VIDEOS: Thug Notes does Hamlet and other Canonical tales

[Ryan Goble]

I'm not sure if I'm into this resource but certainly see the utility/humor in it. Although a majority of the language is actually classroom friendly I'm not sure I would would use it because it perpetuates negative stereotypes (while playing with them). It is not clear to me that a student would always read these texts on multiple levels without a lot of scaffolding around the concept of "thug" and "gangster."

So far Sparky Sweets PhD has stuck with the canon - dead white guys + a little Austin. You can check out the entire video collection at the ThugNotes YouTube channel.  Here is Hamlet and To Kill A Mockingbird samples. Would love to hear what other folks think.

[Ryan Goble]

Yeah, on second listen I was like - "oh, well maybe the language is too much (even with the bleeps)" - unfortunately, it is probably 100% not usable, but at least a giggle for teachers, eh?