In October 2009, Professor Stanley Wells, a leading Shakespeare scholar and chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, paid our island a visit.  As a grade 12 teacher of English, I had the opportunity to take five students to meet Professor Wells. 

This was not an opportunity to be missed in spite of the fact that we were only allowed to take five students from our Grade 12s. The head, Ms. Claire Felice Pace, and myself, deemed that the fairest way was to draw the names of the five students by lot, one from each of the four classes and a fifth one from any class, on one condition: the ones chosen had to impart what they had learnt by delivering a short presentation to the rest of their class.

Andre Azzopardi, Alex Gajewski, Daniel Micallef, Erica Vella and Rebecca Xuereb were the lucky students picked from Grade 12.

During his talk, Prof. Stanley Wells highlighted quirky aspects of Shakespeare's life which doubtlessly attracted the students' attention, particularly because of the conciseness and simplicity of language that marked his delivery.   Of particular interest to the students was his elucidation of the main themes present in the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth, which is set as an O' Level text.   At the end of his talk, the students were free to ask any questions and queries related to Macbeth.  This gave them a new insight into the play and related aspects of its composition, such as symbolism, character, stylistic devices and plot.

It was a good way to start off the scholastic year since during the final, crucial months before the Matsec exam, students cover the play in more depth in order to be able to tackle the variety of essay questions which the examiners might choose to set.  Professor Stanley Wells' visit helped in no small way to motivate the Grade 12 students as well as to contextualize and consolidate their knowledge of Shakespearian drama.