1.1 Hats -- In which I start over

    We aren't allowed to teach whatever we want, like many people think. We have state standards and district standards and colleagues who we are supposed to collaborate with. Although many of these guidelines are wide and encompassing, others are oddly specific and dictate that we teach works by a particular author. The Ohio Reading standards are in love with Shakespeare. He needs to be taught at least twice in a four-year span: once in either 9th or 10th and once in either 11th or 12th. But since 11th is American Literature, he doesn't really fit in. 

    Anyway, with being given 9th grade for the last eleven years, I've had to learn how to make Shakespeare less... archaic. My 9th graders are not the honors-in-English type. They're more the "Connor if you sit down for the first 20 minutes of class, I will allow you to take a lap and then come back for the other 20" ("take a lap", in this case, just means to walk around the English wing once and come back). I am okay with this. This is how I work now; I chunk things and use visuals and music and movement, and kids walk away from my class having learned a little bit about English. 

    So, Shakespeare. The typical 9th grade play is Romeo and Juliet, and the only way I can get through teaching this is by making fun of the characters, so that's what we do. After studying the first act and the characters and watching the play performed, we finished up today with a modified script which does a fabulous job of getting the main points across. 

    Shakespeare is best read out loud, of course, and while my students don't love reading out loud, they typically enjoy a little acting. So I randomly handed out parts, gave students their props, and we walked around and did an absolutely horrible job of reading and acting and an over-the-top depiction of any death that happened to pop up in this play (which is quite a lot, actually). And we did it all wearing hats. 

    We made hats the first day -- crowns out of paper and square odd-shaped ones, and big fancy ones, and leftover hats that somebody's grandma donated. Every time we read the play, we stuck those hats on our heads (when reading a particular role) and somehow became the character. 

    Was it academic? Nah. Was it even marginally good acting? Oh, hell no. BUT, were the 9th graders engaged and laughing and listening? Eh, not all the time, but more than without the hats. And we clapped loudly between acts, which is always a fun way to end things. 

    Next quarter, we're all reading murder mysteries. I have two of them in to my department head and principal to be approved (yes, that's how things go these days) and I'm really excited to teach them!

    

Note: This is Vaishnavi, one of my seniors, who I've had for different reasons every year since she was in 7th grade. She was not in a Romeo and Juliet class, but she was kind enough to pose with a rhino on her head as a hat. We are sticking to that story. It is a hat.