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Article: Standing up for Shakespeare: the Royal Shakespeare Company's Playback project.(Primary and Secondary)(William Shakespeare)
- Article from:
- NATE Classroom
- Article date:
- September 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 National Association for the Teaching of English. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In Year 9 Jason has a reading age of 5. Of the many threats to his self-esteem thrown up by English literature, Shakespeare ranks high. Sinead is on a Ritalin regime: conventional classroom organisation is for her a foreign land. Rashan is bright and bored: he learns by rote and leaves it at that.
A core ambition of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Education Department is to support teachers in helping young people of all backgrounds and abilities to claim Shakespeare for themselves. Too often the reverse happens: national exams and the language barrier conspire to promote a view of Shakespeare as irrelevant or as a literary K2 or ...