Teaching Shakespeare in primary schools
The works of Shakespeare are read and enjoyed the world over. But is it worth studying them in primary school and are there any advantages in doing so? In this article, I consider some of the reasons I think it’s worth including Shakespeare in your Key Stage 2 curriculum provision.
Shakespeare is often thought of as challenging but rich literature. Clever academics write learned papers about his plays and poems, and GCSE and A level students study his work to identify themes and authorial messages. So, you may well be wondering how I’m going to justify taking up space on the Primary English website to talk about using Shakespeare with children who are still mastering English. You may also be one of those adults who remembers tortuous GCSE English lessons where your long-suffering English teacher had to drag a class of reluctant teenagers through a detailed analysis of Macbeth. Apologies for the flashback if this is you.
It is definitely worth teaching Shakespeare in primary schools. His influence can be felt throughout our society and can certainly be thought of as being part of our collective culture. Shakespeare’s plays, poems, characters, words and phrases can be seen across the arts, but they also feature in our everyday lives. Knowing where Shakespeare fits into our culture is interesting, but more importantly it enables us to make connections that build our knowledge and understanding.
Starting with words and phrases. It’s estimated that Shakespeare wrote 1,700 words, including bandit, lonely and swagger, that had not previously been recorded in writing. It’s likely that some of these would have been in usage during Elizabethan times, but a considerable number of these previously unrecorded words can be attributed to Shakespeare (find out more here). So even though I’m going to talk later about using modern English adaptations of Shakespeare’s work, just bear in mind that you and your children are using Shakespearian language in your everyday lives probably without giving it a second thought!
Onto phrases… I’d be willing to bet that you’ve encountered the following phrases: brave new world; a dish fit for the Gods; and, the be-all and the end-all. They’re all from Shakespeare and what I love about them is how ordinary they are; how they’re knitted into the fabric of our everyday language without any pretension or formal register. They’re examples of language that we can all access and that many of us use without effort. They prove to me that Shakespeare is for all of us and not a select group of people. Find out more here.
Popular culture frequently borrows from Shakespeare and with great success. Films including West Side Story, The Lion King and Lost in Space are either direct reinterpretations or heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s work; in the case of these three films, by Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest (find out more here). You may wonder why this is important, particularly if you’re teaching primary age pupils. In response, I point you to Christopher Booker’s essential text, The Seven Basic Plots. In this, Booker argues that there are seven basic story plots and that all narrative follows one, or a combination of these structures. By exposing children to Shakespeare’s stories, we can help them internalise these basic plots. I’ve written about Christopher Booker’s Seven Basic Plots on the Primary English website before, just click below to read these articles
The arts have also borrowed characters and settings from Shakespeare. Millais’ Ophelia is perhaps the most famous and is a captivating depiction of Hamlet’s doomed lover. Musically, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelssohn is a particular favourite, where audiences can hear Bottom’s braying donkey voice and the famous Wedding March that is part of the musical score of so many weddings. His influence then, goes on and on, and in the case of the Wedding March features in the lives of everyday folk.
I’ve stressed the ordinary and everyday influences of Shakespeare quite deliberately as I write. But I also want to acknowledge the status that is accorded to Shakespeare. Knowing about his plays and poems is considered high culture, and high culture has a habit of giving people who possess it rather a lot of influence. The rights and wrongs of this aside, children know that Shakespeare is special. They know that his work has status, and they know it's perceived to be difficult. And somehow, they take these values squish them together to create beautiful bundles of excitement for learning about Shakespeare. Teaching Shakespeare in the primary school enables you to share his work and is thoroughly enjoyable and valuable.
So, what can you use to teach Shakespeare in primary school? I recommend a modern adaptation. Yes, words and phrases that Shakespeare used are part and parcel of our language, but the original text is likely to be too hard for young children and it should also be stressed contains words, phrases and ideas that are too mature for young children. Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare Stories are richly written narrative adaptations and should be part of every school library. I also adore the Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross Shakespeare Stories. Again, these are narrative retellings rather than play scripts. They are short, but don’t let this put you off. They contain the main plot points and themes of the original plays but are written in totally accessible language. We’ve written Starting Points for five of these titles and have found plentiful examples of Key Stage 2 national curriculum objectives to base our planning on. By doing this, we’ve ensured that your children know key cultural references such as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, that they’ve recited the witches spell from Macbeth and have laughed at pompous Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but we’ve also ensured that they come to love each of these tales for what they are – great stories that are part of the fabric of our society.
So to finish, whether you choose to use our Starting Points or not, I urge you to use Shakespeare in the primary school.