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Lesson Plans Archive
These plans have been featured on our site in the past, and many of them have been discussed in the Teachers' Lounge. Check them out if you're new to this site or just looking for new ideas.
Archived Lesson Plans Listed by Topic:
Introducing Shakespeare
A Close Reading of Shakespeare On Your Feet
Bill's Allusive Nature: An Introduction to Shakespeare
Fathers and Sons in I Henry IV
"I am a pirate with a wooden leg": Stomping Iambic Pentameter
I want to believe:Astrologers and Sceptics in King Lear
Illuminating Macbeth
It's All In The Way You Say It
"Music Be the Food of Love": Found Poetry with Shakespeare and Hip Hop
Pause - What did you say?
Performing Sonnets
Sonnet Illumination
War and Remembrance: St.Crispin's Day speech from Henry V
Who's the Fool in King Lear
General Lessons
A Boxful of Character
A Close Reading of Shakespeare On Your Feet
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Bill's Allusive Nature: An Introduction to Shakespeare
Can you hear Macbeth now?
"Change slander to remorse": Unscripted Scenes
Conspiracy after the Storm: Editing Dual murder plots in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Exploring Rhythm in Richard III
Fools for Love in King Lear
Help!
"I am a pirate with a wooden leg": Stomping Iambic Pentameter
"I Will Hear That Play": Using Sound to Enhance the Text
Illuminating Language in Love's Labor's Lost
Illuminating Our Human Experiences: Soliloquy from Hamlet
It's All In The Way You Say It
It's Elementary!: Stomping and Romping with Shakespeare
Lesson 11:Cutting Antony's speeches: "I am meek and gentle with these butchers"
Lesson 15: "Tear him for his bad verses:" Cinna the poet and Shakespeare's Sonnets.
Lesson 16: "Their names are pricked."
Lesson 18: Cracking Cassius
Lesson 19: Friendship in Julius Caesar
Lesson 20: Direct the Ghost of Caesar
Lesson 21: Betrayal or Honest Mistake?
Lesson 22: As constant as the Northern Star: Examining Static and Dynamic Characters in Julius Caesar.
Lesson 23 "Good Words are Better than Bad Strokes"
Mapping Shakespeare
Message in a Bottle
Mixing it up with Romeo and Juliet
"Music Be the Food of Love": Found Poetry with Shakespeare and Hip Hop
Not Much Unlike Stageplayers
"Now, unto thy bones, goodnight."
Parenting 101
Performing Modernized Shakespeare
Playing the Fool
Shakespeare in Parts
Shakespeare Wall
"Speak What We Feel, Not What We Ought to Say"
The Art of Poetry: The Lunatic, The Lover, and the Poet
The Secret life of Minor Characters
The Tempest: Picture Poems
"Things that do presage."
Unlocking Soliloquies and Unleashing "the Dogs of War"
War and Remembrance: St.Crispin's Day speech from Henry V
"What are these...?"
When Fair is Foul: Paradox and Equivocation in Macbeth
"Who's there?": Acting in the Dark
Curricular Units
UNIT: Crafting a Character - The Making of Shylock
UNIT: She's a Lady...Or is She? Examining dress and behavior in As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
Elementary Lessons
A Boxful of Character
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Film Lessons
Anon Methought the Umbrellas Began to Move
Enter Ophelia: Stage Directions, Promptbooks, and Film
Illuminating Macbeth
"Knock, knock"
Performing Modernized Shakespeare
"Picturing Shakespeare: Creating Illuminated Texts"
UNIT: Crafting a Character - The Making of Shylock
War and Remembrance: St.Crispin's Day speech from Henry V
"We few, we happy few": Motivational Speech in Henry V
You Can't Go Home Again (or, If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother)
Interactive Media Lessons
Bill's Allusive Nature: An Introduction to Shakespeare
"Divinity of hell!": Soliloquies, Cutting and Computers
Enter Ophelia: Stage Directions, Promptbooks, and Film
Folger on the Ramparts
"I Will Hear That Play": Using Sound to Enhance the Text
Illuminating Macbeth
Lesson 23 "Good Words are Better than Bad Strokes"
Lights, Camera, Action
Much Ado About Illumination
"Now, unto thy bones, goodnight."
Of Passions Sundry and Strange
"Picturing Shakespeare: Creating Illuminated Texts"
Questions of Kingship in King Lear
"Strike a Pose:" Music and Vogueing in The Winter's Tale
Twelfth Night-The Musical!
War and Remembrance: St.Crispin's Day speech from Henry V
"Words, words, words"
www.As You Like It
www.Caesar
www.Hamlet
www.Lear
www.Macbeth
www.Merchant of Venice
www.Midsummer
www.Othello
www.Richard II
"You should not have believed me": Multiple Readings of Hamlet
Multi-play Lessons
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
"Music Be the Food of Love": Found Poetry with Shakespeare and Hip Hop
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
Primary Source Material Lessons
17th Century Pick-up Lines: "Your words like musick please me"
17th Century Rules of Marriage
"A rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:" original line or familiar find?
Do Clothes Make the Man?
Enter Ophelia: Stage Directions, Promptbooks, and Film
Fools Following the Fools
Get Thee to Wife!
Hamlet and the Pirates
"How to choose a good Wife from a bad...": Were Othello and Desdemona doomed from the start?
Lesson 08: Prithee, Pause!
Lesson 17: In Search of Caesar's Ghost
"Let all of his complexion choose me so": Elizabethan Perceptions of Africans
Mars vs. Venus in Renaissance England: Women and Men in The Winter's Tale
"Money for Something:" Understanding Usury in The Merchant of Venice
Multiple Texts, Multiple Editions
Not Much Unlike Stageplayers
Nurture that Nature
Of Passions Sundry and Strange
Parenting 101
"Purge him of that humour": Leontes' Sickness and Cure
Pyramus and Thisbe, Page to Stage
Questions of Kingship in King Lear
Shakespeare in Parts
The Art of Poetry: The Lunatic, The Lover, and the Poet
The Good and the Badde: Are Stereotypes a Perfect Fit?
To Love, Honor and Obey (One's Parents!)
UNIT: Crafting a Character - The Making of Shylock
UNIT: She's a Lady...Or is She? Examining dress and behavior in As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
"What are these...?"
What's Your Sign?
Why is Leontes Jealous? Finding a Cause in The Winter's Tale
As You Like It
Lose the Lute!
Playing the Fool
Sculptures of the Seven Ages
Touchstone vs. Jaques: Analyzing Mood in As You Like It
UNIT: She's a Lady...Or is She? Examining dress and behavior in As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
www.As You Like It
Cymbeline
Enter the Evil Stepmother
Romans in Britain, or Classical Colonialism
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
Hamlet
A Guilty Gertrude: Performing Speaking and Silent Moments in Hamlet
Emulating Shakespeare: To Snooze or Not To Snooze
Enter Ophelia: Stage Directions, Promptbooks, and Film
Folger on the Ramparts
Hamlet and the Pirates
Lesson 04: What, Did Caesar Swoon?
Like, Wow
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
"Touching this vision": Imagery in Hamlet
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
Who is Gertrude, Really?
www.Hamlet
You Can't Go Home Again (or, If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother)
"You should not have believed me": Multiple Readings of Hamlet
Henry IV, Part 1
Fathers and Sons in I Henry IV
Henry V
War and Remembrance: St.Crispin's Day speech from Henry V
"We few, we happy few": Motivational Speech in Henry V
Henry VI, Part 2
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
Lesson 01: Pre-reading for Julius Caesar
Lesson 02: Pre-reading, Day Two
Lesson 03: "...The Eye Sees Not Itself:" Reading Images
Lesson 04: What, Did Caesar Swoon?
Lesson 05: Persuasive Speech in Julius Caesar
Lesson 06: The Adder and the Ladder: Figurative Language as Persuasion in Julius Caesar
Lesson 07: Editing the Conspiracy: Julius Caesar 2.1.94-252
Lesson 08: Prithee, Pause!
Lesson 09: Would the real Portia please stand up?
Lesson 10: True and Honorable Wives?
Lesson 11:Cutting Antony's speeches: "I am meek and gentle with these butchers"
Lesson 12: Following the Blood
Lesson 13: How to Move the Crowd: The Persuasive, Powerful Rhetoric of Mark Antony
Lesson 14: Vox Populi: Brutus's Speech and the Response of the Plebeians
Lesson 15: "Tear him for his bad verses:" Cinna the poet and Shakespeare's Sonnets.
Lesson 16: "Their names are pricked."
Lesson 17: In Search of Caesar's Ghost
Lesson 18: Cracking Cassius
Lesson 19: Friendship in Julius Caesar
Lesson 20: Direct the Ghost of Caesar
Lesson 21: Betrayal or Honest Mistake?
Lesson 22: As constant as the Northern Star: Examining Static and Dynamic Characters in Julius Caesar.
Lesson 23 "Good Words are Better than Bad Strokes"
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
Pause - What did you say?
The Secret life of Minor Characters
"Things that do presage."
Unlocking Soliloquies and Unleashing "the Dogs of War"
www.Caesar
King Lear
And We All Sit Down: Status in King Lear
Fools for Love in King Lear
I want to believe:Astrologers and Sceptics in King Lear
"I will not hear that play": Performing a Silent Scene
King Lear's Storm
Multiple Texts, Multiple Editions
Nothing to Lear but Lear Himself
Of Passions Sundry and Strange
Questions of Kingship in King Lear
"Speak What We Feel, Not What We Ought to Say"
"The World's Asleep": But Not Your Classroom
To Love, Honor and Obey (One's Parents!)
"Who is it that can tell me who I am?": Performances of Lear's Speeches
Who's the Fool in King Lear
www.Lear
Love's Labours Lost
Illuminating Language in Love's Labor's Lost
Macbeth
And. . . Freeze!
Anon Methought the Umbrellas Began to Move
Can you hear Macbeth now?
"Double, double, toil and trouble": A Dual Exploration of Macbeth
"Knock, knock"
Macbeth: What's Up with the Crime Scene?
Pause - What did you say?
Screwing Courage in Macbeth
The 32-second Macbeth
The Macbeth Tango
"What are these...?"
When Fair is Foul: Paradox and Equivocation in Macbeth
"Who's there?": Acting in the Dark
www.Macbeth
Measure for Measure
"Change slander to remorse": Unscripted Scenes
Measure for Measure: Are You Talkin' to Me?
"Say you will be mine": Unspoken Answers and Unscripted Scenes
The Merchant of Venice
Can't Buy Me Love?
Do Clothes Make the Man?
Get Thee to Wife!
"I am not well": Unspoken Endings and Unscripted scenes
"Let all of his complexion choose me so": Elizabethan Perceptions of Africans
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
"Money for Something:" Understanding Usury in The Merchant of Venice
Playing Humanity: Comparing Shylock and Antonio
Shakespeare in Parts
UNIT: Crafting a Character - The Making of Shylock
UNIT: She's a Lady...Or is She? Examining dress and behavior in As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
Welcome to Venice
Whatever Happened to Shylock?
www.Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Scene of Tragical Mirth
False Starts
Get Thee to Wife!
Guess that Play
"I Will Hear That Play": Using Sound to Enhance the Text
"I will not hear that play": Performing a Silent Scene
Interviewing the Players
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
Not Much Unlike Stageplayers
Nurture that Nature
Pyramus and Thisbe, Page to Stage
"Such Affection Move": Finding Staging Clues in A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Art of Poetry: The Lunatic, The Lover, and the Poet
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
"Very tragical mirth:" Romeo and Pyramus, Juliet and Thisbe
www.Midsummer
Much Ado About Nothing
"Change slander to remorse": Unscripted Scenes
Dogberry: The Most Vigitant Lawman Ever
Hero vs. Claudio: A Case of Slander
Lose the Lute!
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
Much Ado About Illumination
"Now, unto thy bones, goodnight."
Tickling the Brain
To Love, Honor and Obey (One's Parents!)
Othello
Catching the Beat: Exploring the Function of Verse in Othello
"Divinity of hell!": Soliloquies, Cutting and Computers
Fear and Loathing in Othello
"How to choose a good Wife from a bad...": Were Othello and Desdemona doomed from the start?
"I am not what I am"
Investigating Othello: Peeling Away Layers of Meaning
MTV Othello
"O Beware, Sir, of Jealousy:" Passion and Jealousy in Othello and the Sonnets
The Trial of Iago: "To you. . . remains the censure of this hellish villian"
"Thou hast set me on the rack": A Dramatic Reading of Iago's Most Poisonous Lines
Where Do They Stand?: Perspectives on Othello's Marriage
"Words, words, words"
www.Othello
Richard II
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
www.Richard II
Richard III
Exploring Rhythm in Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
17th Century Pick-up Lines: "Your words like musick please me"
17th Century Rules of Marriage
A Close Reading of Shakespeare On Your Feet
"A rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:" original line or familiar find?
Figurative Language Alive: Balcony Scene Charades
Get Thee to Wife!
"Here's much to do with hate, but more with love": The Prologue in Romeo and Juliet
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
Mixing it up with Romeo and Juliet
Parenting 101
Performing Time, Status, and Genre in Romeo and Juliet
Pyramus and Thisbe, Page to Stage
Romeo and Juliet...Unfinished Business?
The Full Bodied Romeo
To Love, Honor and Obey (One's Parents!)
"Very tragical mirth:" Romeo and Pyramus, Juliet and Thisbe
What's Your Sign?
Sonnets
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's Tortured Sonnets
"O Beware, Sir, of Jealousy:" Passion and Jealousy in Othello and the Sonnets
"O how I faint when I of you do write:" Analyzing Shakespearean Sonnets Using "SOAPSTone" and Performance
Performing Sonnets
Sonnet Illumination
The Taming of the Shrew
M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare
The Good and the Badde: Are Stereotypes a Perfect Fit?
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
The Tempest
Ariel, the (occasionally) tricksy spirit
Lose the Lute!
Message in a Bottle
Pause - What did you say?
Prospero: Turkey or Tyrant?
"Some excellent dumb discourse:" Caliban as native American
Tempest in the Lunchroom
The Tempest: Picture Poems
Twelfth Night
"Blame not this haste of mine": Creating a scene for Twelfth Night
Lights, Camera, Action
Lose the Lute!
"O Time, thou must untangle this": Tangling up the Love in Twelfth Night
Puzzling through the order of things in Twelfth Night
Shakespeare in Parts
Survivor: Illyria
The Twelve Fates of Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night-The Musical!
Twelfth Night: What's so funny?
UNIT: Using Music to Explore Shakespeare's Characters
The Winter's Tale
Fools Following the Fools
Leontes from Head to Toe
Lose the Lute!
Mars vs. Venus in Renaissance England: Women and Men in The Winter's Tale
"Purge him of that humour": Leontes' Sickness and Cure
"Strike a Pose:" Music and Vogueing in The Winter's Tale
Why is Leontes Jealous? Finding a Cause in The Winter's Tale
Other Lesson Plans
Blow, Crack, and Rage
Hark! The Sounds of Murder
That Devilish Tinker Bell!
"That quaffing and drinking will undo you"
"This Was the Noblest Roman of Them All"
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