Fear no Shakespeare, the Hobart kids don’t.

While watching The Hobart Shakespeareans, what seemed to be most apparent in Rafe Esquith’s classroom was the level of engagement the students had in each of the activities they performed. From one of the very first scenes, it is quite clear that Esquith uses certain teaching practices that hold the students attention and keeps them actively involved. For example, instead of giving the students paper assignments or packets for them to practice their math skills, a form teaching that is easy for a student to get distracted from and therefore is less likely to retain/comprehend, he reads to them math problems that use more than just one unit of counting. He gives them problems that don’t use strictly numbers, but different units of counting, such as yards, a bakers dozen, a fortnight, etc., and keeps the students attention by reading to them the different units and giving them certain mathematical processes to carry out for each unit given. By using this method, Esquith is retaining the focus of his students while simultaneously having them recall the amounts of the counting units he gives them in the problem all while sharpening their math skills. Not only does he use this type of approach while teaching his students math, he uses it in just about every lesson he gives.
A big emphasis in Esquith’s class, at least what was portrayed in the film, is reading. Just as he does in math, Rafe carries out his reading assignments in a such a way where the learning exercise actively involves the students participation. One important aspect of the books the students read is that they are books the students can relate to, which has a large impact on the success of the students reading ability. Simply put, if the student isn’t interested in the book then most likely they won’t read it or they won’t be interested in exploring the message of what they read which stimulates their thinking. When the students read these books, it is done in the classroom with everyone taking turns reading aloud as everyone else follows along. Reading in this way not only has each student actively participating, it also allows the students to hear how certain words are pronounced which they might not be familiar with, furthering their vocabulary and reading ability, and providing them with the sense of flow when reading.
Perhaps one of the biggest displays of Esquith’s ability to get his students to participate in the learning process is the plays the students perform. The plays are not apart of the academic curriculum, but an activity the students willingly volunteer for that takes place after school. When the student are involved in the plays, they get a better understanding of the work than they would by simply just reading it. Seeing and participating in the play brings the work to life, providing the students with more depth of the work and allowing them to further comprehend the actions of the characters. Having plays performed with the active participation of the students gives the kids many different means of making sense of the work by watching, listening, and acting out the story.
After having watched The Hobart Shakespeareans, it is clear that Rafe Esquith uses a multitude of different literacy practices that are very effective in teaching his students in many different areas of learning. By using learning experiences that have the students actively participate, he is able to teach these students in a way which they retain the lessons being taught and providing them with a better understanding of the material.