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Macbethan Art
Students review and reproduce an article of Elizabethan styled clothing as a part of an analysis of Shakespeare's Macbeth. In this Elizabethan art activity, students discuss the fashion of the Elizabethan era and research it online....
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Writing Process
Students read Macbeth and work in groups to organize and create an outline for a persuasive essay. In this persuasive essay lesson, students work in tiered learning groups to organize their thoughts for a persuasive thesis about the...
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"What are these...?"
High schoolers discuss the "witches" of Shakespeare. In this literature analysis instructional activity, students research the influence of Macbeth's sisters on his behavior. They examine various terms used to describe the sisters, and...
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Macbeth
Students engage in a variety of activities in order to complete a unit about the Shakespeare work of Macbeth. The lessons are part of a layered curriculum. The objective is to create a portfolio to create more layers.
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Hamlet Research Paper: Find, Evaluate, and Select Appropriate Research Sources
Help young researchers find credible sources online. Modeling with a Google search for information about Shakespeare’s Macbeth, use a computer projector or Smart Board to show class members how weak the top three search results are....
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Knock, Knock
Students explore the use of sound as a special effect to enhance or radically change the meaning of a scene. They design a soundscape for Macbeth's porter scene, and conclude by listening to and watching two different film treatments of...
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Who's There: Acting in the Dark
Students participate in a performance of Macbeth using the lighting techniques that were employed during the Shakespearean era. Working in groups, student reenact a scene. Afterward they discuss the challenges of working with limited...
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Macbeth Presentations
Young scholars make Powerpoint presentations or Web pages about Macbeth. Their presentations must include at least three elements from a provided list. They write reflective papers about their learning experience.
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Julius Caesar: iambic pentameter
Read in iambic pentameter! Read Julius Caesar and Macbeth to study the famous meter. While the lesson points out the specific passages to use, you'll have to find them and copy them yourself.
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And. . . Freeze!
Learners read a short section of a scene very closely and develop a tableaux as a start to the performance process. They write a paragraph in the voice of a character. They present their beginning, middle and end tableaux to the class.
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This Was the Noblest Roman of Them All
High schoolers analyze the problems with staging and character using the play Julius Caesar. They summarize the final scene of the play and view film versions of the scene. Additionally, they prepare a promptbook for the final scene and...
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Knock, Knock, or Whose Line is it Anyway?
Students compare two versions of Macbeth and participate in improvisational acting. In this improvisational lesson, students read and discuss the text before watching two different versions of the film. Students roleplay a scenario and...
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Looking at Life through the Creation of Personal Metaphors
Young scholars focus on the creation of personal metaphors, which are first illustrated in pictures and caricatures and then extended to descriptive/analytical paragraphs. They teach the lesson to others using their own personal...
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Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Benjy's Sense of Time and Narrative Voice
Students analyze narrative voice in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. In this novel analysis lesson, students analyze Faulkner's writing style and the narrative voice of Benjy. Students create a reading journal for the lesson...
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Lesson 1: Theatre Arts
Learners 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. Learners participate in a class...
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Shortened Shakespeare
Young scholars discover the two main ingredients of a play: speech and actions. They then listen to a shortened version of "Macbeth" and write down one sentence to describe what is happening in each of the comic-strip cells.
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An Actor's View of Shakespeare
Students research characters from different plays. In this Shakespeare and performing arts lesson, students discuss the portrayal of characters from the perspective of real actors. Students work in groups to examine the technique for...
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The Concept of the Hero
Students explore the symbolic implications for the concept of the hero with a focus on the Beowulf theme. In this hero concept lesson, students find specific examples of monsters from Beowulf to complete the chart. Students list the...
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Creating a Classic Comic Book
Students read a given play. They choose the key scenes from the play and write a narration to carry the plot line between those scenes. They create a comic book that depicts these key scenes, complete with pictures and text balloons.
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What's in a Name? Considering the Shakespeare Authorship Question
Did Shakespeare really write all that stuff? After viewing a trailer for the film, Anonymous and reading Stephen Marche’s article “Wouldn’t It Be Cool If Shakespeare Wasn’t Shakespeare?” class groups read articles about the Shakespeare...
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Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Benjy's Sense of Time and Narrative Voice
Students complete a variety of discussion and writing activities that highlight the concepts of time and narrative voice of Benjy by iam Faulkner.
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Performing Modernized Shakespeare
Students select a piece of text from a play and prepare it for performance to the class based on their modern setting.
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Shakespeare Shows
Students study, interpret, perform, and present various Shakespearean works adapted for middle school Students. They choose a scene from one of the plays covered in this teaching unit to reenact with a group.
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Royal Shakespeare Company's New Theatre
Students brainstorm the names of Shakespeare's plays and read an article about a new theatre. They complete worksheets about the plays. In groups, they play a game where they give clues about films or plays and others try to guess the...