Shakespeare for a New Age - “The Villainy You Teach Me . . .”: Shakespeare and AP English Literature

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Finn

Examining the effects of accountability pressures and the growing prominence of AP English, the essay explores what students actually learn about Shakespeare in the AP classroom. Drawing on wide research and a month observing an AP literature course studying Othello, it weighs the “new age” of Shakespeare against observed losses in teacher, student, and community engagement. It highlights how performance and writing practices can deepen linguistic discovery, while noting that inquiry and contextual discussion often fail to follow.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time11 min

AccessFree to download

The AP English context and accountability pressures

Research approach and classroom observation

The good news: resources and performance-based learning

Writing exercises and student engagement

The problem: limited inquiry and exam-centered teaching

Missed discussion after historical revelations

Shakespeare for a New Age “The Villainy You Teach Me . . .”: ShakespeareandAP English Literature MARY JANELL METZGER dvanced Placement English and Shakespeare share a kind of cult status these days: both are considered ready prescriptions for our “ailing schools” and the students who populate them. AP English, with its rigorous curriculum of reading, writing, and analysis, culminates in a test that has the virtue of winning its better scorers the financial rewards of college credit. Pressured by parents, legislators, and district administra tors to offer proof of student learning, AP English is tempting given its original aim to prepare students for achievement beyond the high school classroom. For these reasons, AP A courses are now mandated in several states and exam fees guaranteed by state budgets in as many more. And, as AP teachers will tell you, if there isone writer who may appear in successive years on the AP literature exam, it is Shakespeare. Teachers may debate the merits of many American and British writers, from the medieval to the modern, but you would be hard pressed to find an AP English teacher who forgoes Shakespeare. As a college teacher of Shakespeare, I set out recently to discover something about what the connection between state drives for accountability, the growing popularity ofthe AP English class, and the teaching of Shakespeare means for students at the high school level. I’ve long been interested in the nature of my students’ previous experience with Shakespeare, though reliant on their own necessarily brief and subjective accounts. What do students learn about Shakespeare in anAP English class, and how do they learn it? How does the connection between content and method prepare them for English classes like mine a few years down the road, or for the challenges of self-determination that await them once their secondary years are over? In order to find answers to these questions, I read widely in the literature about AP English, haunted the Col- lege Board-sponsored e-mail discussion list dedicated toAP English teachers, and, most importantly, spent a month in a local AP literature classroom as students studied Shakespeare’s Othello. What I learned from these experiences and research suggests that the “new age” of Shakespeare may well bea sad one. Certainly, I came away disheartened, grieving for the losses of teachers, students, and community that I regularly witnessed during my study. While my experience of AP English constitutes but a snapshot of life with Shakespeare intoday’s high school, I believe that it is fairly representative for reasons I’ll soon make clear. Let me start with the good news. The resources for high school English teachers of Shakespeare have never been better. Thoughtful and provocative assignments for reading, writing about, and performing Shakespeare are abundant and easily accessible by way of the Internet and the bookstore. Thanks in great part to the Folger series on teaching Shakespeare, many teachers have abandoned the traditional and thoroughly deadening practice of making their students sit for days reading aloud a Shakespeare they find nonsensical and boring. Instead, like the teacher I observed, they get their students on their feet, playing in the best and 22 september 2002 Copyright © 2002 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. most grave sense of the word with Shakespeare’slanguage, characters, and dramatic juxtapositions. In simply being Iago “on-stage,”the students I watched discovered the dreadful pleasures ofIago’s speech as they stood in the light of their peers’ focus. Shakespeare’s love of his malevolent figures is never clearer than when students recognize the intellectual and linguistic power he gives them. Attempting to block the first scenes of Desdemona’s married life, those same students realized the problem of her position in trying to figure out the literal movements and expression of her

FAQs

What prompted the author to study Shakespeare teaching in AP English classes?

The author investigates how state-driven accountability and the popularity of AP English connect to Shakespeare teaching at the high school level, using both literature research and direct classroom observation.

What does the author consider the “good news” for teaching Shakespeare in high school?

Resources for teachers are described as stronger than ever, including internet and bookstore access and Folger-based approaches that replace deadening read-aloud routines with performance and active classroom engagement.

What main concern does the author raise about the AP classroom experience?

The author reports that inquiry and open discussion rooted in the text and its historical context are often missing, especially when realizations about race, performance, and cultural treatment of Shakespearean figures do not lead to further questions.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Finn