Chester Elementary Fourth Graders Working Hard on The Bard

Chester Elementary School students in Pamela Cinque’s fourth grade class continued their study of the great playwright William Shakespeare last week, with a lesson entitled Sayest Thou what?! An Introduction to the Language of Shakespeare. The lesson is part of a year-long curriculum tailored around the works of The Bard by Ms. Cinque, who happens to be a huge Shakespeare fan. In fact, Ms. Cinque has travelled far and wide to enjoy Shakespeare festivals, and her enthusiasm for the English playwright and poet has definitely transferred to her students.

Thou may be asking thyself, “Shakespeare? In elementary school?!”

Forsooth!

Ms. Cinque’s Shakespeare lessons are part literacy, part read-aloud, part history, part drama, and by touching on so many critical facets of a student’s overall learning experience, are leading them toward some very important educational outcomes.

Sure, plenty of us remember the anxiety that came with studying Shakespeare, even in our high school, let alone elementary, English classes. Especially trying to wrap our heads around what we thought was hard-to-understand language (Elizabethan is the correct description) and overly complex storylines. But as it turns out, teaching Shakespeare in elementary school classrooms is actually a pretty great way to help young students overcome that exact type of anxiety.

“What I find really helps is framing Shakespeare’s language in a context the students can relate to. So, we play fun games that do just that,” said Ms. Cinque. “For example, we played a round of Is it Shakespeare, or is it Rap a couple weeks ago, and during this most recent lesson we played Is it Shakespeare, or is it Taylor Swift.”

By looking at the Bard’s complex language and plots through a contemporary pop culture lens, it opens up the students’ ability to “get” what’s being said and what the characters mean when they say it. “To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first,” (Henry VIII, W. Shakespeare) but once a connection like that is made, students are off and running with a whole new confidence in approaching challenging texts, including those by other authors.

This illustrates the concept of “learning how to learn,” a skill that, as it develops, can pique a child’s interest in further exploring literature… or any topic, really! Other potential benefits of studying Shakespeare in elementary school include, but aren’t limited to, foundational skills such as reading comprehension and developing a robust vocabulary, critical thinking, being able to analyze different situations, and using characters and historical context to look at things from multiple perspectives.

As the year goes on, Ms. Cinque has many more Shakespeare-themed units planned, and her students are looking forward to each new challenge. They shared that what they are looking forward to most is their upcoming opportunity to stage a Shakespeare performance this spring.

“It will be a culminating event, and we’ll be putting each student’s individual talents to work,” said Ms. Cinque. “We’ll not only need performers, but we have students who are eager to learn about and work on Shakespearean costumes, or work on the set, even directors!”

We will keep you posted on the performance. Until then, adieu!