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This project has continued since 1995 as The Folger Library Shakespeare and Education Festivals Project. For more information, visit http://www.folger.edu/education/festivals.htm.
| Folger Library Shakespeare Education and Festivals Project. Based on the reality that one of the best ways to teach and learn about Shakespeare is to perform the plays. This program provides training in teaching techniques and materials to improve and enliven the teaching of Shakespeare. |
Audience Approved by the JDRP for students grades 3-12.
Description The Folger Library Shakespeare Education and Festivals Project, an exemplary education program for grades 4 through 12, is devoted to providing effective and innovative strategies in the instruction of Shakespeare. These workshops emphasize a hands-on approach to literature incorporating a collaborative and cooperative approach to learning. Teachers are provided with methods that lessen the intimidation of the material and make Shakespeare more accessible to students. The festival process is not an enrichment activity, but rather a participatory approach to literature that leads students to a thorough understanding of Shakespeare's works. For a festival, students study, prepare, and perform a scene or scenes for an audience of their peers. Through this interactive, performance-based approach, students meet Shakespeare in the most historically accurate way.
The festival process meets Goal 3 of the National Goals for Education.
Requirements The Folger Library Shakespeare Education and Festivals Project can be replicated anywhere. The festival may involve one class or many classes, an entire school or several schools. The locations for a festival can be, and have been, as varied as a single classroom, an auditorium, a theater, a cafeteria, or a playground. Participants are trained in the use of Folger Library instructional approaches and materials, which include a comprehensive manual on teaching Shakespeare by performance and on festival planning.
Evidence of Effectiveness Cognitively, students are empowered to analyze literature and make decisions about language. Through this process, students gain a greater facility for language and become aware of the control they can exert over it. The project is beneficial to students of all ability groups and was recognized and commended by the Johns Hopkins Center for Schooling of Disadvantaged Students. Students become involved cognitively, affectively, and kinesthetically in their learning experience.
Services Awareness materials are available at no cost. Project site visits are welcomed, by appointment. Project staff are available for awareness sessions (costs to be negotiated).
Developmental Funding: State grants and the Folger Library.
JDRP No. 86-13 (7/2/86)
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