Curated OER
Adapting Shakespeare's Classic from Romeo and Juliet
Students view a new adaptation of composer Charles Fran¿¿ois Gounod's opera "Romeo and Juliet", based on Shakespeare's 16th-century play. They conduct research on the era in which Shakespeare lived, write and respond to letters from...
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M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
Students compare lyrics from hip hop songs with monologues from Shakespeare's plays, and perform both for the class.
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Enter an Enchanged Wood with Shakespeare
Students research William Shakespeare and his literary works. They study a variety of literary terms and different elements of his plays. They also research the Globe Theatre and different elements of the theatre in general.
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The Shakespeare Crowd
Students study the life and times of Shakespeare. They read and analyze one of his plays and use the Internet and videos to gain an understanding of how Shakespeare engaged his audiences, then and still today.
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Crafting a Character - The Making of Shylock
Students, in groups, analyze the characterization of Shakespeare's Shylock from "Merchant of Venice". They examine text, view movies and interpretative drawings and conduct historical research.
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THE GOOD AND THE BADDE: ARE STEREOTYPES A PERFECT FIT?
Learners examine stereotypes of women from The Good and the Badde in juxtaposition with the female characters in The Taming of the Shrew. Through this exercise, students locate evidence from the text of the play to support or refute...
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WHY IS LEONTES JEALOUS? FINDING A CAUSE IN THE WINTER'S TALE
Students examine several possible ways of understanding Leontes' jealousy through close reading, a performance activity, and the use of a primary source document. They, in groups, perform a scene.
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Romans in Britain, or Classical Colonialism
Learners identify the extent of the Roman Empire on a map of Europe and North Africa. They discuss the reasons behind Roman expansion and occupation. They read Cymbeline and write about the attitudes of 3 characters. Groups stage the scene.
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AND WE ALL SIT DOWN: STATUS IN KING LEAR
Students participate in two simple status games to allow students to explore the relationships between Lear, his three daughters, and his court.
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I WILL NOT HEAR THAT PLAY: PERFORMING A DUMB SHOW
Students perform a "dumb show" based on a short passage from either A Midsummer Night's Dream or King Lear. This technique allows students to explain the action taking place on stage and the variety of different ways that action can be...
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Shakespeare Wall
Students create a visual notebook of a Shakespearean play by taking the actual written work, hanging it up on the wall, and highlighting various literary aspects of the play as they unfold.
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Romeo and Juliet-Balcony Scence
Students create and carry out a "modern day" version of the famous scene from Romeo and Juliet to help them build understanding of the plot and the two characters.
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Fear and Loathing in Othello
Students research the ideas that people had of African people during Shakespearean times and examine Othello's descriptions of himself as written by Shakespeare.
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Enter Ophelia: Stage Directions, Promptbooks, and Film
Young scholars review different film versions of the play, Hamlet, and compare what was presented to the actual stage directions given in the original Shakespearean version.
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Anon Methought the Umbrellas Began to Move
Students reenact a scene from Macbeth using umbrellas as props.
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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Students design and create photo albums that tell the story of the play, Twelfth Night, using pictures they take of themselves recreating various scenes of the play.
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You Can't Go Home Again (or, If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother)
Learners read a scene from Hamlet, without stage directions. They recreate the scene using their own stage directions as they see fit for the scene.
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"I Will Hear That Play": Using Sound to Enhance the Text
Students become familiar with Foley artists and sound effects as they analyze a scene from A Midsumer Night's Dream. They record their own sound for another scene.
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Shakespeare Shows
Students study, interpret, perform, and present various Shakespearean works adapted for middle school Students. They choose a scene from one of the plays covered in this teaching unit to reenact with a group.
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Macbeth: Shakespeare for Elementary Students (Elementary, Literature)
Students act out a fully realized Shakespearean play designed to be utilized by mid level elementary students.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Shakespeare's Macbeth: Fear and the Motives of Evil
Students use an online search engine (or a printed concordance) to locate passages that highlight Macbeth's response to fear and his descent into evil. They analyze the motives of Macbeth's increasingly desperate and evil actions.
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Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet
Students experience and enjoy the sounds of poetry. They erform sound experiments with sonnets and closely read and analyze a sonnet by Shakespeare. Students write an analysis of how sound affects meaning in a sonnet chosen from the...
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Hamlet and the Elizabethan Revenge Ethic in Text and Film
Students discover how Shakespeare's play interprets Elizabethan attitudes toward revenge, as reflected in the structure of the Elizabethan revenge tragedy, one of the most popular forms of drama of that era. Students perform certain...
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Shakespeare's Othello and the Power of Language
Students explore the basis of Iago's persuasive power by analyzing his astonishing command of rhetoric and figurative language. The diverse set of activities below include short group performances, writing exercises and the guided use of...