Creator: In Your Ear Shakespeare | visit site
Grade Range: 8 - 11
With today’s students plugged into their MP3 players, this site offers a great way to attract students. It has posted podcasts (visit the "Chop Bard" link) that explains Shakespeare in a way that students will find appealing and more realistic than reading it alone or aloud in class. Several of the podcasts are geared specifically to Romeo and Juliet, a play often read in 9th grade which makes it familiar and an easy listen for students. The site includes a list of the chronology of plays as well as a timeline of Shakespeare’s life. A section of the page also has "Interactive Shakespeare" which is really just a funny little Shakespeare picture. Clicking on it gives students a simple explanation of iambic pentameter and a measured beat of how it works.rnrnA caution that there is language slightly bawdy in the podcasts, so preview them first. However, listening to the "Chop Bard" either as a class or as individual students, gives students a lift and a laugh, creating a link with Shakespeare that they have never experienced. rn<b> The site loads slowly at certain high-traffic times. Be patient. </b>
In the Classroom
Share the podcasts at this site with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. You may want to make this site a class project, to ensure the podcasts are all appropriate for your students. After listening to the podcasts, have students write a blog entry from the perspective of Romeo, Juliet, or another character from the literature. Or ask students to create an image to illustrate a scene and then narrate it using UtellStory, <a href="/single.cfm?id=14414">reviewed here</a>, or Podomatic, <a href="/single.cfm?id=8094">reviewed here</a>.
At Home
Is your student having a tough time understanding Shakespeare? Check out this site together.