- What formative classroom experiences did you have as a student in your K-12 and undergraduate education that may have shaped your beliefs today about the teaching of Shakespeare? What modes of learning — performance-based, reading-based, other — were most predominate in your own secondary and undergraduate experience?
- Can you think of any particular teachers or professors who were particularly influential in shaping your understanding of Shakespeare and/or teaching?
- Were there any non-classroom experiences you recall from your adolescence and young adulthood that shaped your understanding of teaching and/or Shakespeare? Have you been involved in any theatrical productions? If so, what roles did you take on?
- Did your parents or any other family members play any role in shaping your interest in Shakespeare? (In these first four questions, I am essentially asking if you have any stories from your student experiences that you would like to share.
- Can you think of any memorable moments as a teacher or anecdotes from the classroom that you could share? Are there any particular “ah-ah” moments you’ve had as a teacher that challenged you to think differently about teaching and/or Shakespeare? (Essentially, I’m asking if you have any favorite stories you might like to share from your experiences as a teacher.)
- Can you think of any books or scholarly thinkers who were most influential in shaping the way that you understand Shakespeare and/or teaching?
- Today, it is virtually impossible to find a dissenting voice in the educational scholarship against performance-based methods. What do you see as the turning point historically in the debate on the use of performance-based methods in classrooms? The Folger? An scholarly interest in performance in the fifties and sixties?
- Some have suggested that despite their presence in educational scholarship the past decades, performance-based methods are still not the predominate methods used in teaching Shakespeare in everyday K-12 and undergraduate classrooms. Do you agree or disagree with this assertion? Why?
- In what ways do you think that state and national standards combined with standardized state assessments have influenced the teaching of Shakespeare? In what ways do you think that standards and assessments will influence the teaching of Shakespeare as the 21st century progresses?
- This last question is a bit fantastical and imaginative. If you were able to travel backwards in time for just one day, to the time of Shakespeare, to do one day’s worth of research, what you spend your day doing? Would you study some theatrical element of the Globe Theater? Is there a particular passage you would like to see done in performance, or even perhaps ask Shakespeare about himself? Essentially, I am asking you which “secret” from Shakespeare do you find most intriguing; what impossible bit of knowledge, given the chance, would you most like to uncover?
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