"Why it's time to give the Bard the heave-ho!"

The title of the opinion piece from The Independent seems to suggest throwing William Shakespeare into the ocean and letting him sink into oblivion. But that is not Brandon Robshaw's point. Dive into this list for hidden treasures.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 9 Unit 5's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: As You Like It, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, Is Shakespeare still relevant, Shakespeare marathon, Iraq learns from Shakespeare, How Shakespeare Changed Everything, Kentucky inmates turned actors, Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy, Texting Makes U Stupid, give the Bard the heave-ho
10 words 3 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. tribute
    something given or done as an expression of esteem
    As a tribute to Shakespeare this St. George's day, isn't it time we dropped him from the National Curriculum?
  2. putative
    purported
    The date of his death and the putative date of his birth neatly fall on our patron saint's day
  3. precious
    of high worth or cost
    his history plays chronicle our kings and queens and contain quotable patriotic gobbets ("This precious stone set in the silver sea," "We few, we happy few," etc.)
  4. uncanny
    surpassing the ordinary or normal
    an uncanny ability to coin memorable phrases which, in many cases, have passed into general usage
  5. compulsory
    required by rule
    But that cannot be the justification for making Shakespeare compulsory--to teach outdated idioms that no one under the age of 40 uses.
  6. enshrine
    hold sacred
    We need to think more clearly about the purpose of enshrining Shakespeare in this manner.
  7. aesthetic
    characterized by an appreciation of beauty or good taste
    If it is to teach those things that literature is supposed to teach--aesthetic pleasure, understanding of character, moral sensitivity, liberal humanist values, an inkling of the techniques by which literary texts work their magic--then Shakespeare is simply not delivering.
  8. contemporary
    belonging to the present time
    More contemporary texts may not offer quite such riches, but at least the kids could open the box.
  9. circumvent
    avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing
    in practice, many teachers circumvent the difficulty by teaching a fragment of Romeo and Juliet and then showing the class West Side Story.
  10. aversion
    a feeling of intense dislike
    Force-feeding children Shakespeare can only induce nausea and a lifelong aversion.
Created on Tue Sep 30 17:35:08 EDT 2014 (updated Tue Sep 30 18:21:23 EDT 2014)

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