I need to rethink how I have students interact with Hamlet (and Hamlet). I have a lot of passion for the play--possibly too much; see picture below--and that means that I take it personally when students don't get as much out of the play as they could.
I do what I can to get them excited. I dress, for instance, in black when Hamlet dies, as part homage, part mourning.
I know that students respond to the passion, but when I have them recreate a scene, memorize a monologue, or video record themselves speaking some of the lines, inevitably they feel slapped together, day-before quality. One kid even exulted that he'd memorized his "To be or not to be" speech last night, and was thrilled that he did so well (and he did fine, in all honesty).
I can't decide if I'm too generous with the criteria, or if I'm expecting too much. It's a difficult thing, because I know that Shakespeare, incorrectly taught, will kill any hope of a student finding truth in the Bard's works later in life. On the other hand, if I allow it to be treated too lightly, then the importance of it could be lost as a punchline.
There's no simple answer to this, and the greatest frustration is that I don't know if I can trust myself to change. I know this current version works (or, at least, is passable), but I don't know if I can convince myself to do something different. In other areas, yeah--I experiment all of the time. But Hamlet is my baby, my great love, my strongest anchor to where and what I teach. How can I change that? There's also momentum of expectations to consider: My students have younger siblings, and much of what they remember fondly from my class they transmit to their brothers and sisters, who enter with certain understandings and expectations. I don't want to disappoint those, particularly if I don't know if the replacement choices are worthwhile.
I think I'll need to ponder the way I end Hamlet some more.
I do what I can to get them excited. I dress, for instance, in black when Hamlet dies, as part homage, part mourning.
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| So lugubrious. |
I can't decide if I'm too generous with the criteria, or if I'm expecting too much. It's a difficult thing, because I know that Shakespeare, incorrectly taught, will kill any hope of a student finding truth in the Bard's works later in life. On the other hand, if I allow it to be treated too lightly, then the importance of it could be lost as a punchline.
There's no simple answer to this, and the greatest frustration is that I don't know if I can trust myself to change. I know this current version works (or, at least, is passable), but I don't know if I can convince myself to do something different. In other areas, yeah--I experiment all of the time. But Hamlet is my baby, my great love, my strongest anchor to where and what I teach. How can I change that? There's also momentum of expectations to consider: My students have younger siblings, and much of what they remember fondly from my class they transmit to their brothers and sisters, who enter with certain understandings and expectations. I don't want to disappoint those, particularly if I don't know if the replacement choices are worthwhile.
I think I'll need to ponder the way I end Hamlet some more.
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