Comments on: Lend me your ears!

By: Caitlin Griffin

Caitlin Griffin — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:21:37 +0000

Thanks for the link, John.

However, reading your comment, I’m a little disturbed by the phrase “English that children can understand,” since we’ve repeatedly made reference on this blog to students who embrace the original language of Shakespeare’s plays. We have no problem with annotation, or with plays being edited for time (our successful 30+ year old student festivals feature performances 15-25 minutes in length).

Our mission, if you read our website, http://www.folger.edu/education, is to get students on their feet with Shakespeare’s words, experiencing the text as plays – as they were originally written to be – and using the original text that Shakespeare wrote. This blog post was in reference to audio materials, and laments the use of modern language in lieu of the original text.

Again, thank you for the link, but I would encourage you and your team to work with Shakespeare’s original text with students – you might be surprised at how much they pick up without needing your translations!

By: John Hort

John Hort — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:12:20 +0000

This discussion has been all about reading or listening to plays (or versions of plays) by Shakespeare. Our idea is to give children versions of Shakespeare’s plays that they can act in, that they can perform. So our scripts are shortened but with all the characters and scenes, and they are in English that children can understand, so that they can learn their parts and be in a production. And it works! A recent production of our modern English version of Twelfth Night by 7 – 11 year olds was “A Rip-Roaring Success” . The actors and the audience all loved it. You can see what children said about being in another play in our series, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, on our website http://www.startingshakespeare.co.uk

Our aim is provide an introduction to Shakespeare that is lively and action-based. The whole play is there, and – as one of our reviewers said – the poetry awaits the youngsters more mature appreciation.

By: KinderBard « Folger SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

KinderBard « Folger SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 19:47:41 +0000

[...] mused over early-education resources before, like audiobooks (unfortunately in modern-English), animation projects by students, a Midsummer movie just for [...]

By: New Year, Same Class, New Ideas? « Folger SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

New Year, Same Class, New Ideas? « Folger SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:30:15 +0000

[...] trumpeted audio-plays before, as assistants to students reading new Shakespearean texts for the first time, but they’re [...]

By: creemarie

creemarie — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:05:19 +0000

Just tuned into another source. http://www.tumblebooks.com offers students a chance to read along with audiobooks online. They have 10 Shakespeare titles available under the Classics section. If you are affiliated with a library or school you can subscribe for a year to their collection of books that allow readers to hear the text while reading along with the highlighted lines on the screen. This may be a great option if you have access to computers in the classroom. The texts are not abridged however, but you can certainly select chapters or scenes to send students to directly.

By: redpanda

redpanda — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:59:31 +0000

Ah, that was going to be my suggestion. I adore The Sourcebook Shakespeare. They make a great introduction to a play without sacrificing the original text.

By: Lucretia M. Anderson

Lucretia M. Anderson — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:06:27 +0000

We’ve found another! The Sourcebooks Shakespeare has a series of abridged plays accompanied by audio cd. There are several titles available at Amazon, including Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and more. There is an intro and narration by Sir Derek Jacobi and features recordings from various productions including CBC Radio and Living Shakespeare of the 60′s as well as the The Arkangel Shakespeare Recordings from 2003. The book also has great photos from classic and contemporary productions. The great thing is teachers can easily select various scenes that they’d like to play for their students to hear and read along in whatever the alotted time.