Links together the golden threads which run through Shakespeare’s work and highlights how teachers can best explore these with students and include them in the wider English curriculum.
Foreword by Professor Emma Smith.
The more you explore the plays of Shakespeare, the more you realise how they are an interrelated network of ideas and themes – linked to his context, his audience and his understanding of the world. This book aims to equip busy teachers with the core knowledge of Shakespeare’s body of work, enabling them to make links between themes, characters, language and allusions.
Each section includes tips on how to bring this to life in the classroom, and features case studies from practising teachers in a range of contexts to illustrate how they can ensure that their students develop an appreciation of his work – moving beyond the requirements of exams and empowering them to engage in the discussion around his influence and enduring appeal.
The link between subject knowledge and pedagogical approaches runs throughout the book, focusing on the Shakespeare plays most popularly taught in the classroom and how we can enrich students’ understanding of these by looking both at the links across the domain and the bigger picture his work presents.
Suitable for teachers of English in all phases.
Zoe Enser was a classroom teacher for 20 years, during which time she was also a head of English and a senior leader with a responsibility for staff development and school improvement. She is now the lead specialist English adviser for Kent working with The Education People and is an evidence lead in education (ELE). Zoe has also been working on developing materials for the National Professional Qualifications and on their delivery. Zoe also writes for TES and is the co-author of Generative Learning in Action and The CPD Curriculum (with Mark Enser).
* Builds a detailed schema of Shakespeare’s work, his world, his ideas and his influences – giving teachers a better idea of how to approach teaching his texts and develop cultural literacy along the way.
* Enables teachers to access the information they need in order to enrich their teaching beyond a single play and begin to unpick the threads of Shakespeare’s work as a whole.
* Offers signposts to further reading and provides an appendix which will support teachers to rapidly find references to the plays they are teaching, and the ideas related to them.
* Underpinned by the author’s academic enquiries on the subject, at both undergraduate and master’s level.
* Suitable for teachers of English in all phases.
