Learners view and interpret Dan Howard's artwork entitled, Soliloquium:IV. They write a story of what they think is behind the painting and then paint their own soliloquy.

The writing activity in this lesson plan could be used to assess student understanding of previously taught concepts of how language reveals character.

Encourage readers to determine if Hamlet's madness is actually divinest sense. Class members analyze the words of the play before studying related texts, including T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," scenes from...

Even those experienced teachers of Hamlet can find much to like in a guide that offers many fresh ideas for activities. Class members may take on the role of FBI profilers that investigate Claudius and Hamlet as murderers, or...

Should Hamlet avenge his father's death? Is the ghost telling the truth or is it trying to trick Hamlet? Is Hamlet's inconsistent behavior a ploy or is he really insane? Something really is rotten in Denmark, and with the help of the...

How does Shakespeare develop the central idea of agency versus fate in Macbeth? Using the resource, pupils work in small groups to discuss the plot of Act 3.1. Next, they complete a brief writing assignment to analyze how the main idea...

Is it better to be dead than to "dwell in doubtful joy," as Lady Macbeth suggests in Act 3.2 of Shakespeare's Macbeth? Using the resource, scholars work in small groups to discuss how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth begin to unravel following...

How does the comparison of Hamlet to Fortinbras develop Hamlet's character? Scholars complete a Quick Write to answer the question. They also continue their exploration of Shakespeare's Hamlet, reading and discussing Act 4.4.

How does Shakespeare employ figurative language to emphasize central ideas in Hamlet? Using an interesting resource, learners complete a Quick Write to answer the question. Additionally, they continue their study of the play by exploring...

Learners read and analyze figurative language used in William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." They participate in a choral reading of a soliloquy, analyze the soliloquy for figurative language in small groups, and discuss how the reading...

Students complete play analysis activities for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 3. In this play analysis lesson, students read the scene and practice summarizing. Students complete close reading analysis activities for the...

Eleventh graders analyze a Shakespeare soliloquy by writing a prose summary of it. They keep a character journal, following one character through the play and analyzing what the character does and says, as well as, might have done or...

Two sonnets provide seventh graders with examples of Shakespearean sonnets. After discussing the story of the poems and analyzing their rhyme scheme and rhythm, young poets craft a Shakespearian sonnet and share their work with two...

Tenth graders complete a variety of activities related to the first two chapters of the book The Outsiders. They define metaphor, simile, idiom, and hyperbole, and take a vocabulary pre-quiz. In small groups, they write a character...

There are not many more apt examples of ethics gone awry than William Golding's Lord of the Flies.. Ninth graders focus the ethics of decision making with the examples provided in the plot. They focus on the...

Are your learners only talking about the plot of the story and not the richness of the characters? Then show them how important characters are to literature with the information available here. The learner will know how authors create...

To memorize, or not to memorize: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the fear and anguish of committing a poem to memory, to endure the heartache, to shuffle off this fear, and face the stares of classmates with the hue...

Help your seventh graders relate the ELA Common Core standards to their own learning with these "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been translated into a statement that pupils can understand and placed on its own page for...

Track your class's progress on all of the ELA Common Core standards with these handy charts. Along the left side, each seventh grade identifier is listed along with the full text of the standard. As you teach, reteach, assess,...

In this vocabulary worksheet, students select the best word to complete the sentence. They are challenged by the difficult words that all begin with "s."

Bring the Internet and the Renaissance together in this presentation assignment. Middle schoolers give a presentation on the Renaissance, using computers to both research and create the slides. The lesson includes a short assessment as...

Choose the missing word in several quotes from William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Most are multiple-choice, though a few are fill-in-the-blank. The last answer is made from the first letters of the previous answers.

View a video clip about Shakespeare's work. Identify the ambiguities in his texts. Practice reading well-known soliloquies.

Students use the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" to identify and analyze drama vocabulary, literary terms and elements of fiction. They write an original version of scenes from the play and develop a character analysis for the lead.