You don’t have to be afraid of Shakespeare!

Probably for most people you either love Shakespeare’s works or you hate them.  There seems to be no middle ground.  I think the main reason most people shy away from Shakespeare is because of the language used and the difficulty of understanding it.  I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way!

Last year I taught a British Literature class in our homeschool co-op and part of the reading was two of Shakespeare’s plays – Macbeth and As you Like It.  Not only did those go over well with my class but they practically begged to have a class this year that was JUST Shakespeare!  I really enjoyed those two plays (having never read Shakespeare before -  GASP – I know!)  so I was happy to oblige and this year we will have our Shakespeare class.

I’m working on the prep work and the syllabus this summer and rather enjoy doing it.  I’m looking forward to studying these with the kids because I think they will really enjoy it once they get into it.  The only downside is that some of his plays are kind of risque and some have some bad language so I’m pre-reading all of them to figure out which ones might be best suited for classroom study/discussion.  The interesting thing is that if you read it in the traditional Shakespearian language most of this would go right over their heads – and mine too if I’m being honest.   But we use a great set of books (which I will elaborate on in just a minute) and they tend to explain everything – sometimes in a little to great of detail if you know what I mean.    All in all I love these books though.  It has made studying Shakespeare, something many people seem to be afraid to do, an enjoyable undertaking.

Now, what are these books, you might be asking.  Well, here is some info on them:

• Published by Spark Publishing
• Shakespeare and plain English side-by-side
• Great online resources (for much more than Shakespeare as well!)
• Study guides in book form or online

So, if you’ve been afraif of Shakespeare in the past – fear no more!!  Just get No Fear Shakespeare!