Curated OER
Shakespeare 2000
Young thespians can try their hand at writing a script and acting out a scene, while gaining a deeper understanding of the universal topics presented in Shakespeare's wide array of plays. Begin the lesson by conducting a compare and...
Curated OER
Shakespeare 2000
Comparing the more modern film Ten Things I Hate About You to The Taming of the Shrew leads to an understanding of how Shakespearean plots can be applied to modern-day situations and characters. As a culminating activity, groups select a...
Shakespeare Uncovered
All the Globe’s a Stage: Shakespeare’s Theatre
“All the world’s a stage,” exclaims Jaques in As You Like It, but it is the structure of the Globe stage and how that structure influenced Shakespeare’s plays that is the focus of an on-line research project. Class members visit a series...
Curated OER
MTV and Othello
After reading Acts III and IV of Othello, give your class a fun, interactive, music-related activity. Begin by asking students about songs they have heard in movies or plays. Let them look up the lyrics online and ruminate about the...
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
"Whose (Is)land is This?": topics in Immigration and The Tempest
Class members compare the ways the subject of immigration is treated in The Tempest, Act I, scene ii, Act II, scene i and Act III, scene ii with patterns in American history. After tracing their own family’s journey, a series of...
Curated OER
The Bard: Shakespeare Up Close
Students choose a Shakespearean play to reenact into a modern setting. In this Shakespeare instructional activity, students practice insulting each other using Shakespearean language. Students watch Shakespeare plays and complete online...
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Rostislav & Julianna: A Modern-Day Interpretation of Romeo and Juliet
Students author and film their own adaptations of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In this multimedia skills lesson, students script a play that pits an Orthodox Christian family against a Muslim family. Students use GarageBand...
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Hamlet and the Elizabethan Revenge Ethic in Text and Film
Students discover how Shakespeare's play interprets Elizabethan attitudes toward revenge, as reflected in the structure of the Elizabethan revenge tragedy, one of the most popular forms of drama of that era. Students perform certain...
Curated OER
Reenacting Shakespeare
Young scholars work in small groups to modernize and perform scenes from Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet. In this Shakespeare reenact lesson, students have an active roll in completing the project which includes analyzing and summarizing...
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"Twelfth Night": What's so funny?
Students brainstorm and discuss elements of modern humor. They compare humor in their own lives to the humor that Shakespeare used in "Twelfth Night". They perform portions of "Twelfth Night" focusing on its humor.
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Lose the Lute!
Students use Shakespeare's plays to add modern music to match the mood in the play. They assign adjectives to the original songs of the play and find a song with the same mood. They work together to role-play the play with new music.
Curated OER
Poet James Whitcomb Riley: Famous in His Own Day
An engaging biography of "Hoosier" poet James Whitcomb Riley serves as a springboard for study of his unique dialect-based verse. Several activities illuminate differences between spoken vernacular and formal language. Learners record...
Orlando Shakes
Arms and the Man: Study Guide
Few aspects of life make better fodder for a comedic play than politics. A study guide introduces George Bernard's Shaw comedy Arms and the Man. Along with summaries of each scene and brief biographies of the main characters, two lesson...
Curated OER
The Bard in the Big Apple
Identify their feelings about Shakespeare's plays, addressing their readability and relevance to their lives.
2. Explore the effects of remaking Shakespeare plays in a modern context, as well as differences that emerge when a play is...
Curated OER
Expressions of Anti-Racism through Painting: The Puerto Rican Community from West Side Story to Connecticut
Students create a graffiti wall using their own name or personal symbol. They examine their own understanding of the film as a source of inspiration and listen to the music from the soundtrack as an effective motivation. They make...
Curated OER
The Art of Subtle Persuasion
Students examine a scene from "Julius Caesar." After watching commercials and political ads on TV, students explore the intention of the commercial. They compare and contrast the forms of persuasion used. Students share their writings...