How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig (English) Paperback Book

Description: How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig Originally published in hardcover by Crown Publishers, 2013. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description A foolproof and enormously fun guide for parents to share the classic works of William Shakespeare with their children.A foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare, by a Tony Award-winning playwright-now featuring two new chapters"You and your children will be transformed by the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant."-Sir Derek Jacobi, CBEWinner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare BookTo know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeares death in 1616-from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather-are heavily influenced by Shakespeares stories, characters, language, and themes. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeares works in your children, and to have fun together along the way.Ken Ludwig devised his friendly, easy-to-master methods while teaching his own children. Beginning with memorizing short passages from the plays, his technique then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwigs approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeares diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote.This books simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like A Midsummer Nights Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. And theres fun to be had throughout. Shakespeare novices and experts and readers of all ages will each find something delightfully irresistible in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. Notes A foolproof and fun guide for parents to share the classic works of William Shakespeare with their children. Author Biography Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed playwright who has had numerous hits on Broadway, in London, and throughout the world.His plays and musicals include Lend Me a Tenor, which won two Tony Awards, and Crazy for You, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. He has also won two Laurence Olivier Awards and the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His work has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has been performed inover thirty countries inmore thantwenty languages. Review "Ken Ludwigs enthusiasm for Shakespeare and his lucid, accessible and inspiring book on How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is a rare treat. You and your children will be transformed by the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant. I highly recommend the book to all who have a love of language and history."—Sir Derek Jacobi, CBE"How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is an inspired and inspiring book. Its also a deeply rewarding one that will bring a great deal of pleasure to many parents and children. Ken Ludwig, a wonderful playwright, proves to be a superb guide to Shakespeare as well."—James Shapiro, author of A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare and Contested Will "I wish someone had given this book to my parents. It would have made a life-changing task downright fun. Ken Ludwig is a smart, congenial and inventive guide, and everywhere in this remarkable book he takes the strangeness out of Shakespeares work and leaves the enchanting mystery. A book for all lovers, and potential lovers, of Shakespeare. Like nothing else, it creates a magical home theater for parents and their children."—J. D. McClatchy, Yale University "I have been in [Kens] home. His children really do know Shakespeare. Read the book and youll see why. Its scholarship dancing around with fun."—Hal Holbrook"Dont be fooled by the title. This book is for anyone who wants to brush up on Shakespeare… Dont buy this book to teach your children; take them along as you commit these beautiful speeches to memory."—Kirkus Reviews "[Ludiwgs] enthusiasm is also infectious . . . its hard to come away from this book without wanting to find someone, child or adult, to convert."—Cleveland Plain Dealer Review Quote "Ken Ludwigs enthusiasm for Shakespeare and his lucid, accessible and inspiring book on How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is a rare treat. You and your children will be transformed into the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant. I highly recommend the book to all who have a love of language and history." --Sir Derek Jacobi, CBE " How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is an inspired and inspiring book. Its also a deeply rewarding one that will bring a great deal of pleasure to many parents and children. Ken Ludwig, a wonderful playwright, proves to be a superb guide to Shakespeare as well." --James Shapiro, author of A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare and Contested Will "I wish someone had given this book to my parents. It would have made a life-changing task downright fun. Ken Ludwig is a smart, congenial and inventive guide, and everywhere in this remarkable book he takes the strangeness out of Shakespeares work and leaves the enchanting mystery. A book for all lovers, and potential lovers, of Shakespeare. Like nothing else, it creates a magical home theater for parents and their children." --J. D. McClatchy, Yale University "I have been in [Kens] home. His children really do know Shakespeare. Read the book and youll see why. Its scholarship dancing around with fun." --Hal Holbrook "Dont be fooled by the title. This book is for anyone who wants to brush up on Shakespeare... Dont buy this book to teach your children; take them along as you commit these beautiful speeches to memory." -- Kirkus Reviews "[Ludiwgs] enthusiasm is also infectious . . . its hard to come away from this book without wanting to find someone, child or adult, to convert."-- Cleveland Plain Dealer Excerpt from Book chapter 1 Passage 1 Learning the First Line I know a bank where the wild thyme blows Nine words. Each word has one syllable. Nine syllables. Thats all it is. It isnt hard to learn this line of poetry. Its from the play A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare, and Ill bet your son or daughter can memorize it in less than a minute. There are two keys to memorizing it: First, say it aloud. Second, repeat it. So lets do it together: Say this aloud: I know a bank Now say it again: I know a bank Now say it four times in a row. No kidding. Just do it--and promise me that youll do it aloud: I know a bank I know a bank I know a bank I know a bank Did you say it aloud? Because if you didnt, this wont work, I assure you. In order to do it properly, you have to go to a place where you wont be embarrassed. Just pick a room and close the door. Then sit down with your son or daughter and do it together. Say it aloud four times. If youve done this honestly, as Ive described, youve now got it in your brain, and youll never forget it. I know a bank Now do the same thing with the second half of the line. The words are more complex but not difficult at all. Have your child say them aloud: where the wild thyme blows Now say them again: where the wild thyme blows Its important when you learn Shakespeare that you understand every word youre reading or memorizing. Your children should understand that a bank is a mound of grass on the side of a stream or river, and that thyme is a flowering plant with a strong smell. It is less commonly known that blow in Shakespeares day meant "burst into flower." So what the speaker is describing is a mound of grass, probably near a stream, where the wild thyme is blowing in the breeze and bursting into flower. Now lets go back to the words. Say the second half of the line again, four times, out loud. where the wild thyme blows where the wild thyme blows where the wild thyme blows where the wild thyme blows If youve said these words aloud, you and your child can now put the whole line together without difficulty. Do it. Say it aloud: I know a bank where the wild thyme blows Say it again, and really enjoy saying it, because its good for the soul. I know a bank where the wild thyme blows One last time, and this time say it in a hushed tone, painting a picture with the words, describing a place of great beauty and depth: I know a bank where the wild thyme blows And now you and your child have memorized some Shakespeare. Believe me, it will stay with both of you for the rest of your lives. And it will change your lives. chapter 2 The Reason for the Book Lets pause for a moment so I can give you some background. When Im finished, well dig right back into the first passage. Ive been teaching Shakespeare to my children since they were six years old. Im a bit of a Shakespeare fanatic, and it occurred to me when my daughter was in first grade that if there was any skill--any single area of learning and culture--that I could impart to her while we were both healthy and happy and able to share things together in a calm, focused, pre-teen way, then Shakespeare was it. I began the process by teaching her lines from my favorite Shakespeare comedies; and as I continued with this method and expanded it to include my son, I became convinced that the way into the subject--the way to introduce someone to Shakespeare for the first time so that it doesnt feel daunting and yet has real integrity--is to memorize it. First a few lines, then whole speeches. With Shakespeare, memorizing is the key to everything. A great deal of this book will involve memorizing speeches from Shakespeares plays. Along the way well discuss other important aspects of Shakespeare--the stories, the verse, the imagery, the characters--everything that you and your children should know in order to understand how Shakespeare changed the world. Two good questions arise right away: Why Shakespeare? And why memorize it? Why Shakespeare? The answer to the first question is that Shakespeare isnt just one of the many great authors in the English language; Shakespeare is, indisputably, one of the two great bedrocks of Western civilization in English. (The other is the King James translation of the Bible.) Not only do Shakespeares plays themselves contain the finest writing of the past 450 years, but most of the best novels, plays, poetry, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeares death in 1616--from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens, from Ulysses to The Godfather--are heavily influenced by Shakespeares stories, characters, language, and themes. As Falstaff says in Henry IV, Part 2: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. Shakespeare is not only creative in himself--he is the cause of creation in other writers. For many of us, Shakespeare has become a kind of Bible for the modern world, bringing us together intellectually the way religious services have traditionally done. For more than five thousand years, Moses, Jesus, and the other towering figures of the Old and New Testaments were the archetypes of our consciousness. In modern society, Hamlet and Macbeth, Juliet and Ophelia, have been added to their number. To know some Shakespeare gives you a head start in life. Also, Shakespeares powers as a writer simply exceed those of every other writer in the history of the English language. Here is an excerpt from the diary of the distinguished English novelist and essayist Virginia Woolf, who speaks here for every writer I know: I read Shakespeare directly after I have finished writing, when my mind is agape and red and hot. Then it is astonishing. I never yet knew how amazing his stretch and speed and word-coining power is, until I felt it utterly outpace and outrace my own, seeming to start equal and then I see him draw ahead and do things I could not in my wildest tumult and utmost press of mind imagine. [T]he words drop so fast one cant pick them up.... Why then should anyone else attempt to write. This is not "writing" at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant. Why Memorize It? As for memorization, Im convinced that it unlocks the whole world of Shakespeare in a unique way. In order to memorize something, you have to be very specific and very honest with yourself. You have to work slowly, and you have to understand every word of what youre memorizing. There was a time not long ago when memorization was considered to be one of the basic tools of an academic education. Students were expected to learn hundreds of lines from the Greek and Roman classics, then, later, from poetry in their native tongues. This tradition has faded from our lives, and something powerful has been lost. That said, Shakespeare can be difficult to read, let alone memorize, without some help. Most people who pick up one of Shakespeares plays and try to read it for pleasure end up putting it down after the first few pages because they find it confusing. And this is true for adults, let alone children. There are several reasons for this. First, many of Shakespeares words are unfamiliar to us. When Hamlet, in the most famous speech in the English language (To be or not to be), refers to something called a bodkin, most of us just scratch our heads and want to give up. (A bodkin is a dagger.) Second, Shakespeares sentence structure often sounds odd to our ears. This is partly because Shakespeare wrote his plays more than four hundred years ago and partly because a substantial portion of his plays are in poetry. Thus hes frequently saying things like Conceal me what I am instead of "Disguise me." Third, Shakespeare frequently writes in metaphors. His mind was so lively and cunning, so profound and imaginative, that he was always telling us how something was like something else, and it often takes some effort to puzzle out his meaning. For example, in one of Shakespeares most famous speeches from Romeo and Juliet, he has Romeo compare Juliets eyes to stars in the night sky. He has Romeo say that the real stars have to hurry away, and they (the stars) have asked Juliets eyes to take their place. Then Romeo adds that Juliets eyes would--in place of the stars--shine so brightly that birds would start singing because theyd think it was daytime, not nighttime. Heres what he actually says: Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return.... Her eye in heaven Would through the airy regions stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night. This is obviously a complex piece of writing, yet my son won a recitation contest with this speech when he was eleven years old. The point is that Shakespeare is like a foreign language. In order to learn it, we need to understand every word, then practice until we feel comfortable. If your children memorize one line at a time, then a short speech, then a longer speech, theyll become self-a Details ISBN0307951502 Author Ken Ludwig Year 2014 ISBN-10 0307951502 ISBN-13 9780307951502 Format Paperback Media Book Short Title HT TEACH YOUR CHILDREN SHAKESP Language English DEWEY 822.33 Imprint Broadway Books Publication Date 2014-07-01 UK Release Date 2014-07-01 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2014-07-01 NZ Release Date 2014-07-01 US Release Date 2014-07-01 Publisher Broadway Books (A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc) Illustrations 28 LINE ART Audience General Pages 400 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:145099849;

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