Shakespeare's plays are the apex of western achievement in the humanities and as such afford a highly fertile mechanism for teaching gifted elementary and secondary students. Studying Shakespeare facilitates the understanding of an earlier form of the English language and illustrates the evolutionary nature of language. Aside from a sense of historical continuity, reading and viewing Shakespeare can help students to develop a love of both the sound and sense of language. Analytical and imaginative thinking can be stimulated by the figurative speech in Shakespeare's plays, which are primarily written in verse, and poetry by virtue of its compression of language is highly challenging. Reading the plays promotes knowledge of and discussion about history, psychology, anthropology, sociology, government, and ethics. In teaching Shakespeare, teachers should familiarize students with the story, or plot, of the play; if they are reading the play, they should also have a scene-by-scene synopsis to make it easier to follow the play. The play can be discussed as both a literary work and a dramatic production. Students should be encouraged to visualize the play's events and the characters' actions and reactions. Students could act out the entire play, or focus on passages (such as soliloquies) which can be analyzed critically. (CB)