When Dr. Alexandra Parsons traveled to London in the summer of 2022 and took her seat on the hard wooden benches inside the Globe Theatre, she had no idea that the performance of Shakespeare’s play “King Lear” she was about to witness what would become a source of inspiration for her classroom in the Pine Crest Upper School English wing. The experience—visceral, immersive and alive—stayed with her. What if her ninth grade English students could feel what she had felt that day? What if they could step inside the Globe, or even onto the stage itself?
Dr. Alexandra Parsons at the Globe Theater
Thanks to the school’s partnership with OptimaEd and Pine Crest’s commitment to faculty innovation, Dr. Parsons made that happen.
After taking part in an optional schoolwide professional learning course in the summer of 2024 about using virtual reality in the classroom, Dr. Parsons worked with OptimaEd to design a custom unit that would bring her English I Honors students back to 16th-century England and into a reconstructed Globe Theatre. She had never used virtual reality (VR). “I put a VR headset on for the first time at Pine Crest,” she said. Over that summer, she worked closely with a curriculum designer from OptimaEd to envision the experience. They tested various possibilities, from walking through the cobblestone streets of Elizabethan London to staging scenes inside the Globe. While the theater itself had already been developed within the VR platform, Dr. Parsons customized the lesson plan to align with her instructional goals and vision.
Before students donned their headsets and picked up their hand controllers to step into Shakespeare’s world, she grounded them in the author’s life and times. Her students read selections from “The Age of Shakespeare” by Françoise Laroque, which provides visual and historical context for the playwright’s world, covering everything from medicine and folklore to monarchy and faith. Understanding this backdrop, and especially the significance of the Globe itself, gave students the cultural literacy they needed to engage fully with the experience ahead.
In this virtual environment, students were asked to perform Jacques’ famous “All the World’s a Stage” monologue from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” But they weren’t just memorizing and reciting it; they were also embodying it on the stage of the Globe Theatre, in avatar form, with their classmates’ avatars filling the surrounding tiers and gallery spaces as the audience. To deepen this experience and develop their VR skills, students were asked to incorporate FX props, virtual objects that could be placed, scaled and moved alongside them, drawn from a searchable online library within the platform. Students selected FX props, such as a gavel and a skull, as visual representations of the stages of life Jacques describes—the gavel symbolizing judgment in the justice stage and the skull representing the inevitability of death in life’s final stage—thereby deepening students’ literary analysis through symbolic expression.
Dr. Parsons' ninth grade student speaks with VR William Shakespeare at the Globe Theater
This immersive setup also had a noticeable impact on students’ performances. “In this virtual version of the ‘wooden O,’ as Shakespeare called the Globe, students felt less exposed and less judged,” Dr. Parsons noted. “Because they weren’t looking directly at one another, but instead at each other’s avatars, reciting Shakespeare aloud became less intimidating. As a result, students often felt more confident and more invested in their delivery.”
Students also had the opportunity to interact with a virtual Shakespeare avatar, asking questions about his writing habits, inspirations and favorite play.
While the VR unit stood on its own, it also served as a springboard into the class’s next major work, “Julius Caesar.” After learning about Shakespeare’s world and experimenting with performance, students were better prepared to dive into his historical play about persuasion and political betrayal.
“When people hear the word ‘innovation,’ they may think of robotics labs or makerspaces,” Dr. Parsons said. “But English teachers are innovating too. We’re finding new ways to foster students’ engagement with literature while also cultivating creativity and technological fluency. To me, that’s what future-ready learning really looks like.”
Ninth grade students visiting the Globe Theater during Dr. Parsons' class
Dr. Parsons believes these innovations also support the most essential future-ready skill of all: critical thinking. “In a world where students can now generate writing with a few clicks, it’s the critical thinking that matters most,” she said. “I believe the future of English classrooms will depend on how well we teach students to think critically by analyzing, reflecting on and engaging deeply with literature. Virtual reality is one tool that can support this work. It invites students to develop the 21st-century skills they’ll need in our rapidly changing world, no matter what the future holds.”
Her plans are already expanding. She hopes to build targeted VR experiences into additional texts and grade levels, such as exploring the Roaring Twenties during a 10th grade unit on Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and visiting a Holocaust memorial as part of a ninth grade unit on “Night” by Elie Wiesel.
This work is possible because of Pine Crest’s culture of support and philanthropic investment. “What I would want to say to philanthropic supporters of Pine Crest is ‘thank you,’” Dr. Parsons said. “Thank you for supporting us and believing in our vision for students. Your generosity is what allows us to turn ideas into action and give students unforgettable learning experiences that help prepare them for whatever comes next.”