AIBU to think she needs to read the book

[Reallynoreading]

A friend of mine is a really hardworking teacher, also the parent of two high needs children. She works really hard but has surprised with with this comment I saw from them.

She are going to be teaching a book to their class soon is watching the film of the book, when asked why not read the book they posted this comment -

Sorry X, I don't really have time to read. I work till midnight doing school work Monday - Thursday and later on Saturday and Sunday. I suppose it could be my Friday night read 😊 Come to think of it, I tried when I was 15 and didn't get very far.

AIBU to think of you are teaching a book (even in primary school) you need to read it your self?

Mostly I feel it’s sad that as a teacher she doesn’t have the time built into her working week to do some basic prep for her lessons, and this is a reflection of how difficult teaching has become and shows why so many are leaving.

So, she's teaching Romeo and Juliet and is watching the Baz Luhrmann film - is that right? If not, can you tell us what text she is teaching.

She's a primary teacher? What age is she teaching? I doubt they'll read whole plays with that age group, so I don't think she's doing anything wrong to be honest.

I show Year 11 the R+J with Leo. It's a bloody entertaining version and it really grabs them spend a whole lesson telling them not to mention guns in the exam

I bloody love Shakespeare. Not all kids do. Anything that gets them interested is fine by me 👍

One would normally expect a teacher of any subject to have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of their subject if they are going to be teaching it to others.

Well, they need to have enough understanding for their task, so it'll vary by the task. She's teaching it to primary school children, so she'll be conveying a lot less information, at a much lower level, than someone teaching it at A-level. Knowing enough to teach it well doesn't mean having an absolute mastery. I teach at university and in the first-year survey courses I have to teach some things that I'm not expert on - I'm not an expert on everything in my subject; no one is. But that's fine; what I need to know to teach a first-year survey course is very different to what I need to know to teach a specialised MA module.

fourmileswide - Yes, ‘one’ would. However, down rabbit hole of current state secondary education ‘one’ finds that if ‘one’ has an adult, any adult, able to stand up in front of a class then that’s just fine. I know of teachers timetabled to teach subjects about which they know absolutely nothing (I’m one of them) and completely unqualified staff teaching lessons with no training whatsoever, and the latter being paid a pittance to do so, I may add.

Anyway. It’s a primary level fiddle about with Shakespeare; they will get the gist of the plot and characters, make up some Shakespearean-style insults, look at a bit of the text, learn some unnecessarily complex grammatical terms and dress wooden spoons up in crowns or whatever. The teacher does not need more than a basic knowledge of the play.

So it’s changed from a play to a book, and she is teaching Primary pupils a book she read herself at aged 15, and now it is a a whole Shakespeare play these Primary kids are apparently going to be reading, a bit like A-level kids do? Get your story straight before you tell it.

Do you think you are a good friend OP?

• From a book to a play

Films should only be shown as interpretations of the original text anyway. So it's useless to show the film unless she is able to talk about the choices the director has made in relation to the original play - which she can't do if she hasn't read it!

She is very naive to be posting that sort of comment on social media.

OP didn’t specifically state she was primary. If she is, then watching the animated Shakespeare play, adapted for a primary audience, might be better for her LO and outcomes than reading the play and attempting to adapt it herself. Lots of materials around to support that.

Another aside. I am confused with the definition of "friend". In my life this is a person whom I like and respect.

As long as she's watching the actual play in dvd not an adaption it's as good as just reading the script,

I don't think that's true in all cases tbh, and this is likely to be one where it isn't. If it was a more modern play like The Crucible, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Pygmalion, etc I'd agree. But Early Modern English written in rhyming couplets can be very hard to follow if you aren't familiar with it. Unless I have studied a Shakespeare play in advance I struggle to follow what's happening on stage and rely heavily on the actions and reactions of the cast to understand what's happening. Even then I completely miss out on a lot of the humour, pathos and foreshadowing in the story. And I absolutely I don't get to appreciate the wit and beauty of the writing which is the real draw of a Shakespeare play.

But if I have studied the play (and I mean studied because despite Shakespeare's heavy influence on the evolution of modern English, it still takes work to fully understand) it is a completely different experience. Once well acted an understood Shakespeare play is literally poetry in motion. On of the best experiences of my life was watching a low budget but phenomenally acted production of Hamlet. It was electrifying but if I'd watched it the year before it would have meant nothing to me.

I don't think I'm alone in that. I have never been at a Shakespeare performance where it wasn't obvious that a large number of the audience were having varying degrees of difficulty keeping up. Where some were immersed, some were clearly concentrating to 'translate' the wording as they watched but were missing a great deal and others had just given up and were bored. Anyone (today) who can follow and genuinely appreciate a Shakespeare play if seeing it for the first time would have to be extremely familiar with his works and use of language and have studied many of his other works in depth. This teacher is unlikely to be one of those people as the plays studied in secondary school would be the mainstream plays that any Shakespeare aficionado would know backwards. And it's such a pity because school students experiencing Shakespeare for what is likely the first time are very unlikely to come to appreciate his works if the teacher doesn't have enough appreciation for it themselves to know that it generally needs to be read to be understood.

work smarter not harder

The mantra of every smart arse who hasn't got a clue but does enjoy poncing about in a smart suit delivering CPD.

Well, Helena the teaching profession can clearly learn from you and since there’s a recruitment and retention crisis, you could contribute towards ameliorating the consequences of it.

Show us all how to do it.

My DSis is a teacher and has a similar amount of free time. She listens to audiobooks in the car on her commute - it's the only way.

I've taught a Shakespeare play without reading it first. But I was a non-specialist history teacher. It was midsummer night's dream, I watched the film and the syllabus was detailed enough that it didn't matter.

I had no choice teaching English, lots of teachers have to teach outside their specialism. It was better than when they tried to get me to teach French.

If it’s Romeo and Juliet then she should be careful. I remember doing my GCSEs and a girl in my class was boasting she hadn’t read the book, just watched the Leonardo Di Caprio version a load of times. She got a D. The film misses out a bunch of plot points and the death scene is quite different.

I've taught a Shakespeare play without reading it first. But I was a non-specialist history teacher. It was midsummer night's dream, I watched the film and the syllabus was detailed enough that it didn't matter.

How did the students respond? For most people studying a Shakespeare play in school is the first (and possibly only) meaningful exposure they will ever have to his work. And if the teacher doesn't really love the work I don't think they will be able to inspire an appreciation of it in their students. I guess if you appreciate Shakespeare even a little but don't know the play you could still inspire your students if you treated it as a mutual voyage of discovery. That can actually be a better way of inspiring a child than trying to impart your own understanding. But it's an awful lot of work and so, so hard in a class of 20-30+ children.

It depends whether she is planning to watch the film of a staged version of the play - for example DS is doing Macbeth for GCSE English, and we will be taking him to see a live broadcast of the play from the National Theatre - or some souped up Hollywood version.

Ha ha you’ve just solved a mystery for me...well not really a mystery but dd recounted a very weird conversation in her English lesson.... easily explained if the teacher hadn’t actually read the book. Dd said it was just like the teacher hadn’t read the book or had Alzheimer’s... Duh