Curated OER
"I am Not Well": Unspoken Endings and Unscripted Scenes
High schoolers analyze Act 4, scene 1 from the play, Merchant of Venice. They hypothesize the content of an unscripted moment and response, look for evidence in the text to support their hypothesis, rewrite the scene, and perform it for...
Curated OER
Who is Gertrude, Really?
Students form opinions about Gertrude by imaginatively creating 5 entries for Gertrude's journal. Each journal entry reveal much about Gertrude's character at pivotal moments in the play.
Curated OER
Fools for Love in King Lear
Learners discuss the expression "fools for love." In this literature analysis lesson, students use King Lear as a basis for examining parent-child relationships. In small groups, they discuss the motives behind various actions in the...
Curated OER
Change slander to remorse: Unscripted Scenes
Young scholars hypothesize about the content of unscripted moments, search for evidence in the actual text to support their hypothesis, and explore how this hypothesis would affect characterization.
Curated OER
Using Tableaux Vivants in Much Ado About Nothing
Students use tableaux vivants to engage in the Much Ado About Nothing playIn this tableax vivants lesson, students read the scen from the play and discuss the key elements in terms of character revelation and action. Students work in...
Curated OER
So Much Can Happen in a Night!
Tenth graders explore Shakespearean comedy. They read and discuss A Midsummer Night's Dream and create a soundtrack, complete with CD cover, for the play.
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Theatre Arts
High schoolers create and perform based on cuttings from various plays and literature to demonstrate the learning of the process of improvisation. Students connect improvisation with theatre and real life. High schoolers participate in a...
Shakespeare in American Life
Patriarchy in King Lear and As I Lay Dying
King Lear, “Papa Doc” Duvalier, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz and Anse Bundren? Imagine a unit that examines the tragic hero and patriarchy in King Lear, As I Lay Dying and Apocalypse Now. To liven the brew, learners are asked to include in...
Curated OER
Puck Meets Leonardo
Students create a puppet of Puck from the story read aloud. Then they identify how they can use the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci to help Puck complete his task. Students also observe the inventions of Leonardo from books and online...
Curated OER
Taking a Stand
Students make connections with cultures (their own and others'), their identity, heritage, traditions, and symbols and examine the richness that diversity brings to communities.
PBS
Pbs: In Search of Shakespeare: Lesson Plans
Explore this comprehensive site featuring lesson plans about Shakespeare's plays and life in Elizabethan England.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Working With Shakespeare
This site introduces Shakespeare as a poet and dramatist. Come and learn more about his life and work through this informative resource, which includes a sonnet worksheet, bibliography, activities, and more.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Poems About Ages and Stages
William Shakespeare's "The Seven Ages of Man" pointed out how life happens in stages. Modeling the Bard himself and Harry Chapin's "Cat's In The Cradle", which breaks a father-son relationship into four stages (verses), each student will...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts, Grade 10: Macbeth
Students explore the ideas of ambition and failure. They learn that conflicts serve as the basis of a text's meaning and that identifying the internal and external conflicts of a story reveals the motivations of complex characters. They...