You follow old Rafiki! He knows the way! : Hamlet & The Lion King

Studying Shakespeare can be either one of the most painful experiences of a student's career or it can be a pleasurable learning experience. The exact same thing can be said about trying to teach Shakespeare, I would rather it be a pleasurable experience. In the courses that I teach, I am lucky and only have to teach Hamlet, according to our curriculum.

I have tried many different ways to teach Hamlet over the years and here is the progression that I have taken.

1. Right out of university and excited to teach every soliloquy, metaphor, and made up word, we painstakingly read every single act and scene of Hamlet. I had to stop almost every other line to explain. This was awful! The kids hated it, I hated it; and it took forever!  Sorry former students, those were painful times. 

2. Listen to audio tapes of every single act and scene. Kids still hated it, I still stopped every couple of lines, although we did get through it a little quicker. 

3. Watch the 2009 BBC version of the play staring David Tennant, and Patrick Stewart (aka that dude from the X-Men Movies) I ditched the idea that they had to read the play in order to learn anything. Of course they still had to explain important details of the play, fill in a viewing guide, and eventually complete some sort of writing project to complete the unit. I still found that the students had a hard time following the simple plot lines. 

Finally, not happy with my previous results, I resorted to "entertaining" my students with Disney's The Lion King. 

By entertaining, I start with my most enthusiastic voice "Today we're going to watch the Lion King!"
The students are in shock and disbelief that I would resort to such unscripted non curricular "fun". Somewhere in there I mention that it's a wonderful story about a king, who has a brother that wants his throne, his wife, and his nephew out of the picture. The nephew leaves for a little while, only to be reminded by his father's ghost in the form of a cloud that he should get back to his kingdom and responsibilities. And then we watch.

The next day with the same enthusiasm from the previous day I say, "Today we're going to study Shakespeare's Hamlet!!!!"

Crickets. Until I explain, it's a pretty good story about a prince whose father has been murdered by his uncle and took over the kingdom by marrying his mother. Oh and there is a girl who loves this prince, who might go crazy, ghosts, poisonous sword fights, and speeches to skulls. Play Billy Madison's YouTube clip of "To be or Not to be". Billy Madison just teases them into thinking we're going to watch it; I can be so cruel at times.

We proceed to watching the film as we have done years before. This time, we fill out a sheet comparing the differences between the Disney version and Shakespeares. The students are more engaged when I refer to Poloniusas the Zazu type character. They are shocked and disgusted when i try and compare Timon and Pumbaa to Rosencrantz and Gildenstern. They can easily explain to me that Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are just a couple of fence sitting friends who eventually get what they deserve by dying, nothing like the loyal and funny Timon and Pumbaa.

While I was reluctant to teach any Disney movie in my class for fear of "dumbing down" Hamlet.There are probably a lot of traditional English teachers who would cringe at the idea of using this method, and I would have been one to agree with them, but the opposite happened. When making the comparisons and differences to something they enjoyed, the students were more invested in Hamlet. It has been the first time while teaching Hamlet that I don't absolutely hate it due the negative complaints about their disinterest in Shakespeare. If nothing else, they'll remember Hamlet when their children enjoy The Lion King.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes, or how you can tweak it.

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