Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plan Archive: Hero vs. Claudio
What do you know about marriage customs during the English Renaissance? Students will have an opportunity to learn about weddings and marriages in Renaissance English using "Much Ado About Nothing" as source material.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Folger Exhibitions: Elizabeth I, Then and Now
Tour artifacts from the Folger Shakespeare Library that tell story of Elizabeth's life, times, and reign.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plan Archive: Imagery in Hamlet
Lesson plan takes students through an exploration of the figurative language in "Hamlet."
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Teaching Modules: Hamlet
Lesson plan asks young scholars to learn about patterns of imagery in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" through online resources.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plan Archive: Words, Words, Words
Lesson plan for Shakespeare's "Othello" that introduces students to the play's themes and language.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plan Archive: Tempest in the Lunchroom
In this lesson plan, young scholars learn to read and act out the shipwreck scene in Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Folger Exhibitions: Fooles and Fricassees
Illustrated series of short essays discusses the food and drink of sixteenth-century England, including its production, perceived health benefits, and Christmas fare.
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Folger Shakespeare Lib.: Shakespeare for Kids: Shakespearean Compliments [Pdf]
Helpful chart for creating honeyed phrases to compliment your friends and classmates in language that Shakespeare would have used.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare for Kids: Shakespearean Insults [Pdf]
The next time you're annoyed, try these barbs (insults) from the bard. Combine words from three columns to create a Shakespearean insult.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare for Kids: Love and Friendship [Pdf]
Learn how love and friendship were expressed in seventeenth-century England, then try your hand at creating similar lines using the conventions of the seventeenth century.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Challenges
This site provides three research-oriented tasks about William Shakespeare. Students will click on provided links to search for answers to the questions.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Julius Caesar
Learn about Julius Caesar using the Folger Shakespeare Library of resources. Included is a brief summary, links to read or listen to the play, pictures of Julius Caesar, and teaching modules to use in the classroom.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Pause, What Did You Say?
Students will analyze ambiguity in Shakespeare's meter using imperfect iambic pentameter lines from Julius Caesar 1.2.1-71. Students will evaluate how the lines reveal character motivation.
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Juliet vs Laura: Analyzing Sonnet Structure in Romeo and Juliet
This lesson plan asks students to access their knowledge of sonnet characteristics to analyze the shared sonnet of Romeo's and Juliet's first meeting to determine the extent to which Juliet meets the Petrarchan ideal.
Folger Shakespeare Library
A Guilty Gertrude: Performing Spoken and Silent Moments in Hamlet
This detailed lesson plan focuses on Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Students analyze, then perform six scenes which feature Gertrude, then determine where Gertrude's loyalties lie in each scene. This deepens students' understanding of the...
Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library: Teaching Modules
Thirty-two lessons created by teachers in conjunction with Folger Library's National Teacher Corps. These lessons cover the Shakespeare plays most often covered in high school and emphasize close reading and analysis. Some of these...
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Close Reading the Conspiracy in Julius Caesar, Act 2
In this lesson plan, students create a prompt book of Act 2, Scene 1. Each group of students will focus on a specific emphasis as they edit the scene.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Close Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets
This lesson plan teaches learners to consider diction, syntax, literary devices, and rhetorical strategies in doing a close reading of Shakespeare's sonnets.
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"To Be or Not to Be": Close Reading Hamlet's Soliloquy
From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this lesson plan requires students to analyze Hamlet's soliloquy with an emphasis on word meaning and etymology. They then compare two film versions of the speech.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plans: A Boxful of Character
A character-in-a-box lesson plan in which students choose everyday items and put them in a box to represent facets, traits, or other aspects of a character that can be supported with excerpts from the text.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plans: King Lear: Astrologers and Skeptics
Lesson plan questioning the degree to which Elizabethan audiences believed in destiny and astrology.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plans: Merchant of Venice: Views of Africans
Lesson plan uses primary sources, along with Shakespeare's play, to give students insight into how Elizabethans perceived men and women of African descent.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plans: Twelfth Night: What's So Funny?
Lesson plan in which students draw parallels between modern sensibilities of what is humorous and the comedy of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
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Folger Shakespeare Library: Lesson Plans: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Lesson plan useful to teachers of any of of Shakespeare's plays in which students retell a scene using only visuals.