RSC II
Information
Subject Areas
Drama,
Exploring The Works Of Shakespeare Using The Royal Shakespeare Company Resources Designed For Pupils In KS 3 And KS 4
The Royal Shakespeare Company provide a selection of resources, which include teacher packs.
These teacher packs include activities and techniques that were used during rehearsal of certain productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The packs can also be used in a more general way to explore Shakespeare’s texts.
The resource packs cover a good range of Shakespeare’s plays, from the less popular and well-known to those such as ‘Hamlet’ and ‘King Lear’. Image galleries are available for use with pupils, which can be useful for discussing interpretations of character and setting.
This website also provides downloadable materials on Shakespeare’s life, which could be adapted for use by pupils. This will help them understand the man behind the plays. A downloadable story of the stage in Shakespeare’s time is also available.
The resources can be used to encourage children to see his work within a social and historical context. Language has change considerably since Shakespeare’s time and teachers can find materials that can be downloaded and adapted to help engage pupils with this aspect of his work.
Star Rating - 5 out of 5
Reviewed by: Anna
From: St John Fisher
Tuesday 22nd May 2012
“Exploring Shakespeare” focus on Much Ado about Nothing.
This website features interactive resources such as a live extract of the play, and includes an audio of questions and answers from the director. The teachers pack provides a comprehensive guide of ways to approach the text dramatically, using simple but effective exercises. It invites the students into the task by using anecdotes about the rehearsal process, to lead into a suggested activity. The content can be useful from key stages 3-5. It also makes some direct references to the set scenes used for Year 9 SATS.
Certainly when approaching Shakespeare this would be a useful resource, or even when looking into how to review a live performance this could be used as a starting point. The teachers pack alone could be written in to a scheme of work for a half term, if not more and the games are an interesting way of approaching the concept of interpretation. It’s a quick and easy way to bring ICT into the English/drama classroom. However the interactive activities are short lived and although they do create plenty of scope for extension tasks, some of the content is quite wordy and I have a suspicion that pupils would navigate all too quickly through the site without actually reading all the information and be sat twiddling their thumbs ready for the next activity. This leads me to believe that the site is therefore more a tool for teachers than a student resource.
The teachers pack teamed with the live extract is useful for highlighting significant points to your pupils. The teachers pack gives ways in which to approach the text dramatically, introducing techniques that are broken down so that any teacher can understand, not just a drama specialist. Overall the website is accessible and a useful resource for the classroom.
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