We offer you ways to teach Shakespeare that will get your pupils on their feet, working playfully together to explore and find personal connections to the text. Young people tell us that when they work in this way they enjoy their learning, form their own opinions and achieve.
Each course sets out to deepen knowledge and build skills in active approaches to teaching Shakespeare - approaches which are inspired and refreshed by the theatre practice at the heart of the RSC.
The courses are led by our expert practitioners and supported by detailed resources. So if this is your first step in teaching Shakespeare or if you are aiming to extend your practice, we hope you will find something here to interest and excite you.
We look forward to working with you!
The following courses are available:
Introducing Shakespeare at KS2
Inspiring writing through Shakespeare at KS2
Inspiring children's writing through Matilda at KS2
Shakespeare in Special Education
Engaging young people with autism through Shakespeare
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Introducing Shakespeare at KS2
Friday 12 November 2010 and Friday 17 June 2011
Waterside Space, Stratford-upon-Avon
Core texts: The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet
This course will give you inclusive ways into Shakespeare's stories to get your class on their feet, confidently exploring the language and characters and developing skills in working together. A key focus is on growing children's ability to empathise with characters, to see different points of view, to imagine the course of a story and connect it to their own lives.
'I learned not to be afraid, but confident in bringing Shakespeare alive, how easy it was to have everyone participating, how to access individual talent and at the same time collaborate.'
Teacher participant in 2009
Cost: £130 non-members (£115 RSC Education Members)
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Inspiring writing through Shakespeare at KS2
Friday 29 October 2010
Waterside Space, Stratford-upon-Avon
Core text: Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream
This course models how to motivate and inspire children to write through an active engagement with Shakespeare's language, his characters and the powerful dilemmas and extreme situations in which he places them. It will show you how to build tension and sequence drama in such a way that it creates a compelling need for children to write in a range of styles both formal and informal.
'All the modelling and references to classroom management were useful. I learned how to decode Shakespeare. All the drama activities which lead seamlessly to writing, are very useful.'
Teacher participant in 2009
Cost: £130 non-members (£115 RSC Education Members)
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Inspiring children's writing through Matilda at KS2
Friday 19 November 2010
Waterside Space, Stratford-upon-Avon
Core text: Roald Dahl's Matilda
Inspired by the new RSC production of Matilda, A Musical, this course is designed to introduce you to drama skills and exercises that can enrich and extend children's writing. Working with practitioners from our Literary department, you will explore techniques that dramatists use to create their work and gain a unique insight into the process of adapting Matilda from book to stage.
Cost: £130 non-members (£115 RSC Education Members)
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Shakespeare in Special Education
Friday 4 February 2011
Waterside Space, Stratford-upon-Avon
Core texts: Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet
This course is designed for teachers working with pupils who have a special educational need and will introduce a range of active, drama-based approaches to engaging children in Shakespeare that can be used in the classroom.
The techniques will focus on experiential learning, sound, rhythm and multi-sensory approaches and ways to engage children in exploring the language. The course is structured to create a reflective dialogue about the barriers and responses to engaging your pupils in Shakespeare and ways to tailor active approaches to the needs of different children.
'I learned that the language can be accessed and responded to in many different ways by all learners, and that in many ways a mixed-ability group can appreciate everyone's response.'
Teacher participant in 2009
Cost: £130 non-members (£115 RSC Education Members)
How to book »
Engaging young people with autism through Shakespeare
Autumn 2010 - dates to be confirmed, please register your interest and we will be in touch to confirm
Roundhouse, London
Core texts: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth
This course will engage you in drama and rehearsal room approaches that will connect young people with autism to Shakespeare's language, stories and characters. It will teach you drama approaches that can enhance the children's communication skills and in particular, focus on the rhythm and nature of language in two different texts.
This course will be led by Kelly Hunter, a member of the core RSC acting ensemble and co-founder of Touchstone, a theatre company which specialises in work with autistic young people. Kelly has recently been working for the RSC in an extended residency in Special Schools in London and this course draws on her learning from that work and her expertise in working with children and teachers.
Cost: £130 non-members (£115 RSC Education Members)
How to book »