Wherever you may be, let us come to you with our national program of teaching workshops, sharing the Folger's performance-based and language-centered method of active learning.
Performance-based teaching is an interactive approach to the teaching of Shakespeare in which students take ownership of the language through activities that involve physical, intellectual, and vocal engagement with the text on an individual and ensemble level. In these workshops, you'll learn dynamic strategies and activities for engaging students in the study of Shakespeare’s works.
Shakespeare Set Free Workshops
Host a day-long workshop in your school for 20–30 of your colleagues, led by a Folger master teacher. This workshop presents techniques and materials to engage students in grades 3–12 of all ability levels with Shakespeare's plays. More information available in the link to the left. The following two workshops (Technology and [A Play] Set Free) build on many of the activities introduced in this workshop. Teachers are therefore strongly encouraged to take the basic workshop first.
This workshop is also available as a half-day.
Shakespeare Set Free Technology Workshops
This day-long workshop builds on the performance-based teaching approach of Shakespeare Set Free and includes an additional focus on accessible technology and strategies for a variety of settings. Easy entry points are offered for technology novices and experts alike in a spirit of mutual discovery for teachers and students. Activities include the opportunity for students to re-edit scenes and create their own audio track to make the scene entirely their own.
This workshop is also available as a half-day.
[A Play] Set Free Workshops
Building on interactive techniques that form the core of the Shakespeare Set Free workshop, facilitators at this day-long workshop delve deeply into one play and explore ways to engage students in the richness of the language and the motivation of characters. Teachers will also be introduced to various editing techniques and the mechanics of blocking and staging key scenes.
Workshops currently available are Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet.
Planned for 2011-12: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, 1 Henry1V and Julius Caesar
Mini-Institutes
Intensive mini-institutes on teaching Shakespeare may be held during the summer of 2012, pending funding, at various locations around the country.
Teaching Shakespeare Institute
Twenty-five secondary school teachers from across the country will be selected to come to the Folger in summer 2012 for an intensive four-week institute held in conjunction with Georgetown University, pending funding approval by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Online applications available in November, 2011.
