Visual Design in the English Classroom

Shakespeare is hard to understand. Shakespeare did not have an illustrator. For many students, understanding Shakespearean language and the plot structure of his plays can be very confusing. I believe using visual analysis to be crucial in interpreting Shakespeare's plays. I have included a few images of Playbill covers from around the world that I have used for students to discuss and analyze the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. 

 

Our students live in a visual world. They are consumed by media, social media, and images. I believe teachers need to adapt to the visual world our students are living in. It's our job to help interpret the Shakespearean play for them to see that this author's theme and message can still resonate with us today, hundreds of years later. 

I use these Macbeth playbill covers like a round-robin activity. Students have a piece of paper with questions on it. They look at the symbolism of the colors, the shapes, the image itself, the font of any lettering, etc...After they have looked at them all, they choose one they think is the most intriguing, and they write an in-class analysis comparing the playbill to the actual play. Their task then is to figure out why the illustrator drew the image the way they did and how it relates to Shakespeare's theme or message. 

This is just one way I use visuals in the classroom; I use them every day.