Teaching Shakespeare to students whose native language is not English can be a real challenge for teachers. Last year we received a number of requests for resources to help teachers introduce Shakespeare to ELL/ESL students. In response to those requests, we created new web pages on our Teach and Learn site. Teachers with experience teaching ELL/ESL students helped us create a page with tips for teaching ELL/ESL students, and they also developed a series of lesson plans devoted to pre-reading activities with students as well as lessons for teaching Hamlet. The pre-reading lessons are adaptable for teaching any play, whether it’s by Shakesepeare or another playwright.
How do you introduce ELL/ESL students to Shakespeare’s plays? What have you found to be especially helpful when working with students? What hasn’t worked as well as you thought it would?