My YouTube Playlist About Shakespeare

As high school English teachers, it is known that most students dread studying William Shakespeare.  To help teach this unit, I have gathered several videos and created a playlist for them on YouTube.  This playlist includes a miniature biographical video of William Shakespeare, modern movies that were inspired by Shakespeare's plays, and even a short video of a panel of actors discussing how Shakespeare has influenced them. 

The first two videos are of Andy Griffith.  One is Andy Griffith summarizing Hamlet and the other is clip from the show summarizing Romeo and Juliet.  The third video is the panel of actors discussing the relevancy of William Shakespeare and how his works have influenced the actors.  The fourth video is several movies that are directly correlated to Shakespeare's plays.  These include Hamlet and The Lion King, Twelfth Night and She's the Man, and Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You.  The fifth video shows seven different Disney films that depict scenes from various Shakespearean plays.  This might be fun to use in a compare/contrast assessment.  The final video in the playlist is the miniature biography of William Shakespeare.  It is brief, but thorough, using various experts and clips to support the information.

These videos are a way to bring Shakespeare into today for students.  They can be used to show students how Shakespeare inspires so many of the movies and books that we know and love.  As I find more videos to help with the teaching, I will continue to add them to the playlist.