Teaching+Shakespeare+to+Students+with+Learning+Differences

Rothenberg, Sally. (1997). Students with Learning Difficulties Meet Shakespeare: Using a Scaffolded Reading Experience, //Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy//, 40, 532-543.

Sally Rothenberg (1997) taught students in the 8th grade with learning difficulties in a self-contained setting. Rothenberg’s (1997) classroom mirrored my classroom as she explained, “My students are of average or above-average intelligence, but they do not perform, academically, at a level commensurate with their ability. Specifically, they experience difficulties in reading fluency, spelling, and writing fluency” (p. 533). Due to the needs of her students, Rothenberg decided that the challenge in teaching //Macbeth// to her 8th grade students would be to sufficiently facilitate the reading so that her students would be successful in their tasks.

Influenced by Graves and Graves (1994) and Vygostky (1978), Rothenberg implemented a Scaffolded Reading Experience (SRE), or a set of prereading (building text specific knowledge, preteaching vocabulary and concepts, activating background knowledge, and relating the reading to students’ lives), during-reading (reading to students, guided reading, modifying of text), and postreading activities (questioning, discussion, artistic or nonverbal activities) specifically designed to assist a particular group of students in successfully reading, understanding and learning from a particular selection of literature. For Rothenberg, the teacher functioned as a guide who is critical to the Reading Experience and the students were at the center of the plan. While reflecting on the success of the SRE, Rothenberg (1997) noted, rather than constricting students’ experiences with //Macbeth//, I provided a support that facilitated an expansive range of responses throughout the reading of the play…Students’ comments during discussions reflected what has been described as meta-literacy or critical literacy (Calfee, 1996). They did not reflect the kind of literacy often expected of students with learning difficulties” (p. 539).

Thus, Rothenberg provided literacy strategies that were beneficial to the learners in my classroom, in particular those with processing disorders or those with a reading ability below grade level. Reminiscent of Thorson’s students, Rothenberg’s students thrived. Markedly, one of Rothenberg’s (1997) students comments that Shakespeare was no longer for the “really smart kids” (p. 540).