How do themes and motifs build and develop through Act Five of Macbeth? With this two-page worksheet, readers record quotations that represent themes like ambition, conscience, and manhood. In addition, they speak to symbols like blood,...

Explore the concept of rhyme scheme within a Shakespearean sonnet. After writing out their favorite (appropriate!) rap song and explaining why they like it, middle schoolers define a rhyme scheme. Afterward, they examine a Shakespearean...

Dwell on the tragic circumstances of Hamlet with this quiz. Every multiple-choice question deals with the death or near-death of a character in the play. Discover why Hamlet is truly a tragedy.

This online quiz requires identifying which Romeo and Juliet character said the quote. Before giving this assignment, you will want to review the quotes to determine if they relate to your learning objectives.

"Wherefore art thou Romeo?" These simple multiple-choice questions focus on Romeo and Juliet. Focusing on reading comprehension, this quiz can be a quick check to see if students are reading. A few are tricky!

This online interactive quiz on Romeo and Juliet asks general plot questions to test basic reading comprehension.

Challenge your class to recall the plot of Love's Labor's Lost. Consisting of multiple-choice questions, this quiz focuses on basic reading comprehension and plot.

Fifteen questions cover the events from The Tragedy of Macbeth. Most are plot-based reading comprehension questions, but a few ask for missing words from a quote. Good luck!

Characters in a play drive the action. See if you can name the correct character who performed each action mentioned from The Tragedy of Macbeth. This quiz quickly assesses your learners.

Readers of Measure for Measure use words from Act II, scene 2 to complete a magic squares vocabulary exercise.  An answer sheet is included.

I can't wait to try this activity with my class. It's versatile and could be modified to fit any character analysis lesson. To analyze characters thoroughly, learners create life boxes. Each box will pertain to a character from any...

Students will: Analyze an extract of a document from 1616 concerning male adolescent behavior. Decide if the advice offered is sensible. Determine if the content of that document is relevant to contemporary adolescent males. Compare the...

High schoolers analyze text and utilize outside resources to determine Iago's fate, which is not addressed by Shakespeare in Othello; students present their findings in an organized trial scenario.

Students compare views of marriage in Macbeth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  In this comparative literature  lesson plan, students discuss and debate the marriages of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's...

Students explore a unique way to view the personalities of the characters in William Shakespeare's play "Othello." They facilitate online research "deconstructing" poetry and performing scenes from the play with costumes and props.

Is your head beating as if it would break into twenty pieces looking for activities to accompany a reading of the woeful tale of Juliet and her Romeo? Here's a weighty tool kit that won't hurt your back. The packet is divided into 20...

Students act outeach word in a Shakespearean speech.  In this reading technique activity, students learn passages from Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew reading using their bodies to act out each word.  Students...

High schoolers read specific acts of Shakepeare's King Lear. Using the text, they identify the beginning stages of Lear's insanity and the causes of his instability. They examine the relationship between King Lear and Poor Tom and...

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...

High schoolers review different film versions of the play, Hamlet, and compare what was presented to the actual stage directions given in the original Shakespearean version.

Students reenact a scene from Macbeth using umbrellas as props.

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.

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.

High schoolers 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...