly appealed to my then pre-adolescent son. Marvelous way for kids to connect to the bard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lwj Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 In addition to all these ideas, have you seen the Manga Shakepeare? Saw it at Borders but bought them through Amazon. They are remarkably faithful, detailed and in the spirit of the theater concept being visual! Lisaj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted March 12, 2009 Author Share Posted March 12, 2009 for those of you who talked about pairing and comparison reading of other novels, I guess before of after you read the Shakespeare.... can you share a few more ideas of the details of how you did this? Thanks much, Joan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.