READING SHAKESPEARE FILM FIRST

By Mary Ellen Dakin. The author asserts that we need to read Shakespeare in triplicate—as the stuff of transformative literature, theater, and film. The potential for the mutual reinforcement and transfer of 21st-century literacy skills between text and film is too promising for classroom teachers to overlook. The heart of this book is a triangle whose three points are literary, theatrical, and cinematic; the chapters map a route around the perimeter of the triangle, guiding teachers and students with carefully researched and classroom-tested strategies for crossing over from Shakespeares rich and strange early modern English to equally rich and strange modern film and illustrated productions of his plays. Along the way, readers engage in:

• reading and analyzing film stills, movie posters, and book covers
• exploring in depth the theatrical and cinematic elements of Shakespeare and then reconnecting them to the text
• translating Shakespeares texts into theater and film.

Grades 9–12. NCTE. 233 pages. ©2012.

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