An introduction to Shakespeare

Advanced lesson plan (C1): An introduction to Shakespeare - BUY ME A COFFEE if you like my FREE ESL content

Everyone's heard of William Shakespeare, but for most of us he's not much more than a name and a few dry facts.

In this C1 worksheet, we bring Shakespeare to life, discussing the sordid details of Romeo and Juliet's doomed love affair, learning how the poetic meter of the Bard's poems mimicked the BUM-BUM of the human heart, and much more! 

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Lesson activities:

1) Students start by reading a short biography about William Shakespeare, filling in missing words. Key vocabulary: manuscripts, spawned, renowned, prolific.

2) Students will then read Shakespeare's most famous sonnet, 'Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?' They will be aided in their comprehension by information about archaic pronouns, modernised 'translations' of difficult lines, and commentary by modern literature scholar James Boyd White.

3) Next, students will learn six idioms/phrases coined by Shakespeare over 400 years ago: a wild goose chase, that is neither here nor there, the green-eyed monster, to vanish into thin air, all of a sudden, to be up in arms.

4) Students will then watch a video summary of Romeo and Juliet, and will answer comprehension questions.

5) Finally, students will learn about poetic meter, with a focus on 'iambic pentameter'. They will do this by watching a Ted-Ed video on the subject and answering comprehension questions.

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