New Class at Heritage EC II Class Day

Shakespeare's First Folio, 1623

It's been a while since I taught a new course at Heritage Christian School (where our family has been enrolled since 1997). While I usually teach Intermediate and Advanced Writing for high school students--now re-titled Expository Essay I and Expository Essay II--at Class Day, I have also taught a couple of 4th-6th grade classes, one in Poetry and one in Medieval History.

But it's been at least a decade since I stepped forward with a new high school course. Given that I have been teaching online Shakespeare classes at Brave Writer for at least eight years, both the introductory Shakespeare Family Workshop and the high school Literary Analysis courses which focus on studying and discussing an individual play by the Bard, I thought it was time to bring Shakespeare to ECII.

The new class is called Discussing Shakespeare, and it's open to students in grades 9-12. This class will focus on DISCUSSING Shakespeare's plays after a short introduction on Shakespeare's life, times, theater, language, and poetry. Currently no written work is planned; the classes will focus on reading and discussing the plays in class, reading sections aloud and analyzing them, and perhaps watching YouTube clips of various scenes.

While either the Shakespeare Made Easy series by Barron's or the No Fear Shakespeare series by SparkNotes are preferred texts as they have a modern translation on the facing page, any unabridged version of Shakespeare's plays will do. Links will be provided for FREE ONLINE TEXTS of the plays as well.

The SYLLABUS for Discussing Shakespeare is as follows:

Lesson 1: Shakespeare’s Life, Times, and Language

Lesson 2: Shakespeare’s Comedies and Much Ado About Nothing 

Lesson 3: Much Ado About Nothing 

Lesson 4: Twelfth Night 

Lesson 5: Twelfth Night

Lesson 6: The Merchant of Venice

Lesson 7:  The Merchant of Venice

Lesson 8: Shakespeare’s Histories and Henry V

Lesson 9: Henry V

Lesson 10: Richard III

Lesson 11: Richard III

Lesson 12: Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Romeo & Juliet

Lesson 13: Romeo & Juliet

Lesson 14: Macbeth

Lesson 15: Macbeth

Lesson 16: Hamlet

Lesson 17: Hamlet

Lesson 18: Farewell to the Bard Party   

Film versions of the plays will also be recommended as appropriate along with some possible supplemental reading. 

We also have plans to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday in April, perhaps perform some scenes for one of the Class Day Openings, and if possible, attend a live performance of a Shakespeare play.

So please, gentle ladies and sirs, prithee attend this our newest course at East County II. 

With WILL-power,