This is a report on a three-year teaching project which was based on principles of problem-based and practical learning. Students were helped by professional directors and technical staff to generate short filmed extracts from Shakespeare plays which were then fashioned into teaching videos. A feature of each video was that all students were interviewed on camera at the end of the module with a view to appraising and analysing their own work. Translating Shakespeare from page to screen threw light both on the way the plays were constructed and also on the radical differences between the experiences of reading text and theatrical and screen representations.
As the project progressed, we developed and eventually made obligatory, a descriptive and then analytical learning journal, posted weekly using WebCT and forming part of their final assessment. After some resistance, the students acknowledged the worth of this work and we were able to respond quickly to comments made. In the UK, departments are under pressure to incorporate transferable or professional skills into their curricula: in this instance students enjoyed these new kinds of work and benefitted hugely, both professionally and intellectually.

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Keywords

• English literature
• Film-making
• WebCT
• Learning journal
• Group work
• Transferable skills
• Conceptual and practical learning

Person as Subject

• Shakespeare, William

(30 min. Conference Paper, English)