TeachersFirst's Shakespeare Resources
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The amount of material available on Shakespeare is endless. These original and reviewed resources are an attempt to collect information on the works most commonly encountered in a K-12 curriculum using materials geared to high school and introductory college level students. In addition, we have included links to related sources dealing with the English monarchy and life and customs in Elizabethan England. Don't miss the TeachersFirst Exclusive Shakespeare lessons and activities included in this list.
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myShakespeare - Richard Clark and Greg Watson
Grades
8 to 12
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myShakespeare provides interactive content, including videos and study tools to accompany six of the most well-known Shakespeare plays. In addition to the play's complete text, the...more
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myShakespeare provides interactive content, including videos and study tools to accompany six of the most well-known Shakespeare plays. In addition to the play's complete text, the supplemental materials include video performances of key scenes, character discussions, complete audio recordings, and pop-up notes that share insight into the literary devices used within the text. Another option includes viewing portions of each play in modern language to help guide comprehension of the material. The Notebook portion of the site offers study tools that have comprehension questions and includes the ability for students to highlight and annotate the text. Finished notebooks can be saved, shared, and exported to teacher accounts. Select any play to begin; at the top of the page, you will find links to the materials, including a summary, the number of videos, toggle glossed words on or off (alternative words for items in the text), and notebook activities. Then, as you scroll through the page, available items appear next to the selected area on the right side of the screen. Use the links to share to your Google Classroom account as desired.
In the Classroom
This site is a must-have for teachers of Shakespeare! Engage students by sharing the video performances to help students understand key events during any of the plays. Share and point out the glossed (bold) words to help students understand difficult language. Find the tool for glossed words in the top menu to turn it on and off. Have students answer the comprehension questions as a formative assessment for their self-reflection and to guide your lesson planning. This site is perfect for use in remote classrooms or as a flipped learning activity. Assign portions of the text to students to read before class discussions. Using myShakespeare in this way offers many tools for students to view the material in different formats as they complete the reading. Use Flip, reviewed here, to enhance student learning throughout your Shakespeare unit by asking clarifying questions and have students post video responses. Extend learning further by asking students to create short video explainers of different scenes of the play using Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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What Jane Saw - The University of Texas at Austin/Janine Barchas
Grades
6 to 12
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What Jane Saw is a digital recreation of London art gallery exhibitions from 1796 and 1813. Visit the galleries to view exhibits as the famous British author, Jane Austen, saw ...more
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What Jane Saw is a digital recreation of London art gallery exhibitions from 1796 and 1813. Visit the galleries to view exhibits as the famous British author, Jane Austen, saw them. After entering each exhibit, click on the paintings to learn more about the artist and the canvas. Be sure to click on the About WJS portion within each display to find out more about the creation of each gallery.
In the Classroom
Use this site to compare and contrast the exhibits from different times - in 1796 as a Shakespeare exhibit, and in 1813 as a display to promote local artists. Consider opening this site in two different browser tabs making it easier to go back and forth to see differences in displays and artwork. Have students explore on their own to gain an understanding of art in the late 1700's and early 1800's. Include this site when reading works by Jane Austen to consider the influence of art and Shakespeare on her writings. Have students create online posters individually or together as a class using a tool such as Poster My Wall, reviewed here, or Lucidpress, reviewed here, to compare artwork from the different displays.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shakespeare Quotes - eNotes
Grades
6 to 12
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If you teach Shakespeare, you'll want to check out these explanations of over 200 Shakespeare Quotes. Each quote contains an explanation of the meaning of the quote along with the ...more
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If you teach Shakespeare, you'll want to check out these explanations of over 200 Shakespeare Quotes. Each quote contains an explanation of the meaning of the quote along with the context used within the play. Tags below each explanation lead to additional quotes with a similar theme.
In the Classroom
Share a link to this site on your class webpage for students to access at any time. Have students use this site as a model for creating their own explanation of quotes from Shakespeare (or any piece of literature). Encourage students to find a suitable quote to introduce their persuasive piece. Have students upload a photo they have taken and add voice bubbles to explain what they learned about Shakespeare using a tool such as Phrase.it, reviewed here. Challenge students to create a fictional Facebook account about a character in a Shakespeare play. Use the Fakebook, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ShakespeareKids - University of Texas, Austin - Winedale Outreach
Grades
K to 8
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Bring Shakespeare to young people with these K-8 resources and ideas. No matter the age of the young people involved, find everything needed to put on a scene from Shakespeare. ...more
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Bring Shakespeare to young people with these K-8 resources and ideas. No matter the age of the young people involved, find everything needed to put on a scene from Shakespeare. Click on the selections on the left menu to find scenes from Shakespeare's plays edited for different grade levels. From the left menu you can also explore the exercises, a resource page that lists films, websites, and books. Find those by clicking on the resources in the right column of each landing page. Give young people the exposure to the dramatic arts and enrichment for their language arts skills. Help them experience an educational boost while developing self-confidence, teamwork, and discipline. At the bottom of the home page find links for parents and teachers. Don't miss how to "do" your own Shakespeare. Texas teachers will appreciate TEKS connections in the Teacher section.
In the Classroom
Start by clicking on the link for your grade level. The text of the page will give the rationale for using Shakespeare with that age group. In the upper right corner find the link for the texts, lines and scenes for you to use with your students. These scenes are in PDF format and have been edited for the grade level. There is plenty of encouragement and advice as you get into this tool. You will also find advice for using and modifying other works from Shakespeare for your age group. Make a video of your successful performance using a tool like wevideo, reviewed here, and share it on TeacherTube, reviewed here.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Shakespeare Uncovered - WNET
Grades
8 to 12
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Teaching Shakespeare? Make sure to check out this educator's site for the PBS series Shakespeare Uncovered. There are ten lesson plans and a "Teachers Viewing Guide" for the...more
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Teaching Shakespeare? Make sure to check out this educator's site for the PBS series Shakespeare Uncovered. There are ten lesson plans and a "Teachers Viewing Guide" for the six video segments. In case you haven't heard of the delightful Shakespeare Uncoveredseries, never fear, clicking on the video tab will take you to all 6 episodes. The different celebrity hosts for each episode help make Shakespeare relevant and accessible to the students of the 21st century. The episodes also present rare footage from some renowned productions, including the 1963 adaptation of As You Like It starring Vanessa Redgrave as Rosalind. The series is built on interviews with actors, directors and scholars, clips from screen versions of the plays under consideration, and live performance segments filmed at today's Globe, and staged specifically for Shakespeare Uncovered. The teacher's guide and lesson plans contain video segments from Shakespeare Uncovered, comprehensive instructions for classroom implementation, printable student handouts, links to online resources, and suggestions for extension activities to enhance reading, viewing, and an appreciation of Shakespeare's works.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Enjoy the wealth of material put together for you and your students! Share the videos with your students on your projector or whiteboard. Flip your classroom and assign students to view the video at home and be prepared to discuss the next day in class. (Most videos are between 45 - 60 minutes.) Use this program as a "background knowledge" builder before having the students read the play. Whether choosing your favorite play or the one that your district requires, you and your students are sure to enjoy this current, relevant look at Shakespeare.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Stick Figure Hamlet - Dan Carroll
Grades
9 to 12
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Stick Figure Hamlet brings comic visuals and imagery to this classic work of Shakespeare. Each act and scene is represented. Simply start at the beginning to view all cartoons or ...more
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Stick Figure Hamlet brings comic visuals and imagery to this classic work of Shakespeare. Each act and scene is represented. Simply start at the beginning to view all cartoons or choose any act or scene desired. This site is sure to motivate and interest even the most reluctant reader!
In the Classroom
Add Stick Figure Hamlet to your arsenal of tools when reading Shakespeare. Share images from the site throughout your class reading of Hamlet on your interactive whiteboard. Invite students to interpret what is happening in the comics. Challenge students to find omissions in the retelling or to draw their own, better versions. Share the link for students to view at home. The images may be very helpful to visual learners in understanding the content of this work. Browse the TeachersFirst Shakespearean collection for other ideas to use with Hamlet. Use this site as inspiration and have students create their own comics for any piece of literature. Find many ideas at TeachersFirst's Comics Collection.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Open Source Shakespeare - Eric Johnson, Bernini Communications LLC
Grades
9 to 12
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Open Source Shakespeare is not just another ordinary collection of the complete works of William Shakespeare. You can use an advanced search, read the plays, and look up words in ...more
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Open Source Shakespeare is not just another ordinary collection of the complete works of William Shakespeare. You can use an advanced search, read the plays, and look up words in the "concordance." It is a comprehensive, free electronic bookshelf built with flexibility, user-friendliness, and powerful search functions that easily enables scholars, casual readers, or Shakespeare lovers to read the plays, poems, and sonnets. At the same time look up terms, phrases, quotations, passages, or search for answers to questions about characters, acts, or scenes in an infinite number of ways. This is an incredibly ambitious online project that provides quick, easy access and enables you to retrieve, store, and print. The simple appearance also makes the site functional on any mobile device, such as iPads, without concerns about Flash or other non-mobile features.
In the Classroom
Use this inclusive resource as you prepare to teach any of Shakespeare's classics. By making a direct link available from your class web page, you are opening the door for your students to have easy access and help when preparing for AP tests and other exams, as well as an ongoing method to guide independent reading and understanding for the many complexities in Shakespeare's literary works. The electronic text enables you to project it on your whiteboard, perhaps for a class reading where you could assign students parts to read aloud, or for students to highlight and "mark-up" evidence of literary techniques, or to critique or interact with the words in a variety of ways. One neat feature is that you can choose to place any two sonnets on a single page to view them side by side. This opens a world of opportunity for comparing and contrasting. You may want to enhance learning and use a Venn Diagram tool, reviewed here. Mark this collection in your favorites to use for planning during any of your units on Shakespeare. In a class where textbooks might be in short supply, or if there is a piece that you want to draw everyone's attention to, this is an excellent site to ensure everyone has access, just as long as they have internet access.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shakespearean Feast - TeachersFirst
Grades
9 to 12
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Eat your way to a new understanding of Shakespeare with this activity which lets students learn about Elizabethan customs by sampling the food the Elizabethans ate. The site provides...more
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Eat your way to a new understanding of Shakespeare with this activity which lets students learn about Elizabethan customs by sampling the food the Elizabethans ate. The site provides lots of recipe ideas, as well as presentation strategies.
In the Classroom
Use the recipes on this site to host a Shakespearean feast in your own classroom. Have students partner up to prepare the dishes at home, or coordinate with your family and consumer sciences faculty to try an in-class demonstration.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
Grades
9 to 12
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The word-for-word text of the folio edition, courtesy of the University of Victoria, Canada. ...more
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The word-for-word text of the folio edition, courtesy of the University of Victoria, Canada.
In the Classroom
Post this site on your teacher web page for students to use as review both in and out of the classroom. The site provides a copy of the play.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Internet Shakespeare - Michael Best and Roberta Livingstone-University of Victoria
Grades
7 to 12
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This Web site is an online library of The Internet Shakespeare Editions and more, with a goal to inspire a love of Shakespeare's works in a world-wide audience. Here you ...more
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This Web site is an online library of The Internet Shakespeare Editions and more, with a goal to inspire a love of Shakespeare's works in a world-wide audience. Here you will find high standard multimedia materials, including thousands of searchable pages devoted to the politics, society, and history of Shakespeare's world. There are biographical details of his life, as well as one of the Web's largest collections of online texts of his plays, poems, and related resources.
Be aware: at the time of this review, a few of the links were no longer active. What remains is quite worthwhile, however.
Be aware: at the time of this review, a few of the links were no longer active. What remains is quite worthwhile, however.
In the Classroom
Be sure to bookmark this website in your favorites for your study of Shakespeare. Post a link to it on your class page to give students access to the literary works at home. Not only will they be able to have an entire copy of Shakespeare's works on hand, they will also be able to click on links for summaries, analysis, and assistance with nearly everything they will need to know about his life and writing. This is a great resource for you and your students to refer to for review, research projects, or just for reading the text, both in and out of your classroom. Are you looking for more Shakespeare sources and ideas? Save yourself plenty of time by visting TeachersFirst Shakespeare Resources reviewed here, where you will find almost everything you are looking for within this rich collection of valuable materials.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shakespeare - Myvocabulary.com
Grades
6 to 12
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As part of their extensive site for vocabulary, roots, and more, MyVocabulary.com has added a themed area for Shakespeare. Find interactive vocabulary activities using Shakespeare vocabulary...more
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As part of their extensive site for vocabulary, roots, and more, MyVocabulary.com has added a themed area for Shakespeare. Find interactive vocabulary activities using Shakespeare vocabulary words. You will also find printable crosswords, fill in the blanks and more, all using the same theme words. This and other "themes" available on the site will make vocabulary development fun.
In the Classroom
Have students work in cooperative learning groups, divide up the vocabulary words, and have each group responsible to find the definitions for their assigned vocabulary words. Enhance learning by having the groups share their words and definitions in an online book, using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. Have the groups share the online books on your interactive whiteboard or projector and embed them in a class wiki. And of course, don't miss the interactive word puzzles! This is a great addition to a unit on Shakespeare or even character education.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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In Your Ear Shakespeare - In Your Ear Shakespeare
Grades
9 to 12
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With today's students plugged into their devices, this site offers a great way to attract students. It has posted podcasts (visit the "Chop Bard" link) that explains Shakespeare in...more
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With today's students plugged into their devices, this site offers a great way to attract students. It has posted podcasts (visit the "Chop Bard" link) that explains Shakespeare in a way that students will find appealing and more realistic than reading it alone or aloud in class. Several of the podcasts are geared specifically to Romeo and Juliet, a play often read in 9th grade which makes it familiar and an easy listen for students. The site includes a list of the chronology of plays as well as a timeline of Shakespeare's life.
A caution that there is language slightly bawdy in the podcasts, so preview them first. However, listening to the "Chop Bard" either as a class or as individual students, gives students a lift and a laugh, creating a link with Shakespeare that they have never experienced.
In the Classroom
Share the podcasts at this site with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. You may want to make this site a class project, to ensure the podcasts are all appropriate for your students. After listening to the podcasts, enhance learning by having students write a blog entry from the perspective of Romeo, Juliet, or another character from the literature. Or ask students to create an image to illustrate a scene and then narrate it using PowerPoint Online, reviewed here, or podOmatic, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shakespeare's Staging - Regents University of California
Grades
11 to 12
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This great site gives serious Shakespeare students something to dig into deeply. Of particular interest is a full-length, documentary video titled "Shakespeare and the Spanish Connection."...more
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This great site gives serious Shakespeare students something to dig into deeply. Of particular interest is a full-length, documentary video titled "Shakespeare and the Spanish Connection." Use the search bar to find this video. The documentary links Spanish and Elizabethan theatres in style of performance, architecture, and background. Find this video by using the search box and Spanish Connection. From the homepage, you can look at galleries (basically online picture albums) of Shakespearean productions from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Clicking on the "Videos" tab will enable you watch short excerpts of plays performed in various venues including open air theatres.
Due to the academic nature of the presentations, this is probably best used with upperclassmen or gifted students who have some familiarity with the Elizabethan Renaissance and Shakespeare. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If you district blocks YouTube, they maynot be viewable.
In the Classroom
The ideas presented on this site offer imaginative teachers great scope. Using the short videos and/or the albums as jumping off points, students can create their own videos of their own productions. Enhance student learning by using a video tool such as Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here. Share the videos on YouTube or another tool such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.One of the central topics can be the ease or difficulty in staging some of the scenes. Since there are several of the videos where actors describe the experiences playing certain characters as well as short documentaries showing authentic Elizabethan music, dance, etc., students can incorporate their own ideas in making their own scenes more genuine.
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The Shakespeare Mystery - WBGH Educational Foundation
Grades
9 to 12
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Since almost every high school reads Shakespeare, the look at the man himself and the controversies surrounding him make fascinating study for students and pull them into the Elizabethan...more
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Since almost every high school reads Shakespeare, the look at the man himself and the controversies surrounding him make fascinating study for students and pull them into the Elizabethan world (generally making study of the plays more interesting!). You will need to click the TEXT VERSION of this site to get links that work. Originally aired in April 1989 (and no longer available for purchase), this site offers the text and links to the fascinating debate of whether Shakespeare was the man from Stratford or really an intimate of Elizabeth I, the Earl of Oxford. It is divided into three sections: The Debate Continues, Updates, and Shakespeare on the Web. In a related report, the site looks at Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe as contemporaries, rivals, or being the same man.
In the Classroom
This site offers a wide variety of activities from mock trials to timelines to actual discussions of the topic. Having students assume the roles of different participants either as those debating the issue or as Shakespeare himself, Marlowe, the Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth I enhances research, writing, persuasive, and acting skills.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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60 second Shakespeare - BBC
Grades
9 to 12
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Although this page has been archived and is no longer updated, most links are functional. This is a fabulous site for the Shakespeare teacher or simply the Shakespeare fan. It...more
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Although this page has been archived and is no longer updated, most links are functional. This is a fabulous site for the Shakespeare teacher or simply the Shakespeare fan. It includes all of Willie's most famous plays done up in student-friendly and attractive, attention-getting form. The challenge is for students to develop their own '60-second' bit of Shakespeare. The site includes examples of different formats and offers everything from teacher lesson plans to "master classes" in teaching students how to do things such as audios, films, and photo slideshows as well as the more common newspaper articles and acting classes. The site also allows viewers to "vote" on their favorite renditions. This website requires Windows Media Player or Real Player. You can get either from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom
Since you can even submit your 60-second Shakespeare piece to the site for posting, this can be a real challenge to classes in competition. Have each class design its own 60-second program. They can use the ones already posted for inspiration. If you choose, you can use plans already posted by Paul Sibson, an IT teaching instructor, or you can pick and choose which ones you want students to attempt (or make better!). Make sure you have written parent permission before submitting student work and are within school policies. If policies prohibit posting on the BBC site, create a private wiki of your own within your school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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