high school

Shakespeare for Special Needs

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I have worked and talked with many teachers that have used my books to help kids with special needs.  As well, I have done many plays with kids with special needs, and the change and awareness that is created during the process is amazing!  Knowing this, I wanted to share an idea that I just received from a teacher.  Here is what she wrote:

I used your Midsummer Night’s Dream for Kids as reading material. I couldn’t get my high school special ed students to reread anything. Their thinking was I have already read that once and do not need to repeat. But by introducing this as a play that needed to be word perfect and beginning on page one each day, they were willing to participate. They were rehearsing for a show not simply earning a grade for the reading class. Your materials made all the difference. Most important, reading skills improved.

A clever use of my books, or plays in general, to get special needs kids more engaged in reading! Just a lesson idea from a teacher in the world. I hope this helps, as well as I’m always here to help if you need it, just reach out to me!

Keep having fun out there!

Shakespeare for Special Needs was originally published on Shakespeare for Kids Books

Classroom Insult-a-thon

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Classroom Insult-a-thon (Don’t forget, April 23rd is National Insult Like Shakespeare Day!) It’s simple and fun and works like this: Everyone writes up 3-4 different insults using the Shakespeare Insult Generator They spend about 5-10 minutes practicing their insults, working on generating the appropriate delivery with angst! Split the class into 2 groups that line…

Classroom Insult-a-thon was originally published on Shakespeare for Kids Books

Shakespeare’s Top 10 Dirty Jokes

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I work hard to make sure kids find him funny with my Shakespeare for Kids books.  But what’s equally clear to me, teens generally consider Shakespeare boring or “Why is my teacher wasting my life reading this #$%@”  As I have seen on Twitter many times.  But hey, if it’s not presented right, it comes…

Shakespeare’s Top 10 Dirty Jokes was originally published on Shakespeare for Kids Books

Shakespeare Word Challenge

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Thanks to mentalfloss.com, for helping us see another list of 20 words we wouldn’t be able to iterate today without the help of The Bard. Words such as assassination, bedazzled, cold–blooded, fashionable, scuffle, swagger, and more… It’s amazing what this guy brought to the table. So, because of this, I thought of the Shakespeare Word…

Shakespeare Word Challenge was originally published on Shakespeare for Kids Books

#ShakesTag the Online Game of Shakespeare

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Well today is the day of the week that most people practice religion of one type or another. For some people it’s the church, others football, and to others, reading is religion. Stepping into a slightly tighter niche than that, Shakespeare. And some of these people who love the Bard, get together on Sunday for a friendly game of #ShakesTag.#ShakesTag

What is #ShakesTag, you may ask? Well, it’s a game created by two ladies: Dr. Wells and Lara Schiffbauer. But every week they play to some type of theme, post together a short Shakespeare tweet, related to said theme, then tag it with #ShakesTag. And off goes the game!

It’s surprising, how many people are playing, and it’s fun to get tagged by someone, because it means you’re “in the gang”.

But teachers, this is where I think you can engage your kids in learning some of Shakespeare’s famous lines with your class. Or, more importantly, that is language means more than just words written on a piece of paper. During one of your classroom sessions, start a #ShakesTag game with your kids on Twitter. See how many references to “love” or insults, or humor, or some other term that would surprise and engage your kids.

Let me know how it goes. And if you have any stories of teaching kids with Shakespeare, I would love to hear and share them. Let me know!

-brendan

#shakestag rules

#ShakesTag the Online Game of Shakespeare was originally published on Shakespeare for Kids Books