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"What are these...?"
Students discuss the "witches" of Shakespeare. For this literature analysis lesson, students research the influence of Macbeth's sisters on his behavior. They examine various terms used to describe the sisters, and discuss which ones...
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Character Tea Party
A tea party in Wonderland? An East Egg brunch with Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Nick? Breakfast with Miss Havisham, Lady Macbeth, and Abigail Williams? Or dinner with Andre, Hamlet, and Randle Patrick McMurphy? Class members select a favorite...
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Macbeth
Learners engage in a variety of activities in order to complete a unit about the Shakespeare work of Macbeth. The lessons are part of a layered curriculum. The objective is to create a portfolio to create more layers.
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Hamlet Research Paper: Find, Evaluate, and Select Appropriate Research Sources
Help young researchers find credible sources online. Modeling with a Google search for information about Shakespeare’s Macbeth, use a computer projector or Smart Board to show class members how weak the top three search results are....
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Knock, Knock
Students explore the use of sound as a special effect to enhance or radically change the meaning of a scene. They design a soundscape for Macbeth's porter scene, and conclude by listening to and watching two different film treatments of...
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Who's There: Acting in the Dark
High schoolers participate in a performance of Macbeth using the lighting techniques that were employed during the Shakespearean era. Working in groups, student reenact a scene. Afterward they discuss the challenges of working with...
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Macbeth Presentations
Students make Powerpoint presentations or Web pages about Macbeth. Their presentations must include at least three elements from a provided list. They write reflective papers about their learning experience.
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Six Degrees of Lord of the Rings
Here's a fascinating take on a three-year honors, AP language, and AP literature course. Designed for teachers, the presentation suggests how to connect Tolkien's classic to the AP English canon. Very thought-provoking and definitely...
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Julius Caesar: iambic pentameter
Read in iambic pentameter! Read Julius Caesar and Macbeth to study the famous meter. While the lesson points out the specific passages to use, you'll have to find them and copy them yourself.
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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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This Was the Noblest Roman of Them All
High schoolers analyze the problems with staging and character using the play Julius Caesar. They summarize the final scene of the play and view film versions of the scene. Additionally, they prepare a promptbook for the final scene and...
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Knock, Knock, or Whose Line is it Anyway?
Students compare two versions of Macbeth and participate in improvisational acting. In this improvisational lesson, students read and discuss the text before watching two different versions of the film. Students roleplay a scenario and...
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Looking at Life through the Creation of Personal Metaphors
Students focus on the creation of personal metaphors, which are first illustrated in pictures and caricatures and then extended to descriptive/analytical paragraphs. They teach the lesson to others using their own personal metaphors as...
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From Start to Finish: Shakespeare's Plays
This online interactive quiz is too low-quality to assign to your class; however, you may want to adapt the idea of recognizing starts and finishes of works for your own lesson or quiz. An example from the instructional activity is:...
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Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Benjy's Sense of Time and Narrative Voice
Learners analyze narrative voice in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. In this novel analysis lesson, students analyze Faulkner's writing style and the narrative voice of Benjy. Learners create a reading journal for the lesson...
Reading Shakespeare
Shakespeare Literature Circles Role Sheets
Tired of those blank stares after your class reads a particularly complex passage from a Shakespearean play? Help high schoolers untangle that prose with a literature circle activity. Ten different roles prompt class members to focus on...
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Lesson 1: Theatre Arts
Learners create and perform based on cuttings from various plays and literature to demonstrate the learning of the process of improvisation. Students connect improvisation with theatre and real life. Learners participate in a class...
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Shortened Shakespeare
High schoolers discover the two main ingredients of a play: speech and actions. They then listen to a shortened version of "Macbeth" and write down one sentence to describe what is happening in each of the comic-strip cells.
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An Actor's View of Shakespeare
Students research characters from different plays. In this Shakespeare and performing arts lesson, students discuss the portrayal of characters from the perspective of real actors. Students work in groups to examine the technique for...
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The Concept of the Hero
Students explore the symbolic implications for the concept of the hero with a focus on the Beowulf theme. In this hero concept lesson, students find specific examples of monsters from Beowulf to complete the chart. Students list the...
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Creating a Classic Comic Book
Students read a given play. They choose the key scenes from the play and write a narration to carry the plot line between those scenes. They create a comic book that depicts these key scenes, complete with pictures and text balloons.
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What's in a Name? Considering the Shakespeare Authorship Question
Did Shakespeare really write all that stuff? After viewing a trailer for the film, Anonymous and reading Stephen Marche’s article “Wouldn’t It Be Cool If Shakespeare Wasn’t Shakespeare?” class groups read articles about the Shakespeare...
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Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Benjy's Sense of Time and Narrative Voice
High schoolers complete a variety of discussion and writing activities that highlight the concepts of time and narrative voice of Benjy by iam Faulkner.
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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.