This document provides an agenda for a workshop on using Shakespeare in the Swedish classroom. It discusses how Shakespeare fits into the Swedish curriculum and provides examples of lesson plans that use multiple literacies to engage students with Shakespeare's works, such as studying a film adaptation, performing a readers' theatre, flash mob performances of scenes, close analysis of character emotions in a scene, assigning music to interpret themes, and creating an online "zine" multimedia project. Additional resources for learning Shakespeare are also listed.

1. Shakespeare Inspiration for the
Swedish Classroom
Christina McKay
Skara, March 2012 ”If you can’t make a room full of young people
care about Shakespeare, then you probably
shouldn’t be around young people or
Shakespeare.” Stephen Marche
Christina.mckay@vrg.se
Tel. 08 622 2195

2. Workshop Agenda
• Welcome!
• Shakespeare in the Swedish curriculum
• Some Canadian contexts
• Making a connection with Shakespeare
• Working with multiple literacies
▫ Lesson 1: Film study: the Globe Audience
▫ Lesson 2: Reader’s Theatre
▫ Lesson 3: Guerilla theatre
▫ Lesson:4 Close scene study
▫ Lesson 5: Shakespeare’s Playlist
▫ Lesson 6: Shakespeare ZINE project
▫ More resources: BBC’s Off by Heart, How
Shakespeare Changed Everything

5. If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting
Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting
Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in
sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has
vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an
inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have
been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted
your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one
wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed
yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good
thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it
may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck
would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and
baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you
believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and
blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your
teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the
devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head)
you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if
you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the
devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by
Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is
all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare. (Bernard Levin in The Story of English, 145)

6. Discuss with your neighbour:
1. Is Shakespeare a necessary part of the Swedish
curriculum? Why or why not?
2. Which Shakespeare texts have you used in your
classrooms? Which were most successful?
Which were less successful? Why?
3. What are some of the greatest barriers you face
in teaching Shakespeare in your classroom?

7. Shakespeare in the Swedish curriculum?
Course Contents:
• Teman, motiv, form och innehåll i film och
skönlitteratur; författarskap och litterära
epoker.
• Samtida och äldre
skönlitteratur, dikter, dramatik och
sånger.
• tankar, åsikter, idéer, erfarenheter och
känslor; etiska och existentiella frågor.
• Olika sätt att kommentera och föra
anteckningar när man lyssnar till och läser
framställningar från olika källor.
• Bearbetning av språk och struktur i egna
och andras muntliga och skriftliga
framställningar, även i formella
sammanhang. Anpassning till
genre, situation och syfte.
(www.skolverket.seengelska6)

8. In the Canadian Curriculum
• Speaking and Listening:
explore, extend, clarify, reflect, communicate, respo
nd, interact and consider.
• Reading and Viewing: select, read, view with
understanding, interpret, combine
information, respond, apply understanding of
language, form and genre.
• Writing and Representing:
explore, clarify, reflect, structure, create, structure, d
evelop strategies, enhance clarity, precision and
effectiveness.

9. Shakespeare in the Canadian ELA curriculum
• Students will be expected to
select, read and view with
understading a range of
literature, information, media
and visual texts:
• Demonstrate familiarity with
works of diverse literary
traditions, including
Shakespeare
• Emphasis on exposure to and
use of a wide variety of
forms, including Shakespearean
drama.
• Integrative concepts include:
▫ The individual in a global community
▫ Global voices, concerns and
perspectives
▫ The human predicament
▫ Emphasizing becoming
positive, mature members of the

10. Shakespeare in Swedish classrooms
• Many teachers face
▫ limited time
▫ limited space
▫ students’ limited language
skills
▫ students’ limited experience
of the theatre.
▫ A wide range of student
abilities and interests

11. Teachers who love Shakespeare might ask...
• Is it “cheating” if we
“only” watch the film
together?
• How much text should
I expect students to be
able to read?
• How much
performance can I fit
into our time/space?
• How will my students
react to performing?

12. Multiple Literaciess?

13. Multiple
Literacies
« We read the world through
images, symbols, colours, signs, body language, and in
the gaps and margins as well as through printed text. »
- Dr. Janette Hughes
• A “text” can be a work of art, a film, a website, a poem, a
text message, a blog entry, a graphic novel or any other
form of communication.
• Books no longer hold privileged positions.

14. Lesson Idea #:1 View a film through the eyes of
the Globe Audience
• Pre-teach about Elizabethan London
and the typical Globe audience.
Opening sequence of Shakespeare in
Love gives great visuals for this!
• Divide the class into 3 sections:
nobles and royals, merchants and
tradespeople, and groundlings
• Watch the film and provide several
opportunities for students to blog
from the point of view of their section
of the Globe audience. What did they
notice? What did they enjoy? What
did they react to?
• At the end of the film, sort students
into mixed groups of three so they can
compare their reactions from the three
different perspectives.

15. Lesson Idea #2: Readers Theatre
•Joint dramatic reading of a text
(whole class)
•Offers a bridge between full text
reading and performance.
•Very accessible, adaptable to
levels.
•Minimum of props and
movement
•No memorization
•Emphasis on oral expression
•Often a simplified, summarized
version of an original text

16. Let’s get our feet wet!
• Two texts: ”The Globe” and
”All the World’s a Stage”
• Form groups of six members.
• You have 15 minutes to
rehearse!
• Two groups will be chosen to
perform for the whole group!

17. Lesson Idea #4: Guerilla Theatre
• Students prepare a
• Flash Mob Grand Central ”surprise” performance of
a scene in a public
place, in the style of a
”flash mob”.
• The final performance
will incorporate
documentary-style video
footage, allowing
students to review their
work and see how
Flash Mob Grand Central
audiences feel about
Shakespeare.
Flash Mob Antwerp

18. atre
rilla
Gue
disc
The
ussi
on
• How is guerilla theatre different from conventional theater?
• What is theatre anyway?
• Is a performance different from daily behavior?
• Where does theatre begin and end?

19. Lesson Idea #3 Close Scene Study
• Romeo and Juliet (II, v, 1-75)
• In pairs: read through the
scene as Juliet and the Nurse.
• Check for basic understanding
of the scene and vocabulary. (8
min).
• Class Brainstorm: What
possible emotions could these
two characters be feeling in
this scene?
• (desperation, anger, contempl
ation, frustration, irritation, an
xiety)

20. Close Scene study cont.
• Try a reading of lines 1-11 with
one of the emotions in mind.
• Try again. In order for the
audience to be as engaged as
possible, we need to avoid
monotony. You’ll need to divide
up the emotions a bit more.
Here are some possibilities.
▫ 1-3 anxious
▫ 4-9 angry, furious, irritable
▫ 9-11 contemplative
• Micro-focus on the next 5
lines, working emotional shifts.
• Think of ways to make it more
interesting physically, once you
have established emotional
states.

21. Lesson Idea #5: Lose the Lute! Music as a tool for
Interpretation and Analysis
• Music plays a crucial role in the The man that hath no music in himself,
plays.
• Pre-teach ways to determine mood Nor is not moved with concord of sweet
and tone. sounds,
• Try assigning a Spotify playlist for Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
the play/passage you are studying. The motions of his spirit are dull as night
• Students explain their selections
based on their understanding of the And his affections dark as Erebus:
play. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the
• Students can also use a quote as a music.
prompt to write their own poetry or (The Merchant of Venice, 5.1.91-7)
music, as Ted Dykstra did for
Melanie Doane here in their song
“Never Doubt I Love” from Hamlet
(II, ii)
• Note also Canada’s Loreena
McKennit, who has written
“Cymbeline” and “Prospero’s
Speech” (available on iTunes and
YouTube). She has also scored
poems by Yeats, Tennyson and

22. Lesson Idea 6#: Shakespeare ”Zine”
• A ”zine” is a self-published
collection of texts
• Online, multimedia
platforms such as
Wordpress and Weebly .
• Texts can include:
▫ Short essays
▫ Pictures
▫ Images and analysis
▫ Short films
▫ Podcasts
▫ Recipes
▫ Created FB pages
▫ Film/play reviews
▫ Poetry
▫ songs

23. Zine texts for Romeo and Juliet:
• News article: Editorial Cartoon:
”Mercutio, Tybalt die in bloody
street fight”
• Feature article: ”Grieving
families seek answers”
• Editorial: ”Romeo, stop
snivelling!”
• Column: ”Blood feud in the
palazzo”
• Advice column: ”Star-
crossed, lonely in Mantua”
• Obituary: ”Lovers surrender to
suicide”
• Advertising: swordproof
vests, apothecary’s
potions, ladders, costumes for

24. • http://www.slideshare.net/npro6979/romeo-
facebook-pages
• FB page generator
www.thewallmachine.com

25. Individualized learning and assessment
• The ”tap on the shoulder”
• Texts can vary in length
• You can cater your assessment
needs to the zine
• Assessment:
▫ Number and type of
submissions
▫ Knowledge of text
▫ Knowledge of context
▫ Use of visual texts
▫ Research and computer skills
▫ Language:
accuracy, register, fluency
▫ Originality and creativity

26. More
resources!
• BBC’s Shakespeare
Off by Heart
• AMAZING pdfs
here including
▫ tips for learning
Shakespeare off by
heart
▫ Exploring
language and
meaning
▫ Running a school Actor Ashley Walters does Romeo
contest

27. More resources!
• CBC ”Q” interview with author
Stephen Marche
• Book extract here
• WS was ”most influential person
that ever lived”
• Invented the idea of adolescence
• Invented the idea of a ”healthy”
sex life
• Paved the way for Freud
• Made it possible for Obama to be
elected