How We Homeschool Shakespeare

A while back, I saw a post in one of my facebook book groups — I don't remember whose it was, so I can't give credit where it's due, but I definitely can't take credit for the idea either. It asked a simple question: if you found a movie you loved and wanted to share with your kids, would you just show it to them, or would you have them read the screenplay instead? Then it turned that same question toward Shakespeare, and it made me wonder if we'd been doing it wrong all along.

Why That Hit Me So Hard

I went to a middle and high school that took Shakespeare seriously — like, really seriously. We studied one play a year, every year, for all seven years. And every single year, the whole school did a soliloquy memorization contest. Every student picked a soliloquy from that year's play, there were multiple rounds, and it built all the way up to a final performance on the big stage in the auditorium, with the best from each class. It was a whole thing and the winner was revered. I loved it, for whatever that says about me. Clearly I went to a nerd school, and I regret nothing.

Amid all that fanfare, it had genuinely never occurred to me that there was a different approach. And I'm really not some diehard Shakespeare devotee — I mainly think it’s important to cover because so many everyday idioms and cultural references trace back to his plays. All that to say, that post was a real paradigm shift for me, and it changed how I hand Shakespeare to my own kids.

The New Method

Here's what we actually do now (with teenagers), in three steps.

First, we read an adaptation — something that tells the story in plain, modern language so the kids already know the plot and the characters before they ever meet the original text. Then we watch a movie version, one I've researched carefully, that keeps Shakespeare's original language mostly or entirely intact — no changing the words allowed, unless they just edit it down a bit for length. And last, we watch it with the captions on, so they're reading the real words while they're hearing them performed.

Why It Works

That order matters. A play was never meant to be read silently — or even out loud with family members on couches reading different parts (though that can be fun if your kids are into it!). It was written to be performed. The experience is designed for the audience, not the actors.

So if you hand a kid the original text cold, with no idea what's happening or who's who, all their energy goes toward just figuring out the plot, and it becomes a slog that only the very rare child actually enjoys. But if they already know the story, they can relax into the words instead of struggling just to keep up. That's when Shakespeare stops being a comprehension exercise and starts being something they can actually experience. We've found that the language makes a lot more sense when you know more or less what to expect. The jokes are funny, the ridiculousness of the situations lands like it's supposed to, and the whole experience is enjoyable and memorable in a good way.

A Couple of Practical Notes

Do your homework on which movie version to pick. I started by googling the name of the play with the phrase “original language.” There are lots of articles and forum discussions about which ones are the best.

Some are more interesting than others with better acting and things like that, but the main issue is that not every adaptation handles the material the same way, and Shakespeare gets bawdy more often than people expect.

This approach to Shakespeare has worked well for us with teenagers specifically — I'd think hard before doing it this way with younger kids, both because of the content and because even with the adaptation as a bridge, the pacing and language are still a real stretch. With younger kids, I would probably just read the adaptations, maybe do a study of famous quotes from that play, and leave it at that until they get older.

You Don't Have to Be a Shakespeare Scholar

You don't need a literature degree to do this well. You just need an adaptation, a little research into which film version to watch (or follow my recommendations below if you trust me), and the willingness to pause and talk through the awkward parts when they come up — and they will come up. We do two or three plays a year this way, and it's become one of my favorite parts of our homeschool.

What We've Actually Used

Since people usually ask, here's the adaptation book we use (we happened to already own it, but there are plenty of good options out there):Usborne Stories from Shakespeare

I also like it because in the back it has a short synopsis of every play he wrote (it only has full adaptations of 12 of them), listing the major characters, and a section with information about Shakespeare and his life. But honestly, most adaptation books probably have that.

And here are the plays and the exact movie versions we've watched (again, my kids are teens, so keep that in mind):

·Romeo & Juliet (1996 — Claire Danes & Leonardo DiCaprio) — If you are anywhere near my age, I probably do not have to tell you anything about this movie.

·A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 — Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Kline) — Some awkward moments, but overall good.

·The Taming of the Shrew (1967 — Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton) — I remember watching this one in English class in middle school. Lots of interesting conversation starters!

·Twelfth Night (1996 — Ben Kingsley, Helena Bonham Carter) — This movie was enjoyable.

·Hamlet (1996 — Branagh) — This movie is 4. Hours. Long. Because it does not cut anything at all out of the original text. It took us 3-4 sessions but we got through it, and it was pretty good, just very, very long. There are quite a few other options that have shortened it up, but I couldn't find any of them streaming at the time. This one was actually my third overall choice… so maybe pick a different one. I think my first choice was the 1990 Mel Gibson version — just over 2 hours long.

·Macbeth — we read the adaptation, and I was trying to find a good movie version when my son said, “Mom, if this book has witches and all that dark stuff that we don't really want to be dwelling on, why don't we just skip the movie?” Good point, son. No movie recommendation on that one.

I hope this is helpful, and encourages you that diving into Shakespeare with your kids can be something you all look forward to. Because everybody loves movie day, right?