Booking and details
Dates Fri, Jan 27 - Sat, Jan 28, 2023
Tickets $500 non-Teacher Members, $450 Teacher Members
Duration 10:00am-5:00pm ET
Get ready to go deep into the Folger Method in this two-day course taught by Dr. Deborah Gascon and Amber Phelps, high school teachers extraordinaire and authors of the Romeo and Juliet unit that will be central to the Folger Guide to Teaching Romeo and Juliet (to be published by Simon and Schuster in late 2023). Together, they will guide you through the principles and the essential practices that provide you, and all your students, with a way to approach not just Romeo and Juliet, but any complex text.
At the end of these two days, you will have experienced all parts of this proven method, you will see how it applies to teaching Romeo and Juliet and all kinds of complex texts, you will have practiced teaching and learning this way, and we will send you off with new techniques, new confidence, and new materials.
The Folger Method unleashes the potential of every reader to understand Shakespeare and other complex texts and to make real insights into literature without teacher explanation. Through this highly effective set of principles and strategies for helping all students grapple with complex texts, the Folger is revolutionizing how not just Shakespeare, but literature is taught. The Folger Method is an engine for educational equity that enables all students to own—and enjoy—the process of reading closely, interrogating texts, collaborating with peers, and creating meaning. Over and over again, teachers call this way of teaching and learning “transformative.”
CEU CREDITS: 25. 1 graduate credit available through Trinity Washington University for an additional $125
Faculty
Dr. Deborah Gascon
Dr. Deborah Gascon is a National Board Certified teacher who teaches English and Journalism in Columbia, SC. She also taught English in Romania on a Fulbright Teacher Exchange. Deborah is a 2012 Teaching Shakespeare Institute alum and a Folger Summer Academy mentor teacher. Her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction is from The University of South Carolina; her dissertation is about the teaching of Shakespeare to increase student comprehension, empathy, and awareness of gender and race issues. When she isn’t teaching, she loves to attend her weekly tap dance class, play tennis, travel to new places, and dig in the dirt. Deborah is also a contributor to the upcoming The Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare (expected 2024).
Amber Phelps
Amber Phelps teaches in both the International Baccalaureate English Literature HL and AP Literature programs in Baltimore, MD at Baltimore City College. She is an alum of both Teach for America and the Folger Shakespeare Library’s 2012 Teaching Shakespeare Institute.