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Can't Buy Me Love?
High schoolers activity find the multiplicity of meanings buried within Shakespeare's language. They examine how the meanings of words differ in modern America and in Venice.
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Measure for Measure: Are You Talkin' to Me?
High schoolers rehearse and perform an exchange from act three, scene two of the play, Measure for Measure, in pairs. They read the lines from the point of view of a different character in the play, and perform for the class.
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Performing Sonnets
Students use Shakespearean sonnets as part of a poetry analysis instructional activity. In this sonnet instructional activity, students perform a sonnet by Shakespeare but treat it as a script to be acted out. Students work in pairs to...
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Mapping Shakespeare
Twelfth graders read a Shakespearean play focusing on a character. They create "Mind Maps" of their characters and act out a selection of the play.
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Introduction to "As You Like It"
Students explore the character relationships and their connection in the play "As You Like It." Working in groups, students act out the various scenes from the play and discuss the characters and their actions in the scene. Students...
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Blow, Crack, and Rage
Students add punctuation to a passage from King Lear and compare their version to the First Folio version. In this Shakespeare and punctuation lesson, students discuss the difference punctuation can make on a set of words. ...
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Macbeth Revision Questions
In this Macbeth revision questions worksheet, students explain certain details about Act one and six from the play. Students identify who said certain quotes and practice writing two essay questions about how they would act if they were...
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King Lear- Cut a Scene
Learners determine the most critical elements of King Lear, Act I using a Silent Scene Model. In this King Lear lesson plan, students will create a silent scene based on a scene from Act I of King Lear and act out their scenes for...
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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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Trust
Students read and discuss Romeo and Juliet Act IV, Scenes 1 and 2. They compare the unfolding action with yesterday's predictions. They consider the concepts of trust, fate, and self-determination.
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Foreshadowing
Young scholars read and discuss Act V, Scene 1. They define foreshadowing and identify examples of it from the text. They edit a partner's diary entry. They identify key ideas from the scene.
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Much Ado About Nothing Masks Lesson
Students examine the personality traits of characters. In this characterization lesson plan, students read act 2 of "Much Ado About Nothing" and create masks to represent the characters in the play.
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Comparing Shakespearean Film Adaptations
Though this lesson deals specifically with Hamlet and its themes, many of the strategies and approaches here may be used with most any of Shakespeare's plays that have been adapted to film. Viewing clips of the same Shakespeare scene in...
Louisiana Department of Education
Unit: Hamlet
Encourage readers to determine if Hamlet's madness is actually divinest sense. Class members analyze the words of the play before studying related texts, including T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," scenes from...
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Welcome to Renaissance England
Prepare your seventh through ninth graders for their first Shakespearean experience. This slide show provides a series of vocabulary words in context and a brief history of one of the world's most prolific playwrites, William...
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Othello
Pupils find evidence to support reasons why Othello's insecurity makes him weak. In this Othello analysis lesson, students find evidence to support Othello as a strong person at the beginning of the play. Pupils use the given websites to...
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Who is Gertrude, Really?
Pupils form opinions about Gertrude by imaginatively creating 5 entries for Gertrude's journal. Each journal entry reveal much about Gertrude's character at pivotal moments in the play.
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Romeo and Juliet Promptbook - The Balcony Scene
In this Romeo and Juliet learning exercise, learners view three versions of the balcony scene. Students discuss why the director chose the elements for the film versions. Learners then complete a prompt-book activity analyze the setting,...
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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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Trickery and Foolery in King Lear
Students act out scenarios in which someone is duped or is made a fool of. In this trickery and foolery in King Lear instructional activity, students plan and act out a brief scenario and discuss the person who is duped 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...
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"Romeo and Juliet" English Lesson Plans
English lesson plans focusing on "Romeo and Juliet" can be a great way to introduce students to Shakespeare's plays.
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"Very tragical mirth:" Romeo and Pyramus, Juliet and Thisbe
Students analyze and compare the poetic tools Shakespeare uses in the death scenes of Romeo and Juliet to those of Pyramus and Thisbe in Midsummer Night's Dream.
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Stop Action and Assess Alternatives
Students stop action and determine how history may have been altered. In this historical perspectives lesson, students consider how the Cherokee Removal, the Transcontinental Railroad, the Immigration Act of 1924, and the dropping of the...