Last week I decided to step out of my little post-COVID bubble and present at a TeachMeet again. It’s been years, literally, since I’ve attended one, but it ended up being really nice. Big thank you to Pru Thomas for organising the event – it was super special.
Below is a copy of the script I wrote for my 10 minute talk. I didn’t read the script, but I did look at it a couple of times when I got nervous. Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
My name is Bianca Hewes, and I’ve been a Shakespeare addict since I was 15. My gateway drug was the obvious – Macbeth. I can’t remember if I studied it for my HSC or earlier – but I do remember the assessment task my English teacher set us. We had to recite a soliloquy. Being the emo child that I was, I chose the bleakest of the play:
Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale, told by an idiot,
Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Those words might seem too big and too serious for a teenager, but they stuck their little barbs in me. Back then, I just liked the mood, the anguish. Back then, I didn’t know grief, but I do now. So it hits a little differently at 43 than what it did at 15. I think that’s a perfect example of how our appreciation for Shakespeare can shift dependent on who and where we are. Shakespeare doesn’t sit still. That’s an idea I’d like to return to later.
Like most of you, I have taught many of Shakespeare’s plays over my teaching career – Lear, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Richard, Henry 1st, Midsummer… I even have a sonnet that I whip out to hook my kids in – My Mistress Eyes. Shakespeare’s words are a staple in the English teacher diet, and that’s why it wasn’t a surprise when my year 12 students gifted me a gorgeous copy of his Collected Works in 2020. On receiving the gift, I admitted that I hadn’t read all of his plays and very few of his sonnets, so I dedicated myself to correcting that oversight. In typical me fashion, I decided that just reading the plays wasn’t enough – I should also blog a pithy, and probably irreverent, review of each play. As it turns out, that decision resulted in this – my name on the cover of a book about Shakespeare!
Having just published my book On Teaching for new graduates, I didn’t have any immediate writing plans ahead of me, but my publisher had other ideas. My co-author, Duncan, had written his half of this book and was on the look out for someone to finish it. When my publisher asked me if I was interested, my reaction probably won’t surprise you – I was terrified. Me, write a book about Shakespeare? Certainly not! That’s absurd. I was intimidated by the very idea. I didn’t feel up to the task at all. With no false modesty, I simply did not feel clever enough to do it. I told my publisher how I felt, and he asked me to read Duncan’s draft chapters before I made my final decision. I’m so glad he did that, because Duncan’s vision for the book was perfection – a book on Shakespeare written specifically for teachers – Australian teachers. A book that speaks directly to the intelligent, passionate, educated professionals that we are. I could tell it was a book I wanted to read – the book that I had always wanted to support, guide, and inspire my teaching of Shakespeare. Too often we have to choose between books on Shakespeare written for students, and those written by academics for academics. So, I put my hand up and stepped out of my comfort zone. And, well, here it is – Teaching Shakespeare in Australian Schools.
So, I guess you want to know what’s inside? This is, after all, meant to be a talk on teaching Shakespeare, not on writing about Shakespeare! Since this is meant to be a snappy presentation, I’m going to distil our 353-page book into 9 tips for teaching Shakespeare. Here we go!
1. Get active.
a. Each play chapter in our book has accompanying lesson plan ideas. They’re not complete – just kernels of possibilities. Almost all include an activity where students are up and active – out of their seats, engaging with the text using their bodies and voices. That sounds sort of chaotic, but if we remember that these plays were written for the stage and a rather rambunctious theatre, than we can lean into that creative chaos a little bit. Students can act out scenes – with the words or without, they can direct or block out a scene, consider stagecraft that supports the words and action.
2. Speak his words.
a. More often than not, the reason teachers feel anxious about teaching Shakespeare is the language. But, as my 15 year old self can attest to, it can also be what makes him memorable. Don’t shy away from challenging your students to speak aloud Shakespeare’s actual words. Even if it is just a line or two. I love to challenge students to memorise a sonnet – and it’s surprising how many students manage it!
b. Even Winston Smith, curtailed as he was in Oceania, woke up in the morning with the word Shakespeare on his lips.
3. Be selective.
a. It’s unlikely that you will have the time or the inclination to read through an entire Shakespeare play. In fact, we don’t include a single lesson plan that encourages that approach. Students’ learning time is precious thanks to our very packed English syllabus, so it is often more effective to choose key scenes, soliloquys or passages of dialogue to explore with students, rather than the whole text. You can fill in the narrative gaps with paratexts such as films, modern translations, or your own retelling.
b. Giving students a chance to compare the soliloquies or dialogue of two or more characters can be quite revealing and allow a deeper exploration of Shakespeare’s prowess as a playwright.
4. Connect.
a. These plays present problems. Ongoing problems. Problems to do with racism, classism, misogyny, homophobia… not to mention domestic violence, suicide, and murder.
b. But there is the beauty of life too – love, friendship, humour, nature, the night sky.
5. Question.
a. Encourage active inquiry and curiosity in your students. The plays spring to life when we interrogate them and the humanity they expose. Why did girls of 13 get married? Do they still? Is the love of a teenager as valued as the love of a couple married for 30 years? Does a parent have absolute authority over their children, even to the point of death? The questions, much like the possible answers, are endless.
6. Play.
a. If we spend a little time with a Shakespeare play – and one of them – we can find moments of levity and playfulness. Richard III is, for most people an open and shut case of megalomaniac evil. But who could deny how funny he is?
7. Find Shakespeare in his works.
a. Just like his works, Shakespeare himself is an enigma. Starting a unit of work with his biography immediately introduces a problem – who was Shakespeare? In short, we don’t know, but there is a good chance that we can find some answers in his work. He was a man interested in everything human – relationships, politics, meaning, death, reality, language, desire, love.
8. Embrace the ambiguity.
a. Each of Shakespeare’s plays is layered with contradiction, and counterpoint, infused with irony and an intermingling of contradictory images and ideas. This can confuse and frustrate students but remind them that it’s actually quite dazzling too.
b. I like to think that the ambiguity is entirely intentional – revealing Shakespeare’s inherent epistemic humility. He allows his works to be reimagined by others – even those in a far future time he will never know himself.
9. Enjoy the challenge.
a. One thing we stress in our book is that there is not right way to teach Shakespeare. The only really wrong way, I think, is to force students to swallow his words like some type of cultural medicine. It is tempting to do so, given his works are the only ones prescribed – like medicine – for students in the junior school. But, the genius of Shakespeare lies in his capacity to consider and capture a multitude of perspectives. It’s a good model to emulate.
As we worked on this book, Duncan and I bonded over a couple of shared loves – Shakespeare and The Beatles. Whilst we are so fortunate to be gifted a new Beatles song recently, it’s unlikely that we will get a new Shakespeare text. So, let’s breathe some new life and love into the works that we do have – hopefully our book helps you find a reason to feel energised about teaching the Bard.
BIG thanks to my best friend, Bimma, my amazing colleague Ben, and my hubby, Lee, for coming to support me. We even took silly photos together because the State Library is just too fun! Let me know if you buy our book – I really do wanna know that it’s useful for teachers. 🖤
Bianca Hewes 