> So when I ask them to code switch further into the recesses of linguistic history to read Shakespeare, the struggle is real.
Reading difficult texts is how you get better at reading?? If students are not struggling at all they are not learning. But the author seems more interested in validating students identities or whatever than actually helping them learn.
But Shakespeare is not "difficult", it's just extremely dated. Shakespeare was not at all difficult at the time, most of the plays would have been considered very easily accessible. They have a ton of simple humor and even puns. Most of them are just lost in translation because language has evolved in such a way that much of it no longer works and the cultural references are lost to time.
In the Shakespeare case I’m not even sure reading plays in their entirety is the best way to gain exposure. Plenty of good and reasonably faithful film versions out there.
Reading difficult texts is how you get better at reading?? If students are not struggling at all they are not learning. But the author seems more interested in validating students identities or whatever than actually helping them learn.