Julius Caesar or Taming of the Shrew

I am a second year teacher, and during my first year, I taught Julius Caesar at the sophomore level. I did not have a very good experience with it, as most of the students had a hard time getting into the play. For this year, my fellow sophomore teachers and I decided (back in the summer) to teach Taming of the Shrew. I am very excited about the change, and I think 10th graders will enjoy this particular comedy. However, now that we are closer to actually teaching the play, my fellow sophomore teachers have expressed the opinion that they want to go back to Julius Caesar. They believe that Taming of the Shrew is too difficult for a sophomore.

Does anyone have any experience with these two plays, or more particularly Taming of the Shrew? I know some of the characters and their motivations may be difficult to keep straight, but the way I see it, it is our job as teachers to help organize these characters. I don't really think the reading level/comprehension is above the sophomore level, but I could be wrong.

Help, please!

Tags: english, secondary

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on March 3, 2010 at 7:15pm

I was given a SDAIE English class a few years ago where I had to teach Julius Caesar. All of my students had only had about 2 years of English which of course raised my anxiety level even more. As things turned out, it was a great learning experience for all. We discussed the play (as to what we thought an act meant) and then watched that scene. Since it is a play, it is meant to be watched and with ELLs they had little difficulty following the actors. I also included No Fear Shakespeare ( I think that was the title). One side of the page was Shakespearean English while the opposing page was 21st century English. The final project (totally awesome and right from the internet) was that students in teams of 3 had to create a Julius Caesar Amusement Park! The finished were on display for 2 weeks in the main office:)

http://members.accessus.net/~bradley/jcthemepark.html

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com

www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com