5+ Fun Ways to Learn About Shakespeare with Kids in Middle School

Shakespeare, all these many generations later, is still alive in our literary world. His plays are taught in middle school and high school classrooms all over, performed in theaters around the world, and twisted, adapted and built upon in literature and film everywhere. No matter how you feel about Shakespeare – and feelings are often strong about his work – you can’t deny his words, his plays, his themes are all around us.

Reading Shakespeare or seeing one of his full plays can be a bit daunting today. The language and length are contrary to our fast paced, immediate gratification, quick entertainment society. So how do you go about introducing Shakespeare to middle schoolers?

There are a lot of theories and ideas out there about this, a lot of them wonderful. Personally, I think it is helpful to start small, include experiences and give some context. Below are the five ways I started exploring Shakespeare’s work with my middle schoolers.

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6 Ways to Learn About Shakespeare with Middle Schoolers

In How to Teach Shakespeare to Kids, the author/playwright/father encourages you not to shy away from the complexities of Shakespeare’s English. I highly recommend reading this if you’re looking for a way to tackle Shakespeare with kids. We used this in pieces but we also did these other five things that I think made his plays a little less overwhelming.

1. Read Abbreviated Versions: Before diving into a full play on the page or on the stage, I think knowing a summary of events and characters is helpful. It keeps you from having to figure out the plot and keep the characters straight, while trying to decipher the language. Crash Course has a few summaries on their YouTube Channel. We also loved these books:

2. Learn about the language. There are a lot of ways to have fun with Shakespearean language. For my kids, these were a fun way to get them excited about Shakespeare. Some of our favorites included; Reading the sonnets and short passages during our Poetry Tea Times (We used Poetry for Kids: William Shakespeare), Read these versions of Star Wars interpreted into Shakespearean (these were my son’s absolute favorite), or play with Shakespearean insults with the Insult Generator.

3. Learn about the Famous Theatre and History of Shakespeare.

Learn about the history of this period in history, Shakespeare himself (we enjoy the Crash Course videos on YouTube), and the famous Old Globe theatre in London. If you’re able visit the theatre itself (or here in San Diego you can tour the Old Globe theatre in Balboa Park.)

4. Play the Shakespeare Game.

There are actually several games available, but we love this one. It involves trivia about the different plays and immerses you in London which is fun. It’s a good mix of knowledge and luck and fun. Learn more or purchase here.

5. Read and Compare Different Versions. Once you’re read some or all of a play, it can be fun to compare it to a modernized version. Romeo & Juliet was translated into West Side Story many years ago but that is just one example. There are many middle grade and young adult books based on Shakespeare stories. This is our favorite so far:

6. Go See a Show

A Shakespeare Unit really isn’t complete without seeing a show. In a pinch, watching a movie version of one of the plays is better than nothing but try to time your unit to when you can also go see a Shakespeare performance in your community.

In High School, we went to an outdoor performance of Hamlet at the conclusion of our unit and it brought our weeks of careful analysis to life. When my kids were in sixth grade we first did some exploration of Shakespeare prior to seeing a friend in a performance of A Comedy of Errors and they were able to understand it so much better pairing their background knowledge with the actor’s interpretations.

If you live in San Diego, an opportunity is coming up soon. San Diego Junior Theatre is performing Churlish Chiding of Winter Winds: A Shakespeariment from January 10-19 based on the themes and language of Shakespeare. Learn More Here.