Read on Twitter
We are GO! Room is full, so I will attempt to livetweet on #ShakeRace https://twitter.com/acmrs_org/status/1285660735318695938
Turchi: there are new kids in town. Gen Z is now a powerful force in our classrooms and how we think about where society is. This compounded with the fact that traditional systems of knowledge transfer from generation to generation are falling apart. Who mentors whom? #ShakeRace
Turchi: the role hyperconnectivity plays in ideas of learning and value is crucial, particularly to Gen Zers. Influence now maybe matters more than affluence. #ShakeRace
Turchi: for Gen Zers, the self becomes the site of experiment. Gen Zers are very interested in defending causes related to identity--as a generation, they appear to be more vocally interested in issues of human rights. #ShakeRace
Turchi: it is very clear that Gen Zers will have a starkly bifurcated pre- and post-pandemic experience. The 'millennial' experience may no longer be accessible to Gen Z on 'the other side' of the pandemic. #ShakeRace
Turchi: our students do not think of Zoom as an exciting opportunity for dialogue and collaboration. The student experience and expectation of connectivity is fairly narrow. #ShakeRace
Turchi: Presence is still important to Gen Z's social activism. Students are no longer present in classrooms, but one of the leading examples of social activism (at least in the US) is the renaming of schools and academic buildings. #ShakeRace
Turchi: there is pretty strong evidence that students are having a very good lesson in the learning that happens outside of school. The learning that matters to them is less and less related to what happens in the classroom. #ShakeRace
Turchi: What, then, is the purpose of school if the world outside is more interesting? What is the role of the teacher at that point? #ShakeRace
Turchi: all of a sudden, 'independence' in terms of learning has taken on a whole new meaning. Thompson re-emphasises that if we are not attentive to shifting modes of learning in the way that we teach Shakespeare, Shakespeare may disappear from the curriculum #ShakeRace
Thompson: if we don't have a way to make the learning of Shakespeare coincide with the learning of 'truth' as Gen Z understands it, Shakespeare is done. #ShakeRace
Thompson: the notion of bringing identity into discussions of Shakespeare is now more important than ever.
Turchi: Self-directed learning also means that what's being learnt has to matter to *you* and what *you* can bring.
#ShakeRace
Turchi: Self-directed learning also means that what's being learnt has to matter to *you* and what *you* can bring.
#ShakeRace
Thompson: Shakespeare does allow us to talk about race/gender/sexuality/ability in honest terms, but the role of the teacher is to bring the framework to those discussions by attending to how their students are learning elsewhere #ShakeRace
Thompson: We need to intervene in the 'YouTube moment' and the role online platforms play in political commentary in order to make our work important to our students. #ShakeRace
Turchi: Parental engagement with learning material is not a universal experience for young students. The role of the teacher in these times is not only in assignment, but in nurturing attitudes. #ShakeRace
Thompson: The signing to the students should be that what we do here is about real life, about you, and about your identity and experiences. #ShakeRace
Turchi: Deferring moments of 'discovery' to later in a students' learning journey does not cut it.
Thompson: If you don't start your Shakespeare course with an engagement with what is currently happening in the world, you're closing off Shakespeare to your students. #ShakeRace
Thompson: If you don't start your Shakespeare course with an engagement with what is currently happening in the world, you're closing off Shakespeare to your students. #ShakeRace
Thompson: Approaching race in a 'colour-blind' fashion will be triggering to the students. It is not a neutral stance not to talk about race. The students will immediately smell the falsehood if 'universalism' rears its head #ShakeRace
Thompson: Think *really* critically about who your students are at this *particular* moment. If you're using performance-based techniques (either a/synchronous), engage with the kinds of performances students have already been exposed to. #ShakeRace
Thompson: Encourage students to engage with what they've been exposed to (including racial composition of the cast) and question how that chimes with the current political moment. Students can reach an understanding of how Shakespeare is implicated in the present #ShakeRace
Hands up who wishes they'd been taught by Ayanna Thompson and/or Laura Turchi 
#ShakeRace
#ShakeRace
Turchi: Acknowledge students' hunger to talk about who they are, who they might become, and how that dictates what they expect from Shakespeare.
Thompson advocates 'time outs' throughout the semester for the group to revisit whether goalposts in thinking have shifted #ShakeRace
Thompson advocates 'time outs' throughout the semester for the group to revisit whether goalposts in thinking have shifted #ShakeRace
Thompson acknowledges that this will likely have to happen through screens. Students need to be brought to a place of feeling that their online-based Shakespeare learning is as rich and important as what they learn from other online outlets #ShakeRace
Turchi: Expansion of online literacy is crucial in maintaining the momentum of discussion. We also need to think about how online discussion does not become performative or for the benefit of the monitoring instructor #ShakeRace
I love Ayanna's idea of asking students 'Is Shakespeare a statue?' at the outset of a course. #ShakeRace
Thompson: Shakespeare is the vehicle, not the destination. Use him as a means by which other complex texts can be understood. #ShakeRace
Q on how to introduce Shakespeare for the first time through an anti-racist lens (pressing in e.g. elementary school when students have no preconceptions). Turchi: questions of 'who looks right' in casting or what productions are shown is crucial. #ShakeRace
Thompson: students *have* been exposed to these familiar stories and tropes. Ask students what a 'lover'/'villain'/'powerful woman' looks like to them. #ShakeRace
Turchi: Give one character's voice to a lot of voices in the interactive classroom setting--multiple students can then claim the language rather than the role. #ShakeRace
Q: how to open up discussions about whiteness through Shakespeare (bearing in mind that mentioning race only when a POC is visible can be discouraging)? Thompson: if you're not in a diverse classroom, have students analyse whiteness as neutral/beautiful in these texts #ShakeRace
