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Shakespeare Uncovered

“Speak, I Charge You”: Macbeth On Your Feet, Not In Your Seat

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“Is this a dagger which I see before me . . .” As part of a study of Macbeth, class members engage in a series of activities that get them up and moving. Individuals practice, then deliver, a line from the Scottish play. The entire class...
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Lesson Plan
Shakespeare Uncovered

War and Leadership in Shakespeare’s Henry V

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” These two views of war, embodied in George Patton’s statement and Lorraine Schneider‘s famous 1966...
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Lesson Plan
Shakespeare Uncovered

Women’s Roles in As You Like It

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“There is nothing that becommeth a maid better than soberness, silence, shamefastness, and chastity, both of body & mind.” This line, from Thomas Bentley ‘s The Monument of Matrons published in 1582, typifies the way women were...
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Shakespeare Uncovered

Henry IV, Part I: Does Father Know Best?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“Yea, there thou mak’st me sad and mak’st me sin/In envy that my Lord Northumberland/Should be the father to so blest a son--.” Henry IV, Part I, provides the text for a series of exercises that ask class members to examine the...
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Curated OER

What a Character! Comparing Literary Adaptations

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What do Robert Downey Jr., Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Fritz Weaver, Roger Moore, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Daffy Duck have in common? Why, it’s elementary, my dear Watson! They all have portrayed Sherlock Holmes. Literary detectives...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

The Merchant of Venice: Anticipation Guide

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
Is justice blind? Is love blind? Before beginning The Merchant of Venice, readers decide whether they agree or disagree with statements that encapsulate key elements of the tragic comedy. The class then predicts whether Shakespeare will...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

MTV and Othello

For Teachers 9th - 12th
After reading Acts III and IV of Othello, give your class a fun, interactive, music-related activity. Begin by asking students about songs they have heard in movies or plays. Let them look up the lyrics online and ruminate about the...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Shakespeare Limericks 2

For Students 10th - Higher Ed
These fun limericks all point to a Shakespeare play. You fill in the blank with the title of the play each limerick points to. A creative way to get your readers thinking!
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Worksheet
K12 Reader

Mark Antony’s Oration from Julius Caesar

For Students 9th - 12th
"And Brutus is an honourable man." Or is he? Readers of Shakespeare’s tragic Julius Caesar are asked to identify the rhetorical devices Mark Antony uses in his funeral oration and to explain how these devices influence the audience to...
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Lesson Plan
Shakespeare Uncovered

Merely Players

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“. . . one man in his time plays many parts,/His acts being seven ages.” Jaques famous speech from Act II, scene vii of As you Like It sets the stage for an examination of the roles people play. Class members not only consider the roles...
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Shakespeare Uncovered

Suits of Woe: Grief and Loss in Hamlet

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
“Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die/Passing through nature to eternity.” Grief, and the response to grief and loss, is the focus of a series of activities that uses Hamlet as a launchpad. Groups examine Act I, scene ii to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

M.C. Bard: Hip-Hop and Shakespeare

For Teachers 11th - 12th
What is poetry? Does hip-hop qualify as poetry? Do Shakespeare's monologues qualify as poetry? Class members grapple with these questions as they examine the poetic elements and themes presented in different texts. Groups of four study...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Much Ado About Nothing: Bloom's Taxonomy Questioning Strategy

For Teachers 12th
Do your class members’ questions lack depth? “Sigh no more . . .sigh no more.” Use a questioning strategy based on Bloom’s taxonomy to encourage readers to create questions that probe the themes of any text. The model discussion...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Anticipation Guide for Much Ado About Nothing

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Is falling in love easy or hard? Challenge your class to consider seven statements about love and relationships before reading Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Then, as you work your way through the play, revisit the sheet to record...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Measure for Measure: DRTA Strategy

For Teachers 10th - 12th
“The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?” Prediction, verification, judgment, and extensions of thought are all part of a Directed ReadingThinking Activity (DRTA) developed for Measure for Measure. The rationale, assessments...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Whose (Is)land is This?": topics in Immigration and The Tempest

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Class members compare the ways the subject of immigration is treated in The Tempest, Act I, scene ii, Act II, scene i and Act III, scene ii with patterns in American history. After tracing their own family’s journey, a series of...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Macbeth: Act IV Study Questions

For Students 7th - 12th
The value in this Macbeth study guide is that it asks readers to not only chart events, but to also consider the significance of those events. The worksheets could be used as preparation for a full class discussion or the basis or a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Shakespeare Was A Black Woman

For Teachers 7th - 12th
"I all alone beweep my outcast state." After a discussion of the "Shakespeare in American Life" segment in which Maya Angelou's relates her reaction to Sonnet 29, class groups create and perform a scene about an outcast that includes the...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Much Ado About Shakespeare

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Lesson ideas to introduce pupils to the life, language, and works of William Shakespeare.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Measure for Measure: Anticipation Guide

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
Be bold and never fearful! Tempt your scholars with an Anticipation Guide for Measure for Measure. Before reading Shakespeare’s problem play, class members label a series of statements as either true or false in their opinion. (It’s okay...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Attitude and Interest Survey

For Students 7th - 12th
Are you about to launch into one of William Shakespeare's plays or a collection of his sonnets? If you doubt your class has read much Shakespeare, have them complete this attitude and interest survey. A lot of preconceived notions swirl...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Titus Andronicus Part 3

For Students 11th - Higher Ed
Here you have the last of three quizzes posted online for Titus Andronicus. A variety of questions about staged productions, time periods, and characters are included. Challenge your class with this quiz!
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Worksheet
Curated OER

First Lines from Shakespeare

For Students 11th - Higher Ed
You may know famous quotations from Shakespeare's plays, but do you know how the plays start?All twenty-five questions in this helpful resource consist of the opening lines of a Shakespeare play for which you choose the title. Test your...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Who Said it in Romeo and Juliet?

For Students 9th
Identify the speaker of each quote taken from The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Some are more difficult than others, but most are fairly well-known. Each question is multiple-choice.