Final Annotated Bibliography

What is my goal as an English teacher? Is it to teach the skills necessary to pursue careers as writers? Is it to make students familiar with the characters, themes, and events of famous literature? Is it to prepare them for the standardized tests? Or, maybe it's to provide a venue for students to learn, explore, discuss and write about aspects of people and society. Maybe it's all of the above. But, it's hard to teach a course without having a goal and understanding what one is really trying to accomplish.

More and more, teaching the classics - trying to make students familiar with classic works of literature is becoming less of a priority. Do students really need to have read Shakespeare in order to succeed in college level English courses. Do students even need to take college level English classes unless they choose to do so? Will it make them better, happier, more productive citizens if they can recite passages from Shakespeare? I don't think so. Students do, however, need to read and write effectively. They need literature that is engaging and interesting - literature that they can relate to, discuss and write about. They need to make reading a part of their lives. There is lots of great literature out there that meets this criteria, and, unfortunately, many of the classics use outdated and unrealistic language, dialogue, themes, and characters that fail to capture the attention and interest of our young readers. Still, we English teachers are pressured to teach the classics, mainly Shakespeare. To be honest, I really like ole Bill, and I hope my appreciation for his great poems and plays rubs off on some of my students. But, Shakespeare tends to be more laborious and disappointing for most of my students than it is pleasurable.

The first strategy one needs when teaching Shakespeare is to choose a play that relates to the interests and / or background knowledge of one's students. When I was teaching at an all boys school, I was told I needed to teach A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is an athletically oriented school with boys who tend to be rather concrete, liking math and history more than literature. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play about fairies and love and does not have the historical relevance of many of Shakespeare's other works. It would be my last choice for the population I was teaching. So, I chose Julius Caesar instead. The students were studying the Roman Empire in history class, which gave them some background knowledge for understanding the events of the play, and Julius Caesar is about politics, murder, and war - engaging themes for young adolescent boys. 

Second, one should provide trade books and websites to supplement and further enrich the lesson and to further engage the students.

Below is a list of trade books that could be used while teaching a unit on Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare:

1. Blackwood, G. (2000). The Shakespeare Stealer. New York: Puffin Books. Reviews of The Shakespeare Stealer on Amazon

• This novel is a great way to introduce students to the historical setting, culture, language, and theater of Shakespeare's time in a way that is appealing to younger readers who are probably unfamiliar with his works. This novel would provide useful background knowledge for students about to read Shakespeare's works and could be used before one teaches an actual play by Shakespeare.

1. Belanger, A. McCreery, C. & Del Col, A. (2012). Kill Shakespeare: The Complete Edition. San Diego: Idea & Design Works. Kill Shakespeare: The Complete Edition on Amazon   Reviews of volume 1 on Amazon

• This is more of a graphic novel or comic book that uses Shakespearian characters and references to creates fables with exciting and amusing graphics and dialogue. Students would benefit from reading this before, during or after reading one of Shakespeare's plays as it would help with background knowledge, would make for an exciting side-read to the curriculum, and it makes references to Shakespeare that would be appreciated after reading a play. 

1. Rinaldo, D. (2010). Julius Caesar: Dictator for Life (Wicked History). London, UK. Franklin Watts. Information on Amazon  Reviews of the book

• This book would be a great way to begin a unit on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It provides an easy, even graphically organized, and more contemporary way to learn about the man, Julius Caesar, and his historical significance. Shakespeare expects his audience to know about the historical characters and events in order to appreciate his interpretation and dialogue, which go into more emotional and psychological depth than what he expects the audience to already know. This book provides excellent background knowledge.

Below are three websites that could be used while teaching a unit on Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare:

• The following is a link to a video on YouTube that would be shown to the class in order to provide a multi-sensory approach and to help them better understand and appreciate Shakespeare's work. The link is provided by Spark Notes and is an animated summary of the play. I wold present this to the class before reading the play. Shakespeare's language is very complex and difficult, and I don't want students to struggle to understand the basic plot while they read. In fact, the audience is expected to know the basic events surrounding the death of Caesar before viewing the play. Also, by understanding the event, they can be empowered readers, making better inferences and predictions and appreciating the literature more than if they were to begin reading without any background knowledge. As we know, background knowledge is a key component to reading comprehension.

Summary of Julius Caesar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgyAPrv30eg

• This next link is also a link to YouTube. This is a video taken from the television series Rome on HBO. After reading the murder scene in the play, I would present this video not only to offer a multi-sensory approach tot he unit, but also to offer a different interpretation of the event. The different versions shed different light on the characters, motives, and themes. By experiencing both, students can make different interpretations about the characters and make different evaluations of the murder scene

The Murder of Julius Caesar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwGDXp24uWo

• Fun is not a word that most students use in describing Shakespeare. In fact, his work can be downright frustrating! This site provides some fun, interactive activities and quizzes about Shakespeare, the play, and the characters. Students will take these quizzes during class, individually and in groups, to asses and guide their reading. Hopefully they will have some fun with these online activities and will associate Shakespeare with something fun. These activities provide some good spirited competition, which can motivate students to read and have better reading comprehension.

Online Quizzes for Julius Caesar

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/literature/shakespeare/julius_caesar.html

Writing On the Web

If there was only one aspect of my English curriculum that I could choose from and teach my students, it would be writing - how to write with unity, coherence, creativity, and elaboration. Writing is not only important in all classes across the curriculum, but writing also is an important skill in life. In today's technological age, we write more than ever. Text messages, emails, online forums, and blogs have become widespread. Though some of these forms of writing do not always utilize proper grammar, spelling, mechanics, and structure, they still offer useful means of written communication. Moreover, they can be utilized by teachers to supplement and enhance their writing instruction.

Blogger.com

To improve one's writing, a student must be willing to share his or her work with peers. Students can learn a lot from reading each others' compositions. They can see how their work compares with that of their classmates, they can learn from examples presented by peers, they can pick up specific styles and strategies used by classmates, and they can help each other improve. Many students, however, are not comfortable sharing their work, and asking students to trade compositions can present a stressful situation. An alternative is to have students set up personal blogs to post their work. Classmates can access each other's blogs and post comments. Have students post two comments on a classmate's compositions - one for praise and one for polish. Not only do blogs create a less stressful class environment, but blogs also save time in the classroom. It takes a lot of time to conduct peer reviews during class, and having the students do this on their own makes for an effective, interactive, engaging, and meaningful homework assignment, and it saves class time for more, better instruction. Have your students log on to www.blogger.com and have them create an original blog to use for peer reviewing!

Online Discussion Forums

Another effective way to supplement the writing curriculum is to have each student become a member of a discussion forum on a website that pertains to a personal interest. Research shows that instruction and student productivity improves when students are given material that is meaningful to the students, that the students can choose themselves, and that activates the students' background knowledge. A teacher can accomplish this by asking each student to find a website devoted to one of their interests and requiring each student to be an active participant on the websites discussion forum. Teachers could access the websites to see what the students are writing, or students could present to the class certain discussion threads in which they participated. Using discussion forums is a great way to get students to read and respond about information that interests them and to participate in discussions in a constructive manner.