Find articles and lesson plans related to the life and work of Shakespeare for you to use in your teenage English language classroom.

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Theatre poster for Hamlet.

To be or not to be...

This lesson is about Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ speech. It provides students with the opportunity to become familiar with the situations and events in the play, and then look at parts of the speech in detail.

The Tragedy of Hamlet

This lesson is about one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, Hamlet. Students learn about the characters and listen to a summary of the plot.

Shakespeare's idioms

Students start by discussing a very well-known idiom. They then consider some true/false statements about Shakespeare and idioms before reading a text to check their ideas. 

Portrait of Shakespeare

Shakespeare and Violence

This lesson introduces secondary and adult students of CEFR Level B2 and above to the theme of violence in Shakespeare's plays. 

Shakespeare and Money

This lesson is about the life of William Shakespeare and his family, and their relationship with money.

Shakespeare and love

This lesson is based around the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. It looks at the themes and language that Shakespeare uses to describe love.

Othello about to kill his wife in her sleep.

Ready, Steady – Tragedy!

This lesson encourages an exploration of how the meaning of the word ‘tragedy’ has evolved since Shakespeare’s time.

Propaganda and Shakespeare’s Richard III

This lesson provides students with information about Shakespeare’s history play Richard III, and raises awareness of how Shakespeare used propaganda to portray King Richard III as an evil tyrant.

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