We're doing Shakespeare right now

[ProfessorPlum]

With my 10 and 7 year olds. They are really into the stories. It makes me think that public schools are all wrong to wait until the language is more "accessible" . . . it is the stories that really grab them.

We've done Macbeth, Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, King Lear, so far, and we are going to continue with Merchant of Venice, Othello, Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and probably Henry V before we are done.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. Are you using unabridged/unedited text?

Does the 7 year old have any difficulty understanding it?

[ProfessorPlum]

2. No.

Bruce Coville has some good children's versions of the stories, and we are also using the Lamb's tales shortened versions, which preserve much of the flavor of the language while telling the stories very clearly. There are a few other children's versions which we are supplementing with.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. Thanks for the info!

My 6 year old reads very well. This would be wonderful supplementary material...especially since we could attend live performances of the plays!

[mzmolly]

4. Wonderful.

:hi:

[qanda]

5. Sounds wonderful

I may have to try that with my children. Which one would you recommend we read first?

[ProfessorPlum]

6. They actually took to the big tragedies pretty well

Macbeth and Hamlet were well received, as was Romeo and Juliet.

Here was our method: read one or several summaries of the stories. I found a lot of good resources for this. Several children's books for the plots of Shakespeare plays, including the Lamb's tales, Coville's books, and even some really good summaries in "Shakespeare for Dummies" (bad title, but excellent book).

Then I gave them a short quiz/worksheet to fill out to answer questions about the plays, characters, and plots, so that when they were watching they would at least know what was going on.

Then, I'd get a recorded performance from the library. (Nothing beats actually watching Shakespeare performed).

Hits so far: All of Zefferelli's movies: Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, R&J. They also liked Orson Welle's Macbeth. Also James Earl Jones' King Lear.

Midsummer Night's Dream with Benny Hill as Bottom was also well received.

Olivier's Othello was a bit too talky for them, with not much action.

We had a BBC Julius Caesar that was pretty good.

I was only able to find short animated versions of the Tempest and Twelfth night.

We have yet to get through Merchant of Venice, and my son has requested Henry V. I think we will stop there for now.