The Bard in the Hood

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My kids have no idea how much they have in common with Shakespearean characters! This is my first year as a junior high reading teacher in a high poverty area with an overwhelming majority of Hispanic students, many of them English Language Learners. Our modest school library is very focused on the K-6 set. What I have found in my junior high students is not kids who are too cool or busy to read, but kids who have not had access to the myriad of great young adult literature out there. They are young people who do not realize how exemplary they are as characters themselves, how grand the struggles of their lives have been, and how great is their potential to relate it to the great stories of the world.

We are a Title 1 school and our money for tutoring and everything else has been delayed this year. My principal says had they not planned ahead, we wouldn't have even basic supplies right now. Our district is a failing district, but our school has always met the standard. The junior high in particular has fantastic test scores and great discipline. However, because of No Child Left Behind, there is less money in our district in general, and no funding for new texts. The low score of the district has nothing to do with our school. I have never seen a place with such great, sincere school pride. During their student council election speeches, several of the candidates described how their siblings, parents, and even grandparents went to our school. And since it opened in 1953, none of the students have read Shakespeare! My kids and I are going to change that, one way or another.

Last year I taught Shakespeare in a much more suburban, white community. I was reticent but hopeful about teaching Midsummer Night's Dream to this population. But during the first week, after I met my students and observed them with their heads bent over their desks earnestly working, I knew that they could do it! I have a fantastic audio version of the play that I know will pique their interest, we just need the texts to go with it. I am requesting a copy for each student. I chose the Shakespeare Made Easy to help facilitate my English Learners and lower readers.

Please show my kids that the world believes that they are just as smart and capable as students around the country who are more privileged than they are. We need to experience Shakespeare so they can understand how their problems relate the grandiose issues of the human condition-- to see that there are King Lears, Pucks, and Hamlets walking the streets of their neighborhood. I promise it could not go to a group of more hard working, respectful, and deserving future Shakespeare fans!