National Endowment for the Humanities
Shakespeare's Macbeth: Fear and the Motives of Evil
Learners use an online search engine (or a printed concordance) to locate passages that highlight Macbeth's response to fear and his descent into evil. They analyze the motives of Macbeth's increasingly desperate and evil actions.
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Screwing Courage in Macbeth
Learners read, analyze, and act out the scenes 1.7.29-79 of the William Shakespeare play, "Macbeth." They discuss motivation, tactics, and obstacles, and improvise scenes suggested by the class.
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The Adder and the Ladder: Figurative Language as Persuasion in "Julius Caesar"
High schoolers 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...
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How to Write Your 60 Second Shakespeare Newsletter
Students become playwrights. In this Shakespeare lesson, students paraphrase familiar Shakespearian scenes that they perform for their classmates in 60 seconds.
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Trustworthy Reputation
Seventh graders explore psychology by writing reflections about quotations. In this human behavior lesson, 7th graders read a list of famous quotes about trust by men such as Benjamin Franklin and William Shakespeare. Students complete a...
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Famous Death Lines
High schoolers examine Shakespeare's language. They select and explore death scenes from plays that they're familiar with and practice delivering famous death lines to one another. They should attempt to recreate the emotions that they...
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Macbeth: Denouement/Falling Action
Readers of Shakespeare explore denouement in Macbeth and track the play's falling action in Act IV, Scene 1. They complete a worksheet/table noting the content and significance of each of the three apparitions granted Macbeth by the...
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It's All in the Way You Say It
High schoolers unearth multiple meanings based on connotation and cadence. After defining denotation, connotation, and cadence, readers evaluate similar words to compare connotations. They then play with how cadence affects meaning by...
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Building Background
Learners, in groups, define qualities of friends and leaders. The groups define how far a friend or leader should go to protect their friendship or country. They research Julius Caesar, Marc Anotony and Shakespeare and read Julius Caesar.
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Shakespeare Character Analysis Using "Twelfth Night"
Eighth graders complete a six-week unit on character analysis for the play "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare. They conduct research and write a report, participate in a book talk, and create a character analysis assignment to...
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Macbeth: Shakespeare for Elementary Students (Elementary, Literature)
Students act out a fully realized Shakespearean play designed to be utilized by mid level elementary students.
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Emulating Shakespeare: To Snooze or Not To Snooze
Students reproduce the pattern of one of Shakespeare's soliloquies, but use their own ideas and words to replace the character's. They replace each word with a word of their own that serves the same purpose.They discuss the speaker in a...
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Analyzing How Shakespeare’s Play Draws upon Greek Mythology: Part 2
Pupils explore the narrative structure of a piece of literary text, mapping out the plot structure of the Greek myth "Pyramus and Thisbe." Next, they use their completed graphic organizers to write story summaries.
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The Bard: Shakespeare Up Close
Students choose a Shakespearean play to reenact into a modern setting. In this Shakespeare lesson, students practice insulting each other using Shakespearean language. Students watch Shakespeare plays and complete online research....
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10 Things I Hate about Shakespeare
Learners look at the works of Shakespeare to describe and explain relationships among some of the different texts. The writing of the learners has the intent of increasing comprehension, interpretation, and critical analysis skills.
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Discovering Shakespeare's Language through Sonnet 27
Young scholars explore the language of Shakespeare. In this poetry lesson, students watch a video of illuminated images that accompany Sonnet 27. Young scholars analyze the language of the poem and the image selections.
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Interpretation of Shakespeare's "As You Like It"
Students are introduced to the background behind Shakespeare's "As You Like It". In groups, they compare and contrast the family issues in the play with those in their own family. They also write the traits of each character and answer...
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The Portrayal of the Witches
Eleventh graders discover the importance of the fortune teller in Shakespeare's Macbeth. After watching two interpretations of the play, they examine and compare the portrayal of the character. They create their own modern adaptation of...
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So Foul and Fair a Play
Students watch various interpretations of Shakespeare's Macbeth in film. In groups, they examine the setting, characters, music and sequence. They compare and contrast the various films and discuss the differences. They write an essay on...
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"Music Be the Food Of Love": Found Poetry with Shakespeare and Hip Hop
Learners create found poetry using lines from hip hop songs and Shakespeare's plays. They try to rewrite the words to music so that more people can explain Shakespeare's plays. They discuss the results of the activity.
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Shakespeare and the Web
Twelfth graders gain a better understanding of Shakespeare through lecture and the Internet.
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Seeking Shakespeare in Local Communities
Students explore where Shakespeare exists in local community plays. In this Shakespeare lesson, students create a documentary to define the existence of Shakespeare in their community drama activities. Students participate in community...
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Spenser, Shakespeare, and the "Blazon": Lesson 4
Students discuss the meaning and tone of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. In this sonnets lesson, students compare Spenser's sonnets to Shakespeare's. Students discuss specific words that add to the humor in Shakespeare's sonnet, paying close...
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Shakespeare Lesson Plan
Students discuss Shakespeare's background and their initial opinions and perceptions of him. In groups, they are assigned a topic to research and to relate one of Shakespeare's plays to the topic. They present a summary of the scenes...
Other popular searches
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