"Royal Ties"

On a recent afternoon, the fifth- and sixth-grade students in Amy McKibben's classroom were excitedly acting out a scene from The Tempest, one of William Shakespeare's comedies.

It may seem heavy reading for children that young. But McKibben says that training she received through an Ohio State program inspired her to use Shakespeare to invigorate her classroom.

"Fifth- and sixth-graders are normally terrified of reading Shakespeare," McKibben says. "Working with The Ohio State University has given me all these new ways to approach it with them."

McKibben is one of 20 local teachers working with the university through a collaboration between Ohio State's Arts Initiative and the Royal Shakespeare Company, based in the bard's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. The teachers spent a week in England this summer, learning from members of the theatre company; back at home, they came to campus to work with Brian Edmiston, professor in Ohio State's School of Teaching and Learning.

Teachers in the program learned a technique called dramatic inquiry, which involves actively physically engaging students rather than lecturing.

"You can take the ideas and stand them up, dramatize them, move them around," says Brian Edmiston, a professor in the School of Teaching and Learning.

“It is just a blessing to have The Ohio State University right here in central Ohio.”
— Amy McKibben, middle school teacher

The teachers say the technique will be useful well beyond English class; they plan to use it in social studies and sciences classes at well. At Metro Early College High School, one teacher is having students act out the water table--something she thinks will help them understand a complex system. (Metro is a public school that emphasizes math, science, engineering, and technology, and is made possible through a partnership between Ohio State, Battelle, and the Educational Council.)

The program is slated to last three years, culminating in 2012 with a Young People's Shakespeare Festival.

Karen Bell, the Ohio State associate vice president who heads up the Arts Initiative, says the Ohio State/Royal Shakespeare Company partnership will allow the university to work with teachers who will "impact tens of thousands of local schoolchildren."

"This unique relationship that the Arts Initiative has created with the Royal Shakespeare Company has been a wonderful example of how the university goes out and gains expertise from an international partner and brings that expertise home," Bell says.

McKibben agrees.

"I honestly think it is the best thing I have done in education in the 10 years that I have been involved with it," she says. "It is just a blessing to have The Ohio State University right here in central Ohio."