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Website
Shakespeare Globe Trust

Twelfth Night

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Whether you choose to include Twelfth Night in your course or whether Shakespeare's comedy has been thrust upon you, be not afraid to incorporate an interactive resource into your study of Shakespeare's tale of loss, love, and identity....
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Study Guide
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Penguin Books

A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
With all due respect to Beatrice, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing speaks with both mirth and matter. With the help of this guide, readers will fall in love with the "skirmish of wit" between Beatrice and Benedick, the hysterical...
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Study Guide
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Penguin Books

A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
It's a wise teacher who knows their pupils well enough to tackle using The Merchant of Venice as a whole-class reading. This 40-page teaching guide may not glitter but is filled with nuggets that will prove invaluable to those new to...
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Activity
Poetry4kids

Writing Riddles

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
What's got 60 eyes, 150 fingers, and an endless number of ideas? Your language arts class! Challenge young writers to come up with clever riddles with an online poetry lesson.
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Activity
Poetry4kids

How to Write Funny Poetry — Chapter 4: Making It Funny

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
You've got your topic—now how do you make your poem funny? Explore ways to make a poem humorous, including puns, exaggeration, silly words, and surprising endings, with a helpful poetry lesson.
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Handout
Deer Valley Unified School District

Close Reading: Analyzing Mood and Tone

For Students 9th - 12th
The AP Literature and Composition exam is all about close reading. Test takers are presented with a passage and asked to analyze how an author uses literary devices to create a desired effect. Prepare your students for the exam with a...
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Handout
California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc

Poetic Devices

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Have everything you need to know about the elements of poetry with a nine-page handout. Split into four categories—word sounds, meanings, arrangement, and imagery—budding poets may reference terms, read definitions, descriptions, and...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Homophones: Fun with Puns

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
What is a homophone for aloud? Or right? Fifth graders complete a list of 24 homophones, choosing another word that sounds like a given word but has a different meaning. At the bottom of the page, they write punning sentences to practice...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Exploring the Power of Puns

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Read and analyze a variety of Shakespearean and contemporary puns using Visual Thesaurus computer software. Middle and high schoolers analyze a pun as a class; in small groups they analyze a Shakespearean pun using contextual clues and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Makes Jokes Funny?

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Explore how language is used for comic effect. Middle schoolers determine which of the three formulas for jokes (double meanings, unexpected outcome, humorous mental image) make each of 18 classic, corny examples funny. They complete a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Playing with Puns

For Teachers 12th
"O pun" the door on this activity. Have your pupils compare the puns and word play in scenes from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to those in Gary Blackwood’s The Shakespeare Stealer. Warm up and introductory activities, as well as...
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PPT
Curated OER

Errors vs. Rhetorical Devices

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Is there a difference between writing errors and employing rhetorical devices? This presentation argues that there is a difference, but it might be a finer point than one would think. Addressing double entendre, oxymorons, and parody,...
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PPT
Curated OER

Ambiguity and Puns

For Teachers 12th - Higher Ed
Get a giggle from this presentation about puns and ambiguity. From ad campaigns to old jokes to pictures of animals made out of vegetables, the slides are amusing, informative, and bizarre. The presentation spends more time providing...
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PPT
Curated OER

The Pillsbury Doughboy

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Mourning the death of the Pillsbury Doughboy (from a yeast infection and pokes in the belly), this presentation discusses the use of puns, metaphors, and polysemes. The slide show continues by discussing other popular metaphors and...
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PPT
Curated OER

Headlines

For Teachers 9th - 12th
See the effects of puns, letter play, alliteration, and rhyme in newspaper headlines. Writers use such language effects to have their headline stand out. Examples are given with a slide prompting practice at the end. Use in a journalism...
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PPT
Curated OER

Linguistic Humor and Language Play

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
By George, there are so many literary devices illustrated here! Help your pupils create interest in their writing by presenting one or two of these literary devices at a time. The slides contain examples and beg participation from the...
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Worksheet
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Curated OER

Shakespearean Puns

For Students 8th - 12th
Tickle your funny bone with a worksheet that presents five famous puns drawn from Shakespeare's Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing. Readers identify the play on words as a homographic or homophonic pun. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Playing with Puns

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students examine the wit of characters in two plays. In this drama lesson, students read The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary L. Blackwood and Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. Students analyze the puns used in both plays and write essays that...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Punning Vocabulary

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze and practice presenting vocabulary words in out of the ordinary ways with word play, frisky words and puns. They also identify the correct definition of each word and then use them in gimmicks to add flair and fun to the...
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PPT
Curated OER

Puns

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Nothing's better than the sound of children's laughter. This humorous presentation should have your young learners laughing. Jokes and puns are the focus. Classics such as, "Why did the turkey cross the road?  To prove he wasn't...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Puns

For Students 4th - 8th
In this puns worksheet, students create puns of their own after reading examples of puns. Students read 12 examples of puns on this worksheet.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Goldilocks and the Three Hares

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students read the book Goldilocks and the Three Hares and complete activities to go along with it. In this Goldilocks and the Three Hares lesson plan, students complete activities on puns, facts about weasels, rabbits and hares, and more.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Visual Puns or Composite Imagery

For Teachers 1st - 9th
Students discover art that contains composite imagery and visual puns. They create their own picture of composite imagery and explain the visual pun. Students develop skills using the drawing media.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan for Puns

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students examine what puns are and how they are useful in poetry. They examine how they are used in advertising slogans, Valentines, and everyday language. They create posters depicting their favorite pun.