Posted June 15, 2021 in Articles
Author: Rama Janamanchi, M.A. - Upper School Faculty
If you were to join my class for our first day of English 11, you’d be invited to pick up one of many notecards with a term like mushrump, hurly-burly, or hell-hated printed on it. We’d practice saying these silly words out loud, in different tones and voices. Some students might shout out with joy or anger; speak softly with sorrow; or whisper as if they are sharing a secret. It is quite a theatrical scene to witness and I always wait until we are wrapping up class to announce this colorful language is actually taken from the plays of William Shakespeare. (I’ve done this enough times to know my class will be caught off guard.) Yes, it’s true—that fun, ridiculous activity was Shakespeare! And so our introduction to the Bard begins with joy and the building of community—and it continues in that same vein all year.
I love Shakespeare. Some of my fondest school memories are of responding to Shylock's passionate defense and enjoying Falstaff’s irreverence and iconoclasm. I want to provide a similar experience in my classroom—yet, I know the text itself can be challenging. As a teacher of students with language-based learning differences, I have to find ways to emphasize the fun over the challenge.
The Folger Shakespeare Library, located in Washington, DC, conducts a National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar, which I was selected to attend. I consider the experience a touchstone of my teaching career. It affirmed my belief that everyone can enjoy Shakespeare and it prompted me to think more about why his work touches so many of us.
The Folger Method is research-based and designed for teaching every kind of learner. I fell in love with the innovative and creative ways it transforms Shakespeare’s language. It made the text come alive, even for seasoned educators! The Folger Method also aligns with Lawrence School’s commitment to K–12 multisensory instruction.
With the Folger Method, students toss lines back and forth, enact scenes, create tableaus, and recite speeches from the plays. The structured and scaffolded process allows them to take apart the text, understand character motivations, and trace thematic patterns layer by layer. All of this begins by simply playing with words!
As the year progresses, students begin to recognize the growth of their own abilities. Shakespearean language is no longer alien or even an unfamiliar space — rather, it’s one that invites engagement. This helps prepare them for every other complex text we will encounter in class because they become adept at looking beyond the lines on the page to see dynamic interactions of characters, setting, and authorial choices.
The method also invites explorations into the text that are accessible and fun. My students have created edible scenes, stop motion videos of battle sequences, and music videos for an imagined soundtrack to the play. Each of these responses reflects how empowered they feel with the text.
Shakespeare is part of our shared cultural heritage. I love teaching it because it allows my students to trade experiences with peers, who may attend other schools, and confidently approach any text with the skills to understand and articulate their opinions. But perhaps, the most important reason I love to teach Shakespeare is exemplified in the preface of the First Folio: From the most able, to him that can but spell: There you are number'd. That invitation from the publisher is an invitation to each and every one of us. Shakespeare’s works were intended for an extraordinarily wide audience and 454 years later, my students, with all of their unique learning styles, are part of that audience.
*Rama Janamanchi teaches Lawrence upper schoolers to embrace Shakespeare. But she doesn't stop there, she also presents nationally to fellow educators on how to integrate The Folger Method into their own classrooms.