Customer Reviews

Shakespeare Set Free III: Teaching Twelfth Night and Othello

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This is one of the best teaching aids I have ever purchased - not just for language arts and drama - but any subject.

It sets out a beautiful program to actively engage students with Shakespeare. Students are drawn into Shakespeare and having a wonderful time with it from the very first lesson. By having kids get the play "up on its feet" before they have time to fuss about the language they develop comfort and understanding easily. The activities are engaging, and the assessments are straightforward. And the authors are inspiring - they make you want to teach Shakespeare.

My Grade 7 students loved Twelfth Night. From sword fighting to dropping secret letters to wearing yellow stockings they couldn't wait to come to class.

The program is adaptable to the amount of time you have to spend on it.

This was a great approach to teaching Twelfth Night (have not use the Othello part). Pre-reading, reading activites, daily assessment, actitivites to grade, everything--even daily lessons plans (for block or regular scheduling). I bypassed the lessons on sword fighting because I didn't have time, but they looked interesting. One complaint: to do everything planned, it takes over a month. The author does include shorter lesson structures if you are in a time crunch.

I used the guide for a class of seniors and juniors in April and May -- it kept them interested and coming to class. It was invaluable and saved me many hours of planning. Reproducable pages are included. I just ordered the Hamlet version and can't wait to use it.

I teach Shakespeare on both the high school, and college level. I found this book to be useful in getting across the ideas in Twelfth Night, and I plan to use it next year to teach Othello.

The ideas are clear and inventive. My students responded positively to the activities that I used from this book and came away with a clear understanding of plot, characterization, and language. The only negative comment I have is O'Brien can get a little flighty once and awhile. She stretches some activities from the artistic to the downright silly and acknowledges this herself. I wouldn't recommend using this book in its entirety, however there are a number of useful things to be used in it.

Keep in mind this book is meant to teach Shakespeare through acting. If you are the quiet, hide behind the podium type this book may not be for you.

I teach an English 12 class for regular high school students. They complained about the Othello unit, until I used this book. We begin the unit with the swordfighting exercise at the beginning of the book. It's a scary leap of faith, but the kids love it. Buy extra dowel rods.

I only used the Othello part of the book, but it was great. The kids were worried about not understanding anything in Othello at first, and I didn't translate a word. They created meaning themselves and did very well.

The final activity--a performance and promptbook--was a huge success. That's the activity that students felt was most worthwhile from the entire unit. They not only enjoyed it, but also they learned something. Much more fun than correcting essays, too!

I'm an English Education major and as I'm just starting to develop lesson plans and units, this book has come in handy. There are a ton of great ideas and worksheets ready to be copied and used in the classroom. This book also believes in the idea that students learn through doing; therefore many of the lessons focus on performaning the plays to understand them. I almost wish I was in high school again just to participate. The section on teaching sword fighting was particularly interesting. I highly recommend checking this book out.

I was introduced to this series while in graduate school and immediately bought all three. Twelve years later I still use them! There are lots of practical and engaging ideas that have acted as a springboard for my teaching. I don't follow every lesson exactly as written, rather pick and choose based on the class. I've also adapted lessons from SSF for other plays that they don't have guides for. The performance-based approach to teaching Shakespeare is really the most logical and practical when you think about it!