Inspiring ideas for teachers
If you are looking for new ideas to inform your teaching, Shakespearian actor and expert Ben Crystal shares a masterclass for English teachers in understanding Shakespeare's use of implicit stage directions in his resource Mapping the heart of Shakespeare.
Another inspirational resource for English teachers, Shakespeare as a performance written by English expert Francis Gilbert, is full of fun ideas to get students thinking about the drama of Shakespeare’s work, while 20 teaching ideas for Shakespeare is more eclectic and can be used for engaging starters, plenaries and consolidation activities when you are teaching Shakespeare’s plays.
Introducing Shakespeare
If you are just starting a Shakespeare play with KS3, Shakespearian insults is a silly starter which will help to take the fear out of Shakespeare’s language for students, while William Shakespeare - the facts is a handy quick knowledge check or research task. Sneaky Shakespeare works as an engaging pre-reading task with a range of creative writing cards and prompts for adaptations.
Shakespeare revision ideas for KS4-5
If you are consolidating students' understanding, revising a Shakespeare play, or preparing students for an exam question, you might want to focus on ways to recall key quotations. Fun ways to memorise Shakespearian quotations includes 13 revision ideas for any play, while Romeo and Juliet mastermind uses the game show format to revise key quotes.
If you are looking for revision games at KS4, try Macbeth macopoly or Macbeth Pursuits which are based on familiar board games and will help students to recall key themes and characters, and could be easily adapted to could work for any play.
Shakespeare's heroes: obituaries and epitaphs would work as a useful revision task for GCSE or A-level students, while Reaching the higher grades in your Romeo and Juliet essay does it exactly what it promises for the AQA GCSE English Literature specification.
And if you are looking for more resources, try our KS3 Shakespeare, KS4 Shakespeare or KS5 Shakespeare libraries for hundreds of classroom-ready resources and lesson ideas.
This article was first published as an Editor's pick newsletter in April 2022.
