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...

Here is an authentic assessment task for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Young literature scholars prepare, perform, and record a news broadcast about the major events in the play. For example, groups may choose to report on the death of Lady...

Students compare lyrics from hip hop songs with monologues from Shakespeare's plays, and perform both for the class.

After reading Julius Caesar 1.2 and 1.3, break your class into pairs for this role-play. Each pair will receive one of four prompts (or more, if you create additional examples), in which one person tries to persuade the other to do...

Students read, act, and write about an act from the play Twelfth Night. For this play analysis lesson, students read a summary of the act and discuss various segments of the play. Students identify literary and vocabulary points and...

Students perform a "dumb show" based on a short passage from either A Midsummer Night's Dream or King Lear. This technique allows students to explain the action taking place on stage and the variety of different ways that action can be...

You might not be able to put a girdle around the earth in forty minutes but you can generate interest in A Midsummer’s Night Dream in that length of time. As an introduction to Shakespeare’s comedy, pairs of students assume the roles of...

Students read Shakespeare's, Julius Caesar while identifying a number of literary elements including simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. As a response activity, they simulate a mock trial, and finally, compare and contrast...

Students read a very short script synopsis of Macbeth. They read the script, in small groups, trying to break the 32-second record, then write their own 32-second versions of one act from Macbeth.

Poor Cinna, the poet. His dream of “things unlucky” certainly comes true as the mob tears him apart, at first because they mistake him for Cinna, the conspirator, and then continue to “tear him to pieces for his bad verses.” As part of...

Students read and analyze the works of Shakespeare. In this "Much Ado About Nothing" lesson, students deicper the play and research Shakespeare's works. Students create a quiz based on his life and re-enact a scene from the play.

Students analyze the language and characters in the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. In this Shakespeare play lesson, students read section of the play and discuss the speech of Benedick and Claudio. Students record the speech...

Students identify the extent of the Roman Empire on a map of Europe and North Africa. They discuss the reasons behind Roman expansion and occupation. They read Cymbeline and write about the attitudes of 3 characters. Groups stage the scene.

Students read a scene from Hamlet, without stage directions. They recreate the scene using their own stage directions as they see fit for the scene.

Students read passages from Shakespeare and have a Town Hall meeting in which they defend Shakespeare as part of American culture.

Students read a scene of "The Merchant of Venice" and write remarks by Antonio and Shylock that indicate traits of their personalities. They enact both characters and discuss the treatment of anti-Semitism, bigotry, persecution and mercy.

Explore The Tempest and how language and power are intertwined in the play. Through a series of questions (provided) and an intense activity that has groups translate Caliban's speech into American Sign Language, learners recognize...

Students collaborate in small groups to choose a scene that they write in place of a scene in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar". In this dramatic expression lesson, their scripts include roles, lines and stage directions. Students...

Students examine the concept of the tragic hero in Shakespeare's King Lear and explore how it affects the plot of the play. In this theatrical analysis lesson, students investigate the redemption or defeat of King Lear and perform two...

Learners rewrite and perform various scenes from the play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. In groups, they include the main quotes and ideas from their scene, perform it for the class, and identify which scene each group is performing.

Students complete a unit of lessons to learn about William Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre. In this William Shakespeare lesson, students complete 7 lessons of activities to study William Shakespeare, the Globe Theatre, and the play 'A...

Students write words that describe the Ghost in Hamlet and act out scenes to grab the audience's attention. In this Hamlet lesson plan, students use language to interpret feeling and grab the audience's attention.

Students read Romeo and Juliet and then write an essay from the point of either Lord Capulet or Friar Lawrence persuading someone to adopt their views concerning marriage.

Students read and discuss Act one, scene three of the play, Othello. They examine the text in small groups, determine each character's attitude toward Othello, identify text to justify their conclusions, then recite lines to the class.