Cary H's Profile

But suppose three or four weeks could be devoted to one play?  Then the odds would be that no student could get by without reading.  And if students don’t give a rip about Shakespeare, change the assignment: put Macbeth and Lady Macbeth on trial for first-degree murder, with kids playing the roles of Macbeth, his wife, Duncan, Banquo, et cetera.  Now they’ll have to prepare to give testimony, while the students who are the defense and prosecutors will have to prep for cross-examination. That is, they’ll have to read what Shakespeare wrote, think about the meaning, perhaps watch Olivier or Orson Welles in film versions, and more.

There’s a marvelous role for technology in this.  Assign students to videotape the proceedings and prepare nightly news reports ‘from the courtroom,’ to be posted on the web and aired on the school’s broadcast or narrowcast system.  To be able to interview intelligently, these students also would have to dig deep into the play itself.  So long, SparkNotes!