Page 1 of 1

Shakespeare Argh!

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 8:14 am
by mrsrandolph
My son (12...almost 13) is really struggling with Shakespeare. He has some mild learning issues and is not college bound. He is a wonderful musician and plans to be a piano tuner and repair person as well as a percussion teacher.

I chose to do Shakespeare with him for the exposure, but he hates it and understands NOTHING. After we finished Much Ado About Nothing he was confused because as we recapped the story, he told me he thought the whole time that Hero was a boy. Now I understand that the name could be a boy's name, but the context makes it clear she is a girl.

So, on the next story, I read a "modern english" synopsis of the story and characters BEFORE reading from the Shakespeare book. At the end of THAT story he told me he only "got 2 things from the story". But both of those things were WAY off.

It is starting to make him "feel stupid", and I wonder if it is doing more harm than good. I am very relaxed about it with him. I don't drill him on it or anything. I just don't know if "exposure" is worth it. Thoughts?

Re: Shakespeare Argh!

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 12:55 pm
by LynnH
I didn't do it with my son when he was in RTR. I knew it would just frustrate him. We waited until he did the high school World History guide and he did Julius Caesar. Carrie schedules a great version of it that has a modern version side by side with the original. I also had my son watch the movie with Richard Burton and all that worked very well to make sure he understood. If I were you I would drop it and wait until you get to the World History guide and have him do Julius Caesar the way Carrie has written the plans.