Recently, I visited the famous Globe Theater in London, which is a replica of the original where William Shakespeare produced his legendary plays.  Unlike audiences of today, Shakespeare wrote his plays for a crowd who was often rowdy, loud and didn’t pay attention.  In order to get the best seats in the house, audience members would get to the theater hours early and start drinking beer.  As you can imagine, after waiting for so long, the audience would not be that well behaved.  With those conditions in mind, I thought the following techniques that Shakespeare wrote into his plays were perfect ideas for classroom management:

1. Thinking Out Loud: Shakespeare wrote some of the dialogue of his plays as monologues to share with the audience what the actors were thinking.  The famous line, “To be or not to be” is Hamlet thinking out loud.  Now, we don’t often do this in real life.  But in the classroom, students can’t read teachers’ minds so it helps to do some thinking out loud.  This helps cue students into what thought processes the teacher uses to reason through problems, or what certain behaviors might make the teacher feel.  For example, when the class doesn’t behave well, the teacher can say, “I feel sad that we won’t have enough time to explore these very interesting topics.  Let’s see how much we can squeeze in the remaining time!”
2. Asking the Audience Questions: I didn’t realize this about Shakespeare’s plays, but another way he captured the audience’s attention was to ask them questions.  You may have seen this in the way some speeches include rhetorical questions.  When we pause to ponder a question posed by the speaker, we’re naturally curious what that response might be, so we stay tuned for the rest of the message.  Similarly, when teachers provide some sort of teaser question, it activates the background knowledge of the topic from each student, which makes them more receptive to the lesson that is about to unfold.
3. Colorful costumes and props: Any performance is enhanced by elements in the performance that go beyond the sound of rehearsed lines.  Rich visuals like elaborate sets and costumes help the audience feel more immersed in the story.  Even sound effects like the low rumble of thunder would make the audience double-check the weather forecast.  Learning is a multi-sensory experience, so teachers have the opportunity to incorporate something fun in their lesson delivery, like a cool prop or some music.  While it doesn’t have to be an elaborate get-up, whatever the teacher does to enhance the lesson could make it more memorable.

For the last point, just make sure the costume or props don’t go overboard, as in the case of a sound effect in Shakespeare’s play about Henry VIII.  To announce the arrival of an important character on the stage, the sound effects team lit a cannon, and some of the ignited material landed on the roof of the Globe, starting a huge fire which eventually burnt the entire theater to the ground.  For more about that story, check out this Youtube video.