A Practical Guide to Shakespeare for the Primary School: 50 Lesson Plans using Drama

Shakespeare is one of our key historical figures but so often he remains locked behind glass and hard to reach. The purpose of this book is to unlock Shakespeare, to remove the tag of ‘high art’ that has surrounded his work and return him to the heart of popular culture where his plays began in the first place. In his foreword, playwright Edward Bond says of A Practical Guide to Shakespeare for the Primary School, ‘It is written with knowledge and experience of its subject – but also with the knowledge of the young people with whom that experience was shared‘.

John Doona will inspire and motivate pupils and teachers alike to engage with Shakespeare in a fresh and accessible manner and provide clear, tried and tested schemes of work which demonstrate how engagement with the plays and their language can have a dramatic impact on children’s literacy and writing. As well as providing practical guidance to classroom delivery and performance, techniques, approaches and attitudes, this handbook also promotes learning outcomes linked to literacy targets and cross-curricular units of learning.

The central chapters of the book form a comprehensive cross-curricular unit of work on four specific plays – The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet – providing background notes and historical facts linked to the plays, along with comprehensive schemes of work for immediate implementation and ideas for generating performance.

Features unique to this resource include:-

• Free electronic ‘info-blasts’ to all book buyers containing electronic versions of key elements of the book as well as additional resources and lesson plans
• Drama for the Petrified - A crash course for teachers in the techniques, approaches and attitudes required to bring Shakespeare to life
• A chapter on Shakespeare and his life, including ‘Five minute Will’ a short comic scripted account of his life
• Comprehensive schemes of work, each including a Teachers’ Crib Sheet, Story Whoosh!, Story Jigsaw, Scheme Structure Map, edited scenes and additional classroom resources

A Practical Guide to Shakespeare for the Primary School is an essential resource for all primary teachers, trainee teachers and drama practitioners, offering guidance, insight and compelling schemes of work for the study of Shakespeare through drama in the primary classroom.

John Doona is the creator and director of the Children’s Shakespeare Festivals, a series of projects now in its fourth year. He is a qualified Advanced Skills Teacher with a wide experience of secondary and primary Drama practice, a Visiting Lecturer in Drama at the University of Chester, and a professional writer; with dramatic work broadcast on Radio 4 and performed by the Royal Court Young People's Theatre and elsewhere.