Community reviews for Shakespeare in Bits: A Midsummer Night's Dream

As a former special education teacher, this is a great supplement for students to use while reading. It puts a visual right next to the text, as if the student is reading a live action comic book. This can be used for whole class instruction (via AppleTV), small groups, or for that individual student who needs that little extra supplement while reading. It is expensive for an app, but it can be money well spent if it helps a student, or if this is a play you will teach every year. It helps that the students can take notes and review these notes at any time. On another note, it's imperative that the student doesn't just go for the summaries and skip the majority of content. It's great for the student to take full advantage of the living actions, and the summaries, but should also read the play in full context.

I would love to work with this app with small groups or partners if I had access to more ipads, and the budget for purchasing the apps for more than one device. If classrooms had ipads for all students, it would be well worth the cost to purchase this app rather than a print version. If this were used as the text for a whole class read aloud, it would be so beneficial for students to have instant access to unfamiliar words as they follow along , and it would help to keep them engaged. While I do think it is helpful for students to hear the text spoken aloud, and see the text come to life, so to speak, the animated graphics lack expression that I think is important for students to see. I would definitely show them scenes of live actors performing the lines. Aside from the lack of live actors, this app really does have everything students need to understand the play, as well as a very thorough "Analysis" section which contains a plot summary, and notes on themes, imagery, language, notable quotes, and information about Shakespeare. Shakespeare in Bits has a version for several other noteworthy plays by Shakespeare.