Shakespeare’s name gives chills down the back to many high school students—including myself. The comprehension of the famous plays is what fool students into believing that he is dreadful. Which, can be true. Shakespeare’s plays all have many different interest points and hold something the others do not, although there are strange connections which can be made from play to play.
Shakespeare’s literature is like many other things in life—practice makes perfect. Yes, it’s reading, and the comprehension is where most students struggle due to the language Shakespeare brought up and created during his writing period. The rearranging of words in a sentence, to creating new words, and shortening words and dragging them out can really mess up a student’s reading strategy. From reading through Shakespeare’s Othello—along with having had past experiences with Shakespeare’s pieces such as multiple sonnets and plays such as Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet—I have learned a lot about reading a Shakespearian play.
Re-reading is key. Stop and revise, is also key. Before reading a Shakespeare play you really should tell yourself, “I’m probably not going to understand this, but it will get better.” The beginning of each play will lose every single mind that reads it; the first half, especially the first half, should be read multiple times for complete understanding. Throughout the Acts I continued to use some of the same strategies I had earlier on in the reading, while ditching a few others. Making yourself stop and reflect or revise over what you have read in the past five or so pages is one of the most helpful tips I may have ever been given when taking on the play Othello. I learned that after a few chunks of reading, my mind could pick up on some things that were going on, but would eventually find itself having no clue what it just read. At this point in the book, re-reading was not an option for me anymore—I wanted myself to get it and get it then. I learned that if I push myself to just read chunks and then take five minutes to quickly skim through half of the reading or just long soliloquys, I could pick up the gist of the story, which pushed my mind even more. Summarizing small chunks of reading can really help with understanding complicated texts.
Shakespeare taught me many things as a growing English student. I learned many new techniques to use on texts of a much higher level to help my brain comprehend what the text is saying without having to jump to Spark Notes and get the quick and easy version of any piece of literature. Before reading any piece of Shakespeare’s plays, one should consider the fact that it may seem like a lot of work for just one play, but simple, time consuming strategies can help you grow as a learner. Not only did the techniques I learned while reading Shakespeare help me to comprehend his long known work, but it could really help for any piece of text I may have, especially for things such as our AP test.
Shakespeare’s literature is like many other things in life—practice makes perfect. Yes, it’s reading, and the comprehension is where most students struggle due to the language Shakespeare brought up and created during his writing period. The rearranging of words in a sentence, to creating new words, and shortening words and dragging them out can really mess up a student’s reading strategy. From reading through Shakespeare’s Othello—along with having had past experiences with Shakespeare’s pieces such as multiple sonnets and plays such as Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet—I have learned a lot about reading a Shakespearian play.
Re-reading is key. Stop and revise, is also key. Before reading a Shakespeare play you really should tell yourself, “I’m probably not going to understand this, but it will get better.” The beginning of each play will lose every single mind that reads it; the first half, especially the first half, should be read multiple times for complete understanding. Throughout the Acts I continued to use some of the same strategies I had earlier on in the reading, while ditching a few others. Making yourself stop and reflect or revise over what you have read in the past five or so pages is one of the most helpful tips I may have ever been given when taking on the play Othello. I learned that after a few chunks of reading, my mind could pick up on some things that were going on, but would eventually find itself having no clue what it just read. At this point in the book, re-reading was not an option for me anymore—I wanted myself to get it and get it then. I learned that if I push myself to just read chunks and then take five minutes to quickly skim through half of the reading or just long soliloquys, I could pick up the gist of the story, which pushed my mind even more. Summarizing small chunks of reading can really help with understanding complicated texts.
Shakespeare taught me many things as a growing English student. I learned many new techniques to use on texts of a much higher level to help my brain comprehend what the text is saying without having to jump to Spark Notes and get the quick and easy version of any piece of literature. Before reading any piece of Shakespeare’s plays, one should consider the fact that it may seem like a lot of work for just one play, but simple, time consuming strategies can help you grow as a learner. Not only did the techniques I learned while reading Shakespeare help me to comprehend his long known work, but it could really help for any piece of text I may have, especially for things such as our AP test.