What do Robert Downey Jr., Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Fritz Weaver, Roger Moore, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Daffy Duck have in common? Why, it’s elementary, my dear Watson! They all have portrayed Sherlock Holmes. Literary detectives...

Students explore Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In this analysis lesson, students recognize the use of poetic conventions as a principle of dramatic structure after analyzing the sonnetShakespeare created for the first meeting between...

Students put physical movement to the word of Romeo's ozymoronic speech in order to explain the trauma that he is experiencing.

High schoolers view a new adaptation of composer Charles Fran¿¿ois Gounod's opera "Romeo and Juliet", based on Shakespeare's 16th-century play. They conduct research on the era in which Shakespeare lived, write and respond to letters...

Ninth graders read and internalize the drama Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Many intriguing and thought provoking assignments are waiting for the completion of students within this instructional activity profile.

Students create a family shield for themselves as part of the Montague or Capulet family.  For this Romeo and Juliet lesson, students divide into the two warring clans.  Students each create a shield representing themselves as...

Students author and film their own adaptations of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In this multimedia skills lesson, students script a play that pits an Orthodox Christian family against a Muslim family. Students use GarageBand...

Students create a newspaper based on their reading of Romeo and Juliet.

Students create a soundtrack for Romeo and Juliet choosing one song to represent each scene. They write a paragraph explaining their song choices.

Students explore life and language development in the Elizabethan Age. In this English lesson students complete web-quests and other activities surrounding Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Students design a newspaper after reading the play "Romeo and Juliet." They include an appropriate title, wedding announcement, an advice column, an obituary and classified advertisements.

Students choose a creative medium for expressing personalization of one of the themes from the play. They share their projects orally. Instructions, rubric, and suggested theme choices are included.

Students interpret the themes in Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, create a 6-line poem based on the themes in the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and define musical terms related to the study of programmatic music in...

Students work in small groups to modernize and perform scenes from Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet. In this Shakespeare reenact lesson, students have an active roll in completing the project which includes analyzing and summarizing scenes,...

How does a new version of a Shakespearean play change in the adaptation process? Use this New York Times' Learning Network lesson to consider texts that have been produced in different media. Middle schoolers examine the latest...

Use O. Henry's ubiquitous tale of love and poverty to explore irony. After reading the story, middle schoolers identify examples of all three kinds of irony in the story. With partners, they brainstorm original examples of irony. Then...

Sixth graders explore figurative and literal language. They study literary devices through short pieces of Shakespeare's work. Then investigate Shakespeare's works and life.

High schoolers analyze the problems with staging and character using the play Julius Caesar. They summarize the final scene of the play and view film versions of the scene. Additionally, they prepare a promptbook for the final scene and...

Interpret Shakespearian scenes with your middle and high school classes. Groups select scenes from plays that they are familiar with to perform for their classmates. They should attempt to recreate the emotions they think the characters...

Did Shakespeare really write all that stuff? After viewing a trailer for the film, Anonymous and reading Stephen Marche’s article “Wouldn’t It Be Cool If Shakespeare Wasn’t Shakespeare?” class groups read articles about the Shakespeare...

Students select a piece of text from a play and prepare it for performance to the class based on their modern setting.

Learners develop questions they would have liked to ask an author about their written works. They read an article about their forefathers and research a back story to a written work of their choice. They create posters to illustrate the...

Students study the work of William Shakespeare. They survey the elements of comedy and tragedy and read plays and poems. They discuss the texts they read and recite poetry. They dramatize poems with movement and sounds and write poetry...

Students perform a scene from Shakespeare for an unsuspecting audience in a public setting.  In this Shakespeare lesson, students create a Shakespearean "flash mob" or "guerilla theater" event.  Students choose a...