Teaching Hamlet with the Folger Guide

Join Ashley Bessicks, Folger Mentor Teacher, for a two-hour virtual session devoted to the Folger Guide to Teaching Hamlet. Working through the guide in practice, we will explore hands-on approaches to introducing the language, strategies for close reading and scene work, and a unit sequence that takes students from first encounter to culminating activity.

You will leave with ready-to-use lessons, a flexible framework for pacing  Hamlet in your classroom, and a discount in the Folger Shop for the Folger Guide to Teaching Hamlet.

About Hamlet

Hamlet follows the form of a revenge tragedy, in which the hero, Hamlet, seeks vengeance against the man he learns is his father’s murderer—his uncle Claudius, now the king of Denmark. Much of its fascination, however, lies in its mysteries. Among them: Should Hamlet believe a ghost? What roles do Ophelia and her family play in Hamlet’s attempts to know the truth? Was his mother, Gertrude, unfaithful to her husband or complicit in his murder, or both? How do the visiting actors cause the truth to begin to reveal itself? 

You will leave with: 

• Strategies for teaching the soliloquies as entry points rather than obstacles, giving students real ownership of key speeches including “To be or not to be” 

• Approaches to managing Hamlet’s length and complexity through smart sequencing and the Essential Practices 

• A unit framework that builds toward a culminating project on action, conscience, or identity