Shakespeare's Words

Use the ideas here for a Valentine's Day activity (or anytime you study sonnets) with your 11th graders. Demonstrate how to analyze a love poem by conducting a think aloud about Shakespeare's Sonnet 29. Then small groups analyze Sonnet...

Come, see, conquer the language in Julius Caesar with a resource that lists the SAT words that appear in Shakespeare’s play. Templates provide definitions and derivations, as well as famous lines. The packet also includes an AP style...

Tired of those blank stares after your class reads a particularly complex passage from a Shakespearean play? Help high schoolers untangle that prose with a literature circle activity. Ten different roles prompt class members to focus on...

It's that time of year to consider how Shakespeare selects his images and structures his Sonnet 73 to develop the meaning of the poem. Class members examine the rhyme scheme, the indented lines, the conceit, and the images used in each...

Gentle sleep eludes poor King Henry IV. Uneasy under the weight of his responsibilities, Henry contemplates the darkness of the night and in his soul. To develop their skill reading difficult text, class members engage in a close reading...

Looking for ways to implement the words and works of William Shakespeare into your curriculum? This list of activity ideas is a great starting point, as it covers a wide range of grade levels and a wealth of online references to explore.

Spice up your traditional approach to teaching poetic structure with a wonderful animated video, which not only covers such terms as foot, meter, verse, but also stresses Shakespeare's unique use of iambic pentameter to convey emotion...

Can we test whether lines ascribed to William Shakespeare were actually written by someone else? Science and linguistics join forces in this fantastic TED-Ed video to help us investigate the theory of whether history's greatest writer...

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!

Spark some provocative discussions about attractiveness and the Elizabethan view of women. What is Shakespeare trying to say about female beauty in Sonnet 130? Do you see anything like this today in modern songs? Writers then come up...