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Crystal Beach
ENGL 5224
Abstract
Shakespeare in the English Language Arts Classroom
Though centuries have passed since his time, Shakespeare’s plays are still
significant and instrumental in opening the eyes of many young adults to literature.
However, many students find his plays hard to follow and simply lose interest because
they do not understand the language he uses. In addition, many believe that his plays are
thought to be only for a select few: the highly educated. Yet, Shakespeare’s plays
portray universal themes that are relevant to everyone, no matter what level students are
on or what their differences may be. For this reason, it is imperative that teachers find
creative ways to better help their students connect with Shakespeare’s plays. Othello is a
play that is often overlooked in the classroom, yet can be instrumental in developing all
elements of students’ minds, including literary, creative, and personal experiences.
Teachers can use components of theater, film, language, imagery and the Internet to
supplement Othello to make it a true success in the classroom. Ultimately, students are in
fact reading and understanding the themes Shakespeare used, just in different,
contemporary forms. Thus, Shakespeare’s plays, such as Othello, still deserve a place in
the English language arts classroom today.
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Semester Paper
Shakespeare in the English Language Arts Classroom
Though centuries have passed since his time, Shakespeare's plays are still
significant and instrumental in opening the eyes of many young adults to literature.
However, many students find his plays hard to follow and lose interest because they do
not understand the language he uses. For this reason, teachers must find creative ways to
better help their students connect to Shakespeare's plays. Many of Shakespeare's themes,
such as race, religion, gender, family, marriage, love, and betrayal, are as meaningful
today as in the era in which they were written. Thus, students are in fact reading and
understanding the same language or themes Shakespeare used, just in different,
contemporary forms. Therefore, Shakespeare's plays, such as Othello, still deserve a
place in the English language arts classroom today.
What many teachers forget is the simple fact that students are very different than
them; in a sense, “English teachers are from Mars. And [our] students are from Venus”
(Crowe 120). Teachers cannot simply ignore students’ interests and needs, or many
negative effects will occur, such as students ignoring good literature and turning into
“lifelong nonreaders” (Crowe 120). In addition, there is another form of tension between
high school and collegiate teachers. “High-school teachers once attended college, and
college teachers high school, but neither group seems to remember much about its
experience” (McDonald 145). The tension between the teachers means that there are
disagreements, or rather misunderstandings, about how and why Shakespeare should be
incorporated into the English language arts classroom. Also, with tension between
students and teachers, and among teachers in general, there is no question of why
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teaching Shakespeare creates doubts amongst all individuals involved. In addition,
problems arise when teachers try to do too much. This means that the teacher should act
as a “tour guide” and not a translator of the text. The teacher’s job “is to help students
make connections—between themselves and a piece of literature, between a piece of
literature and the ideas it embodies, between the world of the piece and the student’s
world, connections within a piece of literature (O’Brien, “Doing Shakespeare” 42).
Students even report “teachers kill Shakespeare by line to line explanation” (O’Brien,
“And Gladly Teach” 167). Thus, though teachers feel that they might be helping their
students when they are struggling with certain lines, it is most important to only guide
and allow the students to discover their own connections and understandings of
Shakespeare. The fine line between guiding and translating can be hard to differentiate;
however, much success can evolve in the classroom if done correctly. “Students learn,
not by being told what scholars say or how their teacher would block a scene—other
people’s shoulds—but by figuring it out for themselves” (O’Brien, “Doing Shakespeare”
43).
Along with the obvious tensions mentioned above, Shakespeare is often limited to
students, of all reading levels, in many schools. For example, in some schools,
Shakespeare’s work is only made available to Advanced Placement (AP) students, as
students with lower reading levels are often bypassed from reading his works. “Basic
students” have no chance to study Shakespeare, which sends the message that
Shakespeare is only for the “very bright, the very fleet of mind” (O’Brien, “Doing
Shakespeare” 41). Furthermore, even AP students are often not able to truly enjoy, or
rather experience, Shakespeare because the focus is only on passing the multiple-choice,
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standardized test to confirm “common skills in reading and writing that are necessary for
advanced study in the [English] field” (Metzger 24). “Multiple choice questions and forty
minute essays, while useful as a measure of some abilities, work as ends against the very
consciousness of language and its power to shape human understanding that Shakespeare
encourages in us” (Metzger 24). Thus, in “teaching to the test,” “the most important
aspect of Shakespeare’s work, his ability to imagine the complex lives of powerfully
historicized human beings, is lost to [our] students” (Metzger 24). Yet another example
of students receiving a limited Shakespeare experience in the classroom would be that
even when Shakespeare’s plays are used in the English language arts classroom, students
are only exposed to a very few, select plays. “This reality is so pervasive that many
students believe Shakespeare only wrote four plays” (O’Brien, “Doing Shakespeare” 41).
Though tradition is important, and often controlled by publishers who are producing the
texts, it is important for teachers to remember that there are many Shakespeare plays and
“many of these are not only appropriate but splendid for middle-school and junior and
senior high-school students” (O’Brien, “Doing Shakespeare” 41).
The “fact is, though the man’s plays are performed more frequently on more
stages than those of any other writer, most people meet Shakespeare in school” (O’Brien,
“And Gladly Teach” 165). The Folger Shakespeare Library believes very firmly in this
statement as it
[The Folger Shakespeare Library] committed itself to education programs for
local students and teachers in 1980 and several years later established the
Teaching Shakespeare Institute to address in earnest the needs of those teaching
Shakespeare in junior and senior high schools across America. The Institute has a
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double focus: total immersion in scholarship and exploration of classroom
techniques. (O’Brien, “And Gladly Teach” 169)
The Library believes the following:
The most significant work in the entire world goes on in schools. Period. This
significant work goes on in all kinds of schools – in public and private, in
sprawling and tiny and middle-sized, big city, small-city, rural, and suburban
schools everywhere. Not all learning happens in school, obviously, but what goes
on daily in the mind of a student is the future creating itself. (O’Brien, “Doing
Shakespeare” 40)
Also, “research points to the educational value of literature in aiding the development of
children’s language, reading, and writing” (Foster 11). For this reason, Shakespeare is
instrumental in developing key skills in the English language arts classroom with the only
limitation stemming from the idea that “young audiences must be able to understand and
relate their experiences to the content of the story” (Foster 10). However, Shakespeare’s
actual verse, or language, should not be changed when introducing his work into the
classroom. “Contemporizing the language reinforces the notion the verse is beyond the
students’ comprehension” and basically tells them that they are not smart enough to
understand Shakespeare in the first place (Foster 12). In addition, changing his language
suggests that it is not a vital element to his plays, which is in fact, quite contrary. “Mood,
pace, characterization, and interpretation are directly connected to the language – as it
was written” (Foster 13).
Yet another reason Shakespeare remains so valuable in the English language arts
classroom is that “Shakespeare is for all students: of all ability levels, and reading levels,
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of every ethnic origin, in ever kind of school” (O’Brien, “Doing Shakespeare” 42). After
all, “Shakespeare presented his plays to everyone: the educated, illiterate, wealthy, poor,
young, and old” (Foster 9). “Shakespeare addressed numerous problems of his day—
problems related to love, death, parental conflict, rebellion against authority, and power.
These concerns are universal in nature and not confined to a specific era. They are
universal concerns experienced by children” (Foster 10). For this reason, Shakespeare
should not be excluded to only the wealthiest schools, the most advanced classes, or
white students; Shakespeare is for everyone. The more teachers present Shakespeare with
the notion that though perhaps difficult to understand, his work is in fact universal, the
higher the chance that active learning will take place. With more active learning taking
place in the classroom, students will develop more meaningful learning, finding the
connections between Shakespeare’s words and their own lives, realizing that his language
is not that “ancient” after all, and ultimately achieving the teacher’s goal of successfully
integrating Shakespeare into the classroom.
Though success with Shakespeare is possible, teachers must utilize the teaching
resources teaching available to them and find creative, innovative ways to integrate
Shakespeare’s work. Othello is often believed to be a play that is too difficult for students
to read (Crowe 120). Yet, Othello can be just as beneficial to students as more traditional
plays, such as Romeo and Juliet. The Folger Library reports
At this point in our civilization the play's fascination and its horror may be greater
than ever before because we have been made so very sensitive to the issues of
race, class, and gender that are woven into the texture of Othello. Desdemona is
white, Othello black. Their inter-racial marriage is a source of a stream of slurs
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from Iago that runs throughout the play. Class is emphasized when Iago is
presented as someone bitterly resentful of his social inferiority (surely a factor in
his initial failure to be named Othello's second-in-command) and so
knowledgeable about the workings of prejudice and self-doubt that he can easily
twist others' feelings and actions to serve his own mysterious ends. The issue of
gender is especially noticeable in the final scenes of the play—with the attacks on
Bianca, Emilia, and Desdemona—which are vivid reminders of how terrible the
power traditionally exerted by men over women can be. (Folger)
For this reason, teachers can use components of theater, film, language, imagery, and the
Internet to supplement Othello to make it a true success in the classroom.
The best way for students to learn Shakespeare is by doing it (O’Brien, “Doing
Shakespeare” 42). Jennifer D. Morrison, teacher at Henry E. Lackey High School in
Indian Head, Maryland, examines this concept in her essay, “Using a Student-Generated
Film to Create a Culturally Relevant Community.” In her essay, Morrison describes how
she wanted her students to feel a part of the “elite” who read Shakespeare even though
many others believed her students, who were 90 percent African American, could not
handle such challenging academic material (47). After showing one of Shakespeare’s
plays to her class, and students demanding, “Where are the brothers? Why are their no
black people doing Shakespeare?” Morrison realized how students can become separated
from Shakespeare for cultural reasons. In other words, “they [Morrison’s students] didn’t
see themselves in Shakespeare’s words anymore…the film clip reminded them of the
barriers and low expectations placed on them…it reinforced that Shakespeare wasn’t
meant for them” (48). For this reason, Morrison decided to take a different approach to
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incorporating Shakespeare into the classroom, by creating multicultural Shakespearean
films. Her experience started off shaky; however, after understanding that “race, culture,
and gender all define who people are and how they view themselves,” Morrison’s class
worked with Shakespeare’s plays to develop their own take on his works, through film,
and decided that they were not so distant from Shakespeare at all (50).
Using Morrison’s teachings as an example, Othello provides teachers with a great
way to create a multicultural film based on the play that allows students to connect with
Shakespeare. In the play, Othello is unlike those around him as he has dark skin and
everyone else is white. In addition, the question arises if Othello becomes “more white”
because he marries a white woman, and if Desdemona, his wife, becomes “darker”
because she marries a black man. This question is one that can provide a powerful
foundation for immediate connection and contradictions that society forces individuals of
all color to live by. Another example that students can relate to would be the gender
differences apparent in the play’s time to today’s time. “Racism, bigotry, and prejudice
still exist, along with greed, desire for power and fear…heroism, bravery, hope, and love
also still exist;” thus, “by allowing students to connect with these themes, we allow them
to discover the threads that unite us as human beings” (Morrison 51). Thus, Othello
definitely provides a strong base to show various cultural differences and ultimately
break racial boundaries through acting out students’ interpretation of the play.
Furthermore, using film components ties into the increasing need for visual literacy in the
classroom, as well as the continued use of technological advancements. In addition,
teachers can even keep more traditional views and facts a part of the curriculum by
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showing the differences between the Shakespearean style of theater and film production
as well.
Another way for teachers to use Othello in the classroom would be to explore
with students how Shakespeare uses language. Shelly M. Whitfield, a Texas English
teacher who visited the University of Leeds in Saltaire, England to study British English
teachers, admits that some teachers feel language is too political to indulge in. Whitfield
states, “Some teachers, however, may say we are treading dangerous waters when our
lessons take us into these political areas [created by language]. Language cannot help but
be political in its use, history, and future. But language studies can also be pure fun
without causing that worried look on students’ faces, especially when it is tied to the
literature students are reading at the moment” (88). She described one British classroom
in which the teacher took lines from Shakespeare’s plays, and wrote down how the
student was to read the line, varying with emotion and other elements. “The class then
discusses contextual speech and the way Shakespeare and future adapters of Shakespeare
could insert conflicting emotions during a serious scene (e.g.. humor in tragic plays) or
how speech can have a multiplicity of meanings depending on how it is said and then
interpreted by audiences” (88). A specific example Whitfield gives to language use in
Othello would be referring to Desdemona “with the modern equivalent of slut” (88). The
activity had students “generate a list of equivalent labels for men.” Then “when students
begin to talk through the list, they realize most of the labels – if not all – for men have
positive connotation in society in that slap-on-the-back, ‘way to go, man’ kind of way”
(88). Whitfield acknowledges, “while this lesson may take the immediate sting out of the
label, it uncovers many of the implications of language use in our society” (88).
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There are other ways to incorporate elements of language in Othello as well. For
example, students can explore “the ways that language illuminates character” by
comparing Othello’s language in the earlier and later portions of the play (Landay 42).
Another way to explore character through language would be to create an “I Am” poem
(Landay 43). The idea for this poem stems from Iago’s line, “I am not what I am” (Oth.
1.1.64). The poem takes the shape of a found poem, meaning that students take lines or
words from the play and form them to create a collage of words describing who they are
(or are not). Ultimately, “by creating paraphrases and improvisations, students solidified
their understanding and made text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections”
(Landay 43). Yet another example of using language would be to have students turn
Shakespeare’s insults into compliments or have them put Shakespeare into their own
words, all of which requires an understanding of the original words in Othello that
Shakespeare uses (Edgar 14-5). Lorraine Hopping Edgar’s Teaching Shakespeare: Yes
You Can! provides teachers with an excellent resource of lesson plans to help them
incorporate these language ideas. Again, Edgar points out that the emphasis is on the
students’ ability to understand Shakespeare language by incorporating them correctly into
compliments or their own words.
Though language is a key element of Shakespeare’s Othello, it is often hard for
students to visualize various scenes. This fact is particularly important to alleviate before
introducing film adaptations to the classroom because essentially the students must
understand and visualize what is taking place before they actually act it out themselves.
Heather Kooiman, teacher at David Starr Jordan High School in Los Angeles, California,
suggests that imagery in Othello can be developed through music, specifically opera
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music (Folger). She says, “Shakespeare's language is rich with imagery, but students
often have difficulty visualizing and, subsequently, understanding the imagery. Bringing
music into the classroom helps students to create mental pictures, which they can then
compare to the images in the text. Opera works well because it is one of the most
compelling and captivating of art forms” (Folger). Kooiman suggests that students “listen
to Verdi's opera Otello, specifically to Iago's aria "Credo in un Dio crudel," and compare
the orchestration and the libretto to Iago's soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 3.” Then, “students
will think about and discuss the different ways music and text paint pictures for us and
thereby illustrate meaning” (Folger). In addition, having students select contemporary
music that they “believe complements Iago's soliloquy” and then writing an explanation
for their choice is yet another way Kooiman shows how music, language, and imagery
can work together in teaching Othello in the English language arts classroom.
When discussing the integration of any piece of literature into the classroom,
teachers should keep in mind the helpfully enormous resource of the World Wide Web
(web). Dorthothy Marie Hett, English teacher at the Lincoln County campus of Flathead
Valley Community College in Libby, Montana, shows how teachers can now add the web
“to their repertoire to help students connect to our most famous seventeenth-century
dramatist” in her essay, “Shakespeare is Alive and Well in Cyberspace: An Annotated
Bibliography” (94). Her list of online resources includes many credible sites stemming
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and
various universities and high schools across the nation. Though her list is not
comprehensive, it does provide teachers with an idea of where to go to get “good” ideas
on how to work with Shakespeare’s plays, such as Othello, in the classroom. In addition,
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Jeremy Ehrlich (Assistant Head of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library and
former English and drama secondary teacher in San Francisco, California), Talia
Goldman (student at the University of Maryland and former research assistant at the
Folger Library), and Heather Bouley (who created There's No Plays Like Home as a
student at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Virginia) worked together to
form a web exercise for students learning Othello. They had students “use online
resources in order to examine patterns of imagery in Othello.” By comparing these
patterns to those of other Shakespeare plays, the students will then draw conclusions
about the different reasons Shakespeare uses imagery in the play” (Folger). This exercise
also uses language themes as it has students working with concordances, as they learn
that a concordance “groups together all the uses of each word in a piece of literature”
(Folger). The students would be given a specific image from the play, such as
“honest/honesty; faith/trust/lie/lies; true/false; life/live/kill/killed/dead/death/die;
dark/black/light/white; see/seeing/seen/blind; or virtue/virtuous/vice” (Folger). Then by
using the concordances, the students are able to evaluate the meanings and images
portrayed by Shakespeare’s language. Furthermore, another example of incorporating the
web and Othello that Tom Fitzgerald, teacher at Ranum High School in Westminster,
Colorado, suggests would be to have students discuss words that represent the overall
themes of the play. Fitzgerald writes,
Students will also look up the meanings of their assigned words using
resources like the Oxford English Dictionary and The Early Modern English
Dictionaries Database Website, edited and maintained by Ian Lancashire at the
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University of Toronto. The EMEDD is a database of several dictionaries from
Shakespeare's time.
A student who successfully completes this assignment will become aware
of the role of diction and voice in character development. Additionally, students
will understand that a word's meaning may change through context and over time,
and these changes and other associative meanings affect our interpretations and
understandings of the text. (Folger)
Not only does this allow students to show their understanding of the various themes
present in Othello, but it provides them with an opportunity to show diversity in their
own understandings as well because they are able to choose what they feel best
exemplifies the play versus only focusing on the racial theme, for example.
Ultimately, teaching Shakespeare in the classroom is just as important today then
as it was in past times. In addition, teachers are now fortunate because they have more
resources available to them to help them successfully incorporate Shakespeare in the
classroom in ways that allow students to absorb the true beauty of Shakespear’s works.
Paul Sullivan, teacher and academic dean of Johnston High School in Austin, Texas,
stresses why teaching Shakespeare is still imperative in today’s English language arts
classroom. He says,
We should teach Shakespeare for the same reasons we should teach the Bible and
Homer: they are cultural inevitabilities, codes that are identified with the power
class yet which are accessible to ordinary people as ports of entry. Their inherent
beauties and joys may or may not be ends in themselves, but they are certainly
great and are certainly available to plain American kids. (McDonald 155)
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In addition, Sullivan further states,
I teach Shakespeare because the plays are a Cultural Monument, and people can
either go inside such monuments and become celebrants and communicants or
stay outside and experience alienation from the shared culture. I realize that this is
a social rather than an aesthetic rationale. I cannot honestly claim that my pleasure
in Shakespeare is a simple joy in the words and actions and ideas. I do enjoy those
things, but I was brought to them by the longing to be inside high culture, inside
the received notion of quality, and I find that Shakespeare is for many kids a
happy way up into that perceived height. (McDonald 149-50)
Supporting Sullivan’s belief in the importance of Shakespeare in the English language
arts classroom, Sheri Maeda, teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and
Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, also points out Shakespeare’s strengths. She
questions,
Why teach Shakespeare in America? Shakespeare represents a significant strand
in the American cultural fabric. His works present us with layer after layer of
interesting, engaging questions, issues, dilemmas, conflicts. His characters are
both individual and archetypal, so as human beings we can identify aspects of
ourselves while appreciating them for themselves. Shakespeare’s use of the
English language shows us that words are more than utilitarian. His works reflect
a place and time quite different from and, then again, not very different from our
own. Shakespeare has influenced or, at least, affected writers and artists around
the world. (McDonald 155-6)
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Both of these teachers support the use of Shakespeare’s plays in the classroom,
even though Sullivan’s high school is predominantly urban and lower-class and Maeda’s
high school is for gifted students with high aptitudes in science, math, and technology.
Using these schools as an example, Sullivan and Maeda show how no matter what level
students are on, what their differences are (be they cultural or academic), ultimately,
everyone can relate to Shakespeare in some way because his plays portray universal
themes relevant to all. With that said, Shakespeare’s plays, such as Othello, are
instrumental in developing all elements of students’ minds, including literary, creative,
and personal experiences. Thus, the question is not why should teachers incorporate
Shakespeare into the classroom, but how can they incorporate it with the most success!
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Works Cited
Crowe, Chris. “English Teachers are From Mars, Students are From Venus (But YA
Books Can Help Interplanetary Understanding).” The English Journal 88.4
(March 1999), 120-2.
Egan, Lorraine Hopping. Teaching Shakespeare: Yes You Can! New York: Scholastic,
Inc., 1998.
Folger Shakespeare Library. 1 April 2008. <http://www.folger.edu/index.cfm>.
Foster, Cass, and Lynn G. Johnson. Shakespeare: To Teach or Not To Teach. 4th ed. Ed.
Mary E. Hawkins. Chandler: Five Star Publications, Inc., 1998.
Hett, Dorothy Marie. “Shakespeare is Alive and Well in Cyberspace: An Annotated
Bibliography.” The English Journal 92.1 (Sept. 2002): 94-7.
Landay, Eileen. “Give Me Moor Proof: Othello in Seventh Grade.” The English Journal
95.1 (Sept. 2005): 39-46.
McDonald, Russ. “Shakespeare Goes to High School: Some Current Practices in the
American Classroom.” Shakespeare Quarterly 46.2 (Summer 1995): 145-56.
Metzger, Mary Janell. “‘The Villainy You Teach Me…’: Shakespeare and AP English
Literature.” The English Journal 92.1 (Sept. 2002): 22-8.
Morrison, Jennifer. “Using Student-Generated Film to Create a Culturally Relevant
Community.” The English Journal 92.1 (Sept. 2002): 47-52.
O’Brien, Peggy. “‘And Gladly Teach’: Books, Articles, and a Bibliography on the
Teaching of Shakespeare.” Shakespeare Quarterly 46.2 (Summer 1995): 165-72.
---. “Doing Shakespeare: ‘Yo! A Hit! A Very Palpable Hit!’” The English Journal 82.4
(April 1993): 40-5.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. 1899. Ed. E.A.J. Honigmann. London: Thomson
Learning, 2006.
Whitfield, Shelly M. “Teaching English in the World.” Ed. Kenneth Lindbloom. The
English Journal 93.4 (March 2004): 85-8.