Monday 8 April 2013

Shakespeare should not be taught in class.

I believe that shakespeare is an interesting author and fun to read. but I dont think it should be taught in class because of these reasons. one, it is really hard to read. especially for a kid like me who is not a very strong reader and cant read fluently. I feel like everytime i read, i studder every word and it makes me angry. it seems that its not even english. and it makes me feel like im alone since i cant understand it very well. i can barely understand proper english and now that. Also, there is no really point since everytime we read it, anyone barely understands it and we always look on the modern english translation on the side before we can all understand it. Or we use sparknotes to see whats actually going on. Sometimes, i read a whole scene and i read it again and i still dont get whats going on. but some are common sence but still its very difficult to understand. This can have many negative effects on a student such as getting lower marks for being frustrated of not understand whats going on. Plus its english class, were sopose to learn new vocabulary and write sentences to a clear idea in modern english, not like alot of years back. But to conclude, i enjoy reading macbeth and all the activities but i dont like writing about shakespeares plays, especially when its hard for me to understand what the play is. Cant get a good theme for any shakepeare either. But im glad we work as a class to understand the play clearly and come up with themes and significant quotations which will probably help me a lot.

5 comments:

  1. I agree Marjone, I always feel out of the loop and don't know what's going on.

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  2. Same here except with the synopsis at the beginning of the play that tells you everything that happens it makes it easier to understand, still a little bit of a hard time but it helps.

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    1. The synopsis is very helpful. There should also be a longer summary at the front of the play.

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  3. I agree, it can be difficult to understand. I'm so glad that we have discussions about it in class, and are able to use spark-notes, but at the same time, I think that learning Shakespeare is worth our while because it really is very interesting once you understand it. What seems to work for me is to go back over the seen that we have read in class at home, and read it carefully, word-for-word and connect that to the translation at the side.

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  4. Marjone, thanks for balancing the negatives with the positives. I agree that reading Shakespeare can be very difficult. You need to remember that you are not alone in your confusion. We are essentially reading a foreign language and that takes a lot of time digest.

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