Play: As You Like It
Audience: Middle School Students & Teacher Editions
Editions and the Reasoning Behind
First off, we are really excited to work on the production of a middle school version of As You Like It. We hope that this edition will allow students to encounter and appreciate Shakespeare at a younger age. In order for this edition to be successful, we have planned out two different versions of this edition that we will provide to the middle school classroom--the student edition, and the teacher edition.
Student--The middle school edition of As You Like It will be edited for simple language, something that is not so foreign to the young adolescent who will be encountering this play. Obviously, at middle school age, the entire, unedited text might be a bit daunting and difficult to encounter. So, we plan on editing the play for simplicity, while maintaining the main storyline (similar to what directors do when choosing what to include in their rendition of the play, but on a greater level). In order to make the play more accessible and understandable, we were thinking that at the end of each act we would include excepts about the life of Shakespeare, basic information about the court system, influence of Shakespeare's language, and illustrations. Naturally the items listed above would go in corresponding places so as the acts referencing the court system will be followed by the excerpts about the court system. Similarly, another thing that we are considering having after the acts are a few questions that encourage critical thinking about specific aspects of occurrences that happened within the acts. We feel that this will provide middle school students with an opportunity to develop and utilize critical thinking skills, for such will benefit them throughout their lives. We also talked about emphasizing that this is a play and is meant to be acted out, not simply read. We also hope that this edition will help students to be excited about the arts and humanities at an early age.
Teacher--The text of the play will be the same as found in the student's edition. We will do this to avoid confusion when teacher and students and studying/discussing the play together (for example synchronized pagination will be a definite bonus for the teachers). However, the teachers edition will have a more in depth, but not overwhelming, insight into the historical context of the play that will be included after the play. That way the teacher can choose how much and what she will share with the students. We also considered having more questions in this edition that the teacher could use for class discussion or as possible test questions. She will this be able to engage her different classes with appropriate material suited to their needs and abilities.
First off, we are really excited to work on the production of a middle school version of As You Like It. We hope that this edition will allow students to encounter and appreciate Shakespeare at a younger age. In order for this edition to be successful, we have planned out two different versions of this edition that we will provide to the middle school classroom--the student edition, and the teacher edition.
Student--The middle school edition of As You Like It will be edited for simple language, something that is not so foreign to the young adolescent who will be encountering this play. Obviously, at middle school age, the entire, unedited text might be a bit daunting and difficult to encounter. So, we plan on editing the play for simplicity, while maintaining the main storyline (similar to what directors do when choosing what to include in their rendition of the play, but on a greater level). In order to make the play more accessible and understandable, we were thinking that at the end of each act we would include excepts about the life of Shakespeare, basic information about the court system, influence of Shakespeare's language, and illustrations. Naturally the items listed above would go in corresponding places so as the acts referencing the court system will be followed by the excerpts about the court system. Similarly, another thing that we are considering having after the acts are a few questions that encourage critical thinking about specific aspects of occurrences that happened within the acts. We feel that this will provide middle school students with an opportunity to develop and utilize critical thinking skills, for such will benefit them throughout their lives. We also talked about emphasizing that this is a play and is meant to be acted out, not simply read. We also hope that this edition will help students to be excited about the arts and humanities at an early age.
Teacher--The text of the play will be the same as found in the student's edition. We will do this to avoid confusion when teacher and students and studying/discussing the play together (for example synchronized pagination will be a definite bonus for the teachers). However, the teachers edition will have a more in depth, but not overwhelming, insight into the historical context of the play that will be included after the play. That way the teacher can choose how much and what she will share with the students. We also considered having more questions in this edition that the teacher could use for class discussion or as possible test questions. She will this be able to engage her different classes with appropriate material suited to their needs and abilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment