Links & Books

FILM-RELATED WEBSITES

More on the Hobart Shakespeareans

HobartShakespeareans.org
Visit the official site of the Hobart Shakespeareans online to see more pictures, a list of colleges former students are attending and information on how you can support the students of Room 56.

Donors Choose
At this innovative not-for-profit website, teachers across the country can submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become a reality when concerned individuals choose projects to fund.

Oprah's Angels: Featured Use Your Life Award
When Oprah heard about the work that Rafe Esquith was doing in central Los Angeles, she devoted a show to tell the story of his amazing students. Along with the honor of the "Use Your Life" award recognition, Oprah's foundation awarded Rafe $100,000 which he used to set up a charitable fund for his students and Gateway computers donated 25 desktop computers to Rafe's classroom.

UCLAlumni magazine: Rafe Esquith
Every month, the UCLAlumni magazine spotlights an alumnus or an organization both in print and on their website. This article about Rafe, who graduated from UCLA in 1981, highlights the awards he's won over the years and his exceptional teaching abilities. (February 2003)

Education World magazine: Fifth-Grade Teacher Introduces Students to Travel and Shakespeare
This article focuses on Rafe's unique curriculum and the success his students have achieved in their high school and college careers. (March 2003)

RESOURCES

Shakespeare Online

The Folger Shakespeare Library
Located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, the Folger is home to the world's largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art.

Shakespeare Online
This exhaustive site includes a glossary, a detailed timeline, a biography and a comprehensive list of links to other Shakespeare related content available online.

MIT: The complete works of William Shakespeare
Download any of Shakespeare's plays at this comprehensive site. They have been offering downloadable versions of the plays since 1993.

University of North Carolina: The Institute of Outdoor Drama
Dramas, plays and festivals are listed alphabetically by location and category.

Harper Audio: Shakespeare
Hear Shakespeare's sonnets read by Sir John Gielgud and two plays, "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Julius Caesar."

Cable in the Classroom: Shakespeare: Subject to Change
This is the first installment in a series of projects by Cable in the Classroom that demonstrate the educational power of broadband. It is very engaging with activities for students and video clips of famous Shakespeare performances.

State of Arts Education

Ad Council: Arts Education
This website features an wide range of primers on key issues related to arts education. Here, the benefits of an art education are outlined along with suggestions for how parents can begin their childrens' art education at home.

Arts Education Partnership: No Subject Left Behind
The Arts Education Partnership is a national coalition of arts, education, business, philanthropic and government organizations that promotes the arts in education. This document investigates the role of arts education in light of the No Child Left Behind Act.

National Art Education Association
A group of over 22,000 art instructors from across the United States, the National Art Education Association offers useful materials including downloadable posters for their "Where's the Art?" campaign, which sought to focus the nation's attention on art education policy.

Arts and Business Council: National Arts Forums Series
The Metlife Foundation and the Arts and Business Council has teamed up to present this national series of forums on a number of arts-related issues including the funding of arts education.

Americans for the Arts
This nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping Americans participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.

Also on PBS and NPR

PBS.org Websites

In Search of Shakespeare
Based on the program that premiered in 2004, this site explores William Shakespeare's life and works. Be sure to check out the section "For Educators," which includes resources for teaching and studying Shakespeare in the classroom as well as a multimedia database. (2003)

Masterpiece Theatre: The Merchant of Venice
The site to the Masterpiece Theatre production includes historical information, a guide on how to teach Shakespeare's plays, and other interactive learning resources. (2002)

Masterpiece Theatre: Othello
Read interviews with the screenwriter and the main actor, the plot summary, historical background on Shakespeare's life, and commentaries. (2002)

Frontline: The Shakespeare Mystery
Read about the debate around Shakespeare's identity and the possibility that he may have been the Earl of Oxford. The site also includes viewpoints from notable scholars, the reactions to the program, and the transcript. (2003)

Frontline: Much Ado About Something
This site explores whether Shakespeare could have been Christopher Marlowe, the other famous 16th-century playwright and poet, and includes opposing viewpoints on who the true author of Shakespeare's plays might be. (2003)

PBS TeacherSource: Concepts Across the Curriculum
The feature for February 2004, Shakespeare and the Renaissance, contains classroom activity ideas for Grades 3 through 12 and links to other PBS and recommended resources. (2004)

NPR Stories

All Things Considered: Rafe Esquith Offers His Fiery Teaching Methods
Rafe Esquith is a trail-blazing, fast-talking, fifth-grade teacher who has racked up a slew of awards for his work at a public school in Los Angeles. Ninety-two percent of the children at the school live in households below the poverty level, but Esquith's students have reached the pinnacle of academic and artistic success. His fifth-graders are already tackling high-school fare: algebra, philosophy and Shakespeare. (January 2007)

Morning Edition: A Very Hip 'Julius Caesar'
Morning Edition discusses the recent revival of Julius Caesar starring Denzel Washington and the play's modern take on Shakespeare's play. (April 2005)

Day to Day: Jonathan Freedland
Jonathan Freedland, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian, discusses the 2004 film version of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and the traces of anti-Semitism displayed. (December 2004)

Morning Edition: Tracing Shakespeare
Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep hosts Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt as he speaks about his biography of William Shakespeare. (November 2004)

The Tavis Smiley Show: Cornel West
Commentator Cornel West discusses Shakespeare's Hamlet, and how it applies to the US today. (October 2004)

All Things Considered: British Library Puts Shakespeare Quartos Online
Bob Mondello discusses the earliest printed copies of Shakespeare's plays that have been put online in 2004. (September 2004)