What does it mean to teach Shakespeare with purpose? It means freeing teachers from the notion that teaching Shakespeare means teaching everything or teaching " Western Civilisation" & universal themes Instead this invigorating new book equips teachers to enable student-centred discovery of these complex texts Because Shakespeare's plays are excellent vehicles for many topics -history socio-cultural norms & mores vocabulary rhetoric literary tropes & terminology performance history performance strategies
- it is tempting to teach his plays as though they are good for teaching everything This lens-free approach however often centres the classroom on the teacher as the expert & renders Shakespeare's plays as fixed determined & dead Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose shows teachers how to approach Shakespeare's works as vehicles for collaborative exploration to develop intentional frames for discovery & to release the texts from over-determined interpretations In other words this book presents how to teach Shakespeare's plays as living breathing & evolving texts