27th Wednesday January 2010

This morning I was asked to support a BETEC session. In this session we were introducing the language of Shakespeare. BETEC students are of an age which can sometimes be a difficult age group to teach. So when it was announced to them that they would be playing around with the language and acting out small scenes from the play “midsummer’s night dream” a look of boredom swept across their faces. As I remember most probably the same look I had when it was announced to my BETEC year we were performing Othello. I soon learnt to love Shakespeare, and so I ask myself why I had such a dramatic change of mind. For me it was the language that was the issue. As soon as I started to understand it, I learnt to love it. So I knew that in this session I had to work hard at getting the BETEC’S to look deeper into the language and to enjoy it rather then them carrying on not understanding and disliking it even more. Thankfully Jel the teacher taking this session has had many experiences teaching less the enthused teenagers Shakespeare and had a few tricks up her sleeve.

Firstly the BETEC’S were handed a piece of paper containing insults from the play “Midsummer’s nights dream” Jel got them to walk around the room shouting the curses at each other. It was clear from how they all responded to the activity that they enjoyed this. An excellent ice breaker for introducing a difficult language and also a fun way, which enabled them to create an interest, which in turn held there focus.

Key points I learnt from today:

* Make sure everyone is clear on the text reading through it slowly stopping and explaining the meaning of each line or phrase.

* Keep your students engaged, make it fun and exciting so they want to learn.

* Ask them questions about the text. Get them thinking for themselves.

* Explain the language to them in way and terms they understand.