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Words, words, words
Students discuss words that represent the big ideas in Othello and that recur throughout the play. They are assigned words to track throughout the text, recording which character says the word and in what context.
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Vox Populi: Brutus's Speech and the Response of the Plebeians
Tenth graders explore two rhetorical strategies (ethos and audience appeals) to analyze their effects in Brutus's speech in 3.2. They are given the opportunity to participate as members of Brutus's audience by assuming the roles of...
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Performing Sonnets
Students use Shakespearean sonnets as part of a poetry analysis lesson. In this sonnet lesson, students perform a sonnet by Shakespeare but treat it as a script to be acted out. Students work in pairs to create motions for two lines from...
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Using Tableaux Vivants in Much Ado About Nothing
Learners use tableaux vivants to engage in the Much Ado About Nothing playIn this tableax vivants lesson, students read the scen from the play and discuss the key elements in terms of character revelation and action. Learners work in...
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When Fair is Foul: Paradox and Equivocation in Macbeth
Students read Macbeth for examples of paradox and equivocation in the text. In this literature-response lesson, students work in groups to analyze Shakespeare's writing for use of paradox using handouts to guide their search. Student...
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OF PASSIONS SUNDRY AND STRANGE
Students examine on-line primary sources to gain an understanding of Elizabethan attitudes toward different character traits. They use these ideas to help explain Lear, or another strong character, more fully.
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You Should Not Have Believed Me: Hamlet
Students discuss the sanity of Hamlet and Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Students analyze an image from the play to address the sanity of the two characters. Then students read the text to determine whether the characters' words and...
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Lesson One: Characterizing Philanthropic People
Familiarize your class with philanthropy and involve individuals in philanthropic activities. First, determine the traits of philanthropic people. Class members attach sticky notes with character traits written on them to each side of at...
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Editing the Conspiracy: Julius Caesar
Students practice close reading skills to edit the text of Julius Caesar as they read. They identify the features of the conspiracy. They discuss use of image of dark and light in the text.
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Lonely Fish
Students read the book The Rainbow Fish. In this citizenship lesson, students discuss how the characters in the story resolved conflicts. Students create a rainbow fish from foil and cotton.
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Personal Responsibility
Students write in their journals. In this writing and responsibility lesson, students write about personal responsibility. They have three writing choices to choose from that all deal with this central theme.
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Romeo and Juliet
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.
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The Merchant of Venice
Students read parts of Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. Using primary sources, they gain a glimpse into the early modern period's negative perceptions and stereotypes of human beings of African descent.
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Whatever Happened to Shylock?
Learners, in groups, write and perform an unwritten scene from a play they are reading.
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Get Thee To Wife!
High schoolers read and analyze a piece of literature from 1591 to investigate whether Elizabethan fathers were patriarchal dicatators. Students read the passage and answer questions to determine what fathers were like during the late...
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NOTHING TO LEAR BUT LEAR HIMSELF
Students read a scene from King Lear and decide collaboratively how best to present it. In doing so, they examine the scenes and the play from multiple perspectives.
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O, LEAR'S MANY REASONS
Students analyze King Lear's speech and identify his "darker purpose", and let them explore different styles for reading it aloud. They can perform the scene as well.
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"The World's Asleep": But Not Your Classroom
High schoolers, in groups, form a circle in which to recite lines from Shakespeare. They throw foam balls to each other and when the ball is caught, a line is recited until all lines are memorized. They line up with quotations to...
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And. . . Freeze!
Students read a short section of a scene very closely and develop a tableaux as a start to the performance process. They write a paragraph in the voice of a character. They present their beginning, middle and end tableaux to the class.
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The 32-Second Macbeth
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.
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Macbeth: What's Up with the Crime Scene?
Students are introduced to Macbeth by having them act out the scene where Duncan's murder is discovered. This activity enable students to use dialogue only to discover the structure and format of a scene and explain plot.
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"Say you will be mine": Unspoken Answers and Unscripted Scenes
Students hypothesize the content of unscripted moments and responses, search for evidence in the actual text to support their hypothesis, and explore how this hypothesis would affect characterization. Groups perform their scenes and...
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Guess that Scene: A Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream Through Performance
Students 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.
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Catching the Beat: Exploring the Function of Verse in Othello
Students examine meter and how Shakespeare uses it in dialogue to show character emotion.