We recently received fantastic feedback from a home educator who contacted Makewaves to let them know of their experience using Mission Shakespeare. It’s great to hear of people’s experiences and the impact of Mission Shakespeare.

I thought the Shakespeare badges were terrific and am really excited when partners make new badges available aligned with topical news, and other events like Shakespeare week - Kudos to Mission Shakespeare and Makewav.es! As home educators we don’t make use of Makewav.es much of the year as most of the badge content seems to be created by and for schools, so it is a rare treat when good quality badges are launched that draw us back.

I thought there was a good range of choices for different aged (and -abled) children, and we selected one of each of the Groundling and Nobles range (although my daughter is nearly 9 and therefore the Nobles were the type geared to her age group). Furthermore I appreciated the mix of ‘making’ tasks [drawing, composing, colouring, etc.], ‘acting/music-making’ and ‘writing’ tasks as it would not have been as compelling for my daughter to just do written tasks, and it helped to bring Shakespeare to life in the multi-sensory way he would have intended! My daughter didn’t fancy trying any of the musically-inclined activities but I thought they were a great addition to the suite of proposed activities. However, she particularly enjoyed making a stop-motion short of a scene from The Tempest!

We did the badges challenges alongside a FutureLearn MOOC called Exploring English: Shakespeare (geared to learners of English as a foreign language) and found doing so particular helpful. It might have enhanced the experience of the badges if there were links to some of the content we had with the MOOC: shorts of different scenes from Shakespeare’s work, interviews with actors describing different characters, etc.

All in all we enjoyed the new badges and look forward to more great content from makewav.es!

Want to get involved?

View all the Mission Shakespeare badges and join in the fun at:

makewav.es/shakespeareweek/

What is Mission Shakespeare?

The DMLL is working with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) to create an interactive platform that will be used as part of the Shakespeare Week activities that they organise for primary school children. The platform is hosted on Makewaves, a digital badges platform aimed at children under the age of 13. We have collaborated with SBT and Makewaves to develop a series of digital badges that will introduce primary school pupils to Shakespeare and Britain in his time. The site includes stories and activities designed to help teachers and pupils engage with Shakespeare in an age-appropriate and fun way. Read more here:

dmll.org.uk/projects/shakespeare-week-project/