Teaching During COVID-19

How the Folger is supporting teachers during the coronavirus pandemic

It has been our honor to support teachers everywhere with free resources for teaching and learning from home during the coronavirus pandemic. 

We are updating many of the resources that were previously available on this page as we prepare for the launch of our new teaching website Folger Teaching on Tuesday, September 8. Below is a highlight of the resources that will be available on Folger Teaching.

COVID-19 Community Conversations on Zoom

• April 15th Community Conversation - Main topics: The Folger Method 8 Foundational Principles, an interactive choral reading activity using a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream and an excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Shakespeare's Birthday 2020.

• May 20th Community Conversation - Main topics: the what, why, and how of a Folger 20-minute play, an interactive 20-minute play of A Midsummer Night's Dream, what are paired texts and why are they important, pairing a speech of Lady Macbeth with Rose (Fences), a poem from Ada Limón and a passage from The Yellow Wallpaper, and a discussion of the big ideas from pairing Hamlet wtih Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric.  

• June 3rd Community Conversation - Main topics: race and Folger Shakespeare Library, The Merchant of Venice Shylock-Martian copy, question-and-answer with two teachers about race, teaching difficult topics, and how they learned to bridge differences, anti-racism resources, and plans for the reunion Community Conversation via Zoom Wednesday, July 29th

Anti-Racism resources

• CrossTalk Essential Everyday Bravery: Thinking and Talking About Identity and Difference in Your Classroom
• Anti-racism resources for white people complied by Sarah Sophia Flicker, Alyssa Klein in May 2020
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TEDTalk: The danger of a single story
• The "Sonic Color Line" Shakespeare and the Canonization of Violence Against Black Men by David Sterling Brown

Folger Shakespeare texts, performances, and primary sources 

• The Folger Shakespeare: Downloadable digital texts of all of Shakespeare’s works

• The Folger Digital Image Collection (LUNA): Images of books, artworks, manuscripts, and all kinds of primary sources

• Full, recorded video performance of Folger Theatre's 2008 Macbeth: Conceived and directed by Teller (of Penn & Teller) and Aaron Posner, with eight special features (free to stream on YouTube-- yes, the whole play, forever!)

• Spanish translation of Macbeth: Alfredo Michel Modenessi, a member of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City has graciously allowed the Folger to make his beta version of Macbeth translated into modern Spanish available to readers.

• Hamlet's famous soliloquy is now available in 12 languages (Arabic, Creole, Esperanto, French, Hawaiian, Kiowa Indian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Sim Braille, Spanish and Vietnamese) for readers of all ages to enjoy.  

•  "Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare" - an excerpt from The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin and Randall Kenan

• Sessions from Shakespeare's Birthday 2020 - How to Do an Elizabethan Sword Fight in 10 Easy Steps (YouTube), Whiteness: A Primer for Understanding Shakespeare (YouTube or Facebook), and Macbeth Watch Party (Facebook). 

Lesson Plans 

• Unit on Othello and American Moor: Folger-DC Public Schools Distance Learning Plans for Othello and American Moor by Keith Hamilton Cobb (Click on "Week 4" for the start of the unit.)

• Unit on Hamlet: Folger-DC Public Schools Distance Learning Plans for  (Click on "Week 4" for the start of the unit.)

• Unit on Romeo and Juliet Folger-DC Public Schools Distance Learning Plans for (Click on "Week 4" for the start of the unit.)