Make Your Students Fall in Love with Shakespeare

Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers to ever live. Every generation reads his plays and poetry.

Yet, teaching Shakespeare often feels like an uphill battle. Mention Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet in a classroom, and you’re likely to hear a collective groan.

Why is it so difficult to get students to read, let alone enjoy, Shakespeare? Here are the main challenges — and how to overcome them.

The Barriers to Teaching Shakespeare

1. Archaic Language

The thees and thous of Shakespearean English can alienate students. Many feel that the language is too difficult, making them believe they’ll never understand the text.

2. Length and Complexity

Most Shakespearean plays are long, usually five acts. They aren’t usually action-driven but dialogue-driven. Long monologues and soliloquies progress the storyline with characters expressing their thoughts and feelings in a long-drawn-out way.

Today’s reader often fails to enjoy the experience of reading for pleasure or the beauty of words. They just want things to be straight to the point and plainly stated, without much description.

Nothing about Shakespeare is plain. Everything is elaborate and grand, which is why I love Shakespeare and why others won’t even try to understand him.

3. Seemingly Unrelatable Characters

Students often see Shakespeare’s characters as distant figures — noblemen, queens, and warriors from centuries ago — whose experiences seem far removed from their own.

4. Historical and Social Context

The social norms, power structures, and traditions of the Elizabethan era reflected in the characters and plots of Shakespeare’s plays will seem strange and irrelevant to today’s students without the proper introduction.

5. Lack of Relevance

Students frequently ask, “What does this have to do with me?” Shakespeare’s themes — love, betrayal, ambition, revenge — are timeless, but the way they’re presented can feel disconnected from contemporary life.

6. Poor Teaching Methods

Ultimately, many of these barriers exist because Shakespeare is not taught in ways that engage or excite students. Without effective teaching strategies, the brilliance of the Bard remains hidden.

My Shakespeare Journey

How do I know this? Because I was that student. I read (or attempted to read) my first Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet, in the 9th grade. I was familiar with the story because I had seen it alluded to on TV shows and sitcoms many times. I knew it was a story of forbidden love, but beyond that, I had no clue what the story was really about.

Because of the archaic language and larger-than-life characters and plots, I didn’t think Romeo and Juliet would be a story I could possibly enjoy. I was just a simple, lower-middle-class black girl from the hood who had never been in love or even out on a date. These old rich white people had nothing in common with me. (They were my same age, but they seemed “old” to me).

Because I held this prejudice, I blocked myself from even trying to understand Shakespeare. I just tried to endure Shakespeare, and this was my attitude throughout high school. I endured The Tragedy of Julius Caesar in the 10th grade, and I endured The Tragedy of Hamlet in the 12th grade.

I did not understand all of the Shakespearean hoopla. It was so beyond me — until. It was beyond me until my senior year when we read The Tragedy of Macbeth. We read Hamlet earlier that year, and I didn’t believe I liked it that much. I couldn’t relate to it, or so I thought.

But Macbeth, oh Macbeth awakened something in me, a love for the great bard Shakespeare. Why? The answer is simple. LADY FREAKING MACBETH!

That woman was fire! Usually, female characters, like Ophelia in Hamlet, are weak and insignificant, even ornamental, but Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind the action in Macbeth.

She had this strength and confidence about herself that I could relate to because all of the women in my family had it, and I wanted to have it, too.

In fact, my amazing teacher Mrs. Furst had that same confidence and strength of character, and she seemed to be much more enthusiastic about Macbeth, probably for the same reason. For me, enthusiasm is contagious. I caught the Macbeth fire from my teacher.

Let me be clear: I do not like what Lady Macbeth did with her power and influence. She was awful for convincing her wimpy husband to murder his friend King Duncan, and they all suffered the consequences of that betrayal. Lady Macbeth was, indeed, a terrible person, but she was also an interesting, complex, and consequential person. Her presence mattered and influenced everything that happened in the play. She made the story exciting and interesting for me. She was a villainess that I loved to hate.

After that, I was sold and my mind was open to liking Shakespeare. I had a professor named Mr. Allen Fleming during my freshman year of college. I learned, really learned, in that man’s class. He was on fire for literature, and he set all of his students on fire, too. I thought I didn’t like Hamlet. I thought it had nothing to do with me or anyone I knew, but Mr. Fleming turned Hamlet into a soap opera:

“Imagine. Your father just died, and your mother quickly gets remarried — to his brother! How would you feel about that?”

Immediately, I thought I would be blazin’ mad. I know we shouldn’t judge people, but I had judgment: What kind of woman would get remarried right after her husband just died? And what kind of woman would marry her husband’s brother? That was just nasty, and this whole scenario was scandalous! Mr. Fleming continued:

“Well, imagine if you found out that your father didn’t just die of illness like you were told, but the same man who married your mother, your uncle, is the one who killed him. And then, on top of all of this, your father’s ghost came to you, asking you to avenge his death? What would you do?”

Whoa! That’s heavy. How did I miss that the first time I read it? This story wasn’t boring or hard to understand. This story was human. It was big drama, something that could happen today. When I saw it that way, I could see the story in my head and fully comprehend what Shakespeare was trying to say about the dangers of ambition and revenge and the importance of loyalty and forgiveness.

I was an English major, so I wasn’t done with Shakespeare. I had to take a course called Shakespeare. In that course, I read every play and poem Shakespeare has ever written, and my appreciation for Shakespeare grew. I can now say with informed confidence that Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers ever to live.

When I became the teacher teaching Shakespeare, I carried my own experiences with me. I wanted to awaken in my students an appreciation and love for Shakespeare. I wanted to give them the fire Mrs. Furst gave me my senior year of high school. I knew I had to deal directly with the barriers and be on my A-game.

How to Make Your Students Fall in Love with Shakespeare

Here are the strategies that worked for me:

1. Start with Context.

Don’t just jump into the play headfirst without introducing it and giving students a better understanding of Elizabethan culture and Shakespeare’s life. Documentaries and essays galore exist. Students find learning about the Globe Theatre and how plays were performed back then interesting. In my class, we would watch a video, and I would have the students write down 10 important facts about Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era. After finishing the documentary, I would allow students to share what they wrote.

Another strategy is having the students read the textbook’s introduction and create Cornell Notes for the intro formulating questions that could be used to quiz the other students. I would put the students into groups and have each group present on a section of the introduction ending with the questions they created in their Cornell Notes.

2. Break the Language Barrier.

Teach students to use footnotes and side-by-side modern translations to understand the archaic language. Create a reference list of commonly used archaic words. It is also very beneficial to print a list of characters and their descriptions to reference while reading the text. In a story with so many characters, it is easy to get confused about who is who.

Using CliffsNotes or something like CliffsNotes, read the summary of each act before reading the actual act. If students get lost or confused about what is happening while reading, they can refer back to the CliffsNotes to increase their understanding.

3. Scaffold and Diversify Reading Strategies.

Act 1: Read aloud line-by-line as a class, pausing frequently to summarize, discuss, and ask questions to check for understanding. The teacher should do the reading and summarizing because getting students to read aloud at this stage will probably create a distraction. Most students will struggle to pronounce words correctly or use the right voice inflections.

Act 2: Use an audio recording to read along with the book, stopping periodically for clarification, discussion, and questioning, just not as much as you did in Act I.

Act 3: Let students act out roles to deepen their connection to the text. By this point, they should be more familiar with the storyline and the correct ways to pronounce words.

Acts 4 & 5: Watch the play to bring the story to life. Plays are meant to be performed and watched, not just read. It will help some students to have their books open to follow along with the written text and to keep their character descriptions and CliffsNotes nearby to clarify any misunderstandings about what is happening. Watching the play will allow for increased analysis of the setting, costumes, stage instructions, and other visual aspects of a play.

4. Use Formative Assessments

Quiz students after each act to check comprehension. Use the results to tailor your teaching. Offer extra help for struggling students to prevent them from falling behind. Don’t go to Act II if students don’t understand Act I. They will just continue to be lost.

5. Make It Relatable and Interesting.

We have to sell the story to our reluctant students. Present it as a soap opera emphasizing the controversy and big drama. All of Shakespeare’s plays are interesting once you understand them. There is always big drama, Jerry Springer-styled drama. Emphasize the relevant timeless themes: friendship, loyalty, revenge, ambition, unrequited love, betrayal, forbidden love, etc.

Bridge the gap between Shakespeare and modern life by comparing themes to contemporary literature, movies, or even songs. Continue to reference whatever work you used as a bridge and make comparisons and contrasts throughout the play to increase understanding.

For example, my novelette, Perfect Imperfection, would be a great bridge to Romeo and Juliet. In Perfect Imperfection, Riley Davis, a 17-year-old aspiring actress, tried out for Juliet’s role in Romeo and Juliet. Riley’s parents don’t approve of her choice to pursue acting as a career, and she, like Juliet, had many other obstacles in her path. Still, Riley became inspired and empowered by Juliet’s resolve to follow her heart’s desires and pursue her passion, Romeo, regardless of what her parents say or think.

On the surface, the African-American girl from Atlanta seems to have nothing in common with Juliet, the rich white girl from Verona. Yet, she has much in common with her because there are aspects of the human experience that are timeless and transcend place, race, or economic status. Riley and Juliet are both strong, defiant, and passionate in their resolve. They are both strong and determined young women.

Always find ways to make this crucial point clear to your students:

Human beings are more alike than different, and there are timeless themes in the human experience that bind us through time and space.

Help your students turn mirrors into windows and see themselves and the people they know in the characters. Help them see the larger lessons and why they still matter.

5. Incorporate the Arts

Shakespeare’s works inspire creativity. Have students rewrite monologues in modern language, compose songs or raps, or create visual art based on scenes from the plays. These activities deepen comprehension and make the experience more engaging.

Why It Matters

Shakespeare wrote about universal themes that transcend time, race, and class. His works explore what it means to be human, offering lessons on love, loyalty, ambition, and forgiveness. When students see themselves in his characters, they realize that Shakespeare isn’t some distant, irrelevant figure — he’s a storyteller for all of us.

Friends and colleagues, these suggestions only scratch the surface. I could write a book on this topic, but these are the major strategies that will help students enjoy and comprehend Shakespeare better.

Remember: Teach the historical context first, help students understand the archaic language, scaffold and diversify the reading strategies, check for understanding with formative assessments and use the info to inform how you proceed, use contemporary literature as a bridge to the text, use the arts, and make it fun, interesting, and relatable.

And remember, Shakespeare wrote more than tragedies. The comedies and romances are amazing. I have no idea why we dwell in the tragedies. Shakespeare has so much more to offer the modern-day reader.

What strategies will you try? What strategies have you used to teach Shakespeare that worked well for you? Do share. Thank you for reading and responding.

All Amazon links are affiliate links. Please subscribe and visit by website for merch, books, and other positive, uplifting content. http://saltandlightcreations.net.

Check out my new novelette Perfect Imperfection. It would make a great bridge to Romeo and Juliet.

https://amzn.to/4g7TeT5