William Shakespeare penned some of the richest and most fascinating works of literature—or did he? Middle schoolers read three brief informative passages and conduct additional research to evaluate the claim that Shakespeare did not write the works for which he is credited.

Concepts

william shakespeare, informative writing, research writing, christopher marlowe, central ideas, evaluating claims, argumentative writing

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Design a cross-curricular project between social studies and language arts to connect the historical research and writing elements
• Incorporate into a unit on one of Shakespeare's plays

Classroom Considerations

• Designed for seventh graders, but possibly more appropriate for high schoolers
• Lexile® level 1140L

Pros

• Helpful for both an informative writing project and when working on writing arguments
• Teacher's guide contains writing rubrics and instructional tips

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.7.1 RI.7.2 RI.7.6 RI.7.8 W.7.2.a W.7.7 W.7.9.a SL.7.1.a