When I think of strategies of how to approach this unit I keep a few things in mind; the first is that my main goal is to make sure that the students grasp the real connection between Shakespeare’s writing and their personal experiences. The second is that I have to supply students with the necessary tools to understand the context they are venturing upon.
I would suggest supplying students with a vocabulary list of the Shakespearean language in the text, a plot summary of the play you will cover, and a character map detailing the connection between the characters. If you feel your class will benefit from this, I would also suggest a short history on The Globe Theater along with images.
The main focus is on rule breaking in Shakespeare with transgressive behavior. Students might assume that characters in Shakespearean plays would speak deliberately since what they say, after all, was written by Shakespeare; instead we see how much trouble these Shakespeare characters can cause in moments of transgressive speech.
