Groups craft a pitch, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, for a film version of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The proposal includes names and images of actors and actresses they would cast in the major roles, costumes...

“Is this a dagger which I see before me . . .” As part of a study of Macbeth, class members engage in a series of activities that get them up and moving. Individuals practice, then deliver, a line from the Scottish play. The entire class...

“Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” These two views of war, embodied in George Patton’s statement and Lorraine Schneider‘s famous 1966...

“There is nothing that becommeth a maid better than soberness, silence, shamefastness, and chastity, both of body & mind.” This line, from Thomas Bentley ‘s The Monument of Matrons published in 1582, typifies the way women were...

“Yea, there thou mak’st me sad and mak’st me sin/In envy that my Lord Northumberland/Should be the father to so blest a son--.” Henry IV, Part I, provides the text for a series of exercises that ask class members to examine the...

Give your class this comprehensive reading guide for Act II of Macbeth. The act is divided into scenes, and questions are marked with specific line numbers for easy reference. Readers recount plot events, delve into the characters, and...

Encourage a deeper analysis of Macbeth with this study guide. Created for Act Three, this set of questions requires the readers to revisit the text and use specific examples in their answers. With these questions, readers are explaining,...

What do Robert Downey Jr., Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Fritz Weaver, Roger Moore, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Daffy Duck have in common? Why, it’s elementary, my dear Watson! They all have portrayed Sherlock Holmes. Literary detectives...

Is justice blind? Is love blind? Before beginning The Merchant of Venice, readers decide whether they agree or disagree with statements that encapsulate key elements of the tragic comedy. The class then predicts whether Shakespeare will...

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...

Spark some provocative discussions about attractiveness and the Elizabethan view of women. What is Shakespeare trying to say about female beauty in Sonnet 130? Do you see anything like this today in modern songs? Writers then come up...

These fun limericks all point to a Shakespeare play. You fill in the blank with the title of the play each limerick points to. A creative way to get your readers thinking!

True, I talk of projects, projects which are the children of engaged brains, begot of fantasy, full of substance, wonder, and imagination. Conclude a study of Romeo and Juliet with projects 'twill serve to synthesize and demonstrate...

Since brevity is the soul of wit, your class is sure to enjoy the humor in this brief, student-produced introduction to the Scottish play. The presentation includes a few background notes, a plot summary, information on the major...

"Do you believe that fate is inescapable, or that people forge their own lives?" This is the essential question at the heart of Romeo and Juliet, according to the narrator of a series on Shakespeare's tragedy. Short but dense, the video...

In Part Two of a video course in Hamlet, narrator John Green looks at the gender dynamics in the play. He presents Ophelia and Gertrude as powerful characters and argues that these women do have options that affect the course of the...

"And Brutus is an honourable man." Or is he? Readers of Shakespeare’s tragic Julius Caesar are asked to identify the rhetorical devices Mark Antony uses in his funeral oration and to explain how these devices influence the audience to...

Stanzas, quatrains, couplets. Rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter, volta. Class members conclude their study of Shakespearian sonnets with a project designed to demonstrate their understanding of the key elements of this fixed form of...

“. . . one man in his time plays many parts,/His acts being seven ages.” Jaques famous speech from Act II, scene vii of As you Like It sets the stage for an examination of the roles people play. Class members not only consider the roles...

“Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die/Passing through nature to eternity.” Grief, and the response to grief and loss, is the focus of a series of activities that uses Hamlet as a launchpad. Groups examine Act I, scene ii to...

What is poetry? Does hip-hop qualify as poetry? Do Shakespeare's monologues qualify as poetry? Class members grapple with these questions as they examine the poetic elements and themes presented in different texts. Groups of four study...

Do your class members’ questions lack depth? “Sigh no more . . .sigh no more.” Use a questioning strategy based on Bloom’s taxonomy to encourage readers to create questions that probe the themes of any text. The model discussion...

Is falling in love easy or hard? Challenge your class to consider seven statements about love and relationships before reading Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Then, as you work your way through the play, revisit the sheet to record...

“The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?” Prediction, verification, judgment, and extensions of thought are all part of a Directed ReadingThinking Activity (DRTA) developed for Measure for Measure. The rationale, assessments...