Teaching Shakespeare to Teenagers

[Seatan]

Okay, this is my first time teaching Shakespeare to teens and we are about to start MacBeth. How the hell do I keep them interested in a play they don't even understand?! Any suggestions? Hell, *I* barely understand Shakespeare unless I see it acted out, and I minored in English and took three courses in it!

[Mermaid Cecelia]

I'm in high school, and whenever we do Shakespeare we act it out, props and all. It keeps everyone very interested, because before we act we translate it into what it would mean today and use our slang and vernacular

[selkie13]

Love Macbeth! I went to see it in Edinburgh when I was twelve!
Whenever we do american plays in school we try and make it fun by doing the accents. You could do something similar and maybe have a competition for the best accent while reading the lines.

Obviously I can't fake a Scottish accent because that's what I have so that's why we do the american accent instead.

[SeaGlass Siren]

Well for one it's cursed lol

Two they say there's a real witch spell in there

Three ... Back in high school my teacher would make us redesign the cover of the book and we'd get graded for how accurate it was and if it reflected the books themes do that made us pay attention

[SeaGlass Siren]

Or have them reenact the play and replace his name with "the Scottish king" and for everyone people has thr courage to say Macbeth you would raise their grade by one percent

[teeth4u]

I once had an English teacher who taught Shakespeare really well! Reading aloud in class was definitely important because half the kids won't read at home or won't understand any of it. My teacher would always clarify scenes that were confusing and tell us what was going on if the language was unclear. There were two things that helped me the most though. 1. Asking the students to translate important lines into their own words really helped me. A lot of times, Shakespeare embellishes his plays with tons of metaphors and symbolism. Pointing this out or getting the students to notice them is a great tool for understanding Shakespeare in general. 2. Believe it or not, movies really helped me understand the plot the best. I'm not sure about Macbeth, but with Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet there are modern movies made using the Shakespearean language that are really cool! I know they can take up a lot of time in class but even watching certain scenes can help picture what is going on and give students a more visual perspective.

Hope this helps!

[SeaGlass Siren]

i think there was a macbeth movie but they cut the hecate scene out.