Experiencing Shakespeare
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Experiencing Shakespeare, a FREE Electronic Field Trip
Presented by the IQ Learning Network and the Folger Shakespeare Library
Date: The on-demand show is available to stream online until the end of May 2012
Grade Levels: 6-12
Cost: FREE
Description:
“Experiencing Shakespeare” brings students inside the Folger Shakespeare Library, home to the
world’s largest collection of Shakespeare materials. The Folger’s belief that the best way for students
to learn Shakespeare is to do Shakespeare forms the inspiration for this dynamic program. Students
will travel backstage with professional actors rehearsing for a Shakespeare performance, see original
documents relating to Shakespeare's life and times, and delve into the Folger’s vaults, theater, and
library. “Experiencing Shakespeare” empowers students to engage with the works of one of the
world’s most influential writers.
“Experiencing Shakespeare” is produced by The IQ Learning Network, a division of Alabama Public
Television, in partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Standards:
“Experiencing Shakespeare” correlates to the following NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts:

Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate
texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers,
their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and
their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence
structure, context, graphics).
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
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by
posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g.,
print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit
their purpose and audience.

Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases,
computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and
communicate knowledge.
“Experiencing Shakespeare” also correlates to the Common Core Standards for the English Language
Arts. Please visit http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards for
more information about the Common Core Standards.
Pre-Field Trip Activities: The following is a list of suggested activities and digital resources that
teachers can use with students prior to “Experiencing Shakespeare.”

Establish prior knowledge by doing a class brainstorm about Shakespeare, his plays, and
related topics. Keep the list visible during the field trip.

Based on class knowledge, generate a list of questions that your students can ask during the
field trip.

Give your students the opportunity to speak Shakespeare’s language. The “Shakespeare Lines”
handout lists 40 famous lines from Shakespeare’s plays.
Post-Field Trip Activities: The following is a list of suggested activities and digital resources that
teachers can use with students following the electronic field trip.

As a class, check through the prior knowledge list you made before the field trip. Your
students can make additions and corrections based on what they learned about Shakespeare.

If you haven’t tried performing Shakespeare with your students, do a short scene together as
a class. You don’t have to start with Act 1, Scene 1 and you don’t have to do an entire play!
The following scenes are very effective for introducing Shakespeare:
Othello, 1.1 (Iago rudely awakens Desdemona’s father)
Julius Caesar, 3.3. (Cinna the poet is attacked by a mob)
Hamlet, 1.1 (Ghost appears to the soldiers)
Macbeth, 1.3.38 onwards (Macbeth meets the Weird Sisters)
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1.2 (The rustic actors are introduced)
Much Ado About Nothing, 4.1 (Beatrice urges Benedick to kill Claudio)
Romeo and Juliet, 3.5 (Juliet angers her parents)
The Taming of the Shrew, 2.1 (The two sisters quarrel)
Extension Activities

Students as Directors. After your students have become familiar with reading and performing
Shakespeare, use the “Calling All Directors” lesson plan to put students in the director's chair.
This highly interactive lesson offers an opportunity for all students to participate in
interpreting Shakespeare's works.
To get this lesson, go to:
http://www.folger.edu/Content/Teach-and-Learn/Teaching-Resources/Audio--Video/Teacherto-Teacher-Series/Students-as-Directors.cfm

Shakespeare in today’s culture. What movies, songs, or television shows have your students
seen that remind them of Shakespeare’s plays? Whether it is an animated film version of
Romeo and Juliet, mismatched characters in a sitcom, or song lyrics, Shakespeare continues to
influence popular entertainment.
Check out “Songs Inspired by Shakespeare” for a list of songs that use Shakespearean lyrics or
themes: http://www.folger.edu/Content/Whats-On/Digital-Folger/Play-On.cfm
Inside the Folger Shakespeare Library
“Experiencing Shakespeare” takes you and your students behind-the-scenes at the world’s largest
collection of Shakespeare materials. Here are the locations you’ll visit.
The Vault
Much like a bank vault, the Folger “vault” is kept sealed and only a few staff members have access to
it. Many of the Folger’s treasures—rare books, manuscripts, and other materials—are kept in this
area. The vault’s heat, light, and moisture levels are carefully regulated to protect the precious items
inside.
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The Reading Rooms
Scholars from around the world visit the Folger to conduct research in the Reading Rooms. The
Reading Rooms are not open to the public; “Experiencing Shakespeare” truly brings the viewers
behind the scenes with special access to these important research facilities.
The Elizabethan Theatre
Modeled on English theaters from the 16th century, the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre has been staging
plays for more than 40 years, from world premieres of new works to a “horrorshow” version of
Macbeth co-directed by Teller of Penn and Teller.
Tips for Doing Shakespeare
The best way to learn Shakespeare is to do
Shakespeare! These 5 key tips will help prepare your
students for a successful Shakespeare experience.
Iambic Pentameter
Our language has a natural rhythm to it which Shakespeare used in his plays and poems. What was
new was the way that Shakespeare used the rhythm to give clues to the characters.
Shakespeare began experimenting with rhythm, breaking it apart and piecing it back together in
different ways. Rhythm, just like music, is measured in feet or meter. An iamb is two syllables, one
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unstressed then one stressed, like a beating heart: ta TUM ta TUM ta TUM. When you have five sets
of iambs in a line of poetry you have iambic pentameter.
“But SOFT, what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS?”
“So FOUL and FAIR a DAY i HAVE not SEEN”
You don’t have to work to make the syllables fit into those stressed and unstressed places,
they naturally fall that way. Iambic pentameter often gives clues to what a character is feeling.
If the character is speaking in iambic pentameter, they are probably feeling very confident—
perhaps they are trying to win an argument! They may also feel contentment or happiness.
Prose vs. Verse
Another clue in Shakespeare’s text is how he uses both prose and verse. Verse is similar to poetry,
with a pattern of syllables in each line. Characters who speak in verse are often nobles or upper-class
characters.
Prose passages have less structure. They often sound more like the way we speak every day.
Characters are more likely to speak in prose if they are servants or comic characters.
For example, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the comic character Bottom falls under a spell and is
given a donkey’s head. Bottom speaks in prose while Titania, Queen of the Fairies, speaks in verse:
TITANIA: I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
Mine ear is much enamored of thy note,
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape,
And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
BOTTOM: Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that. And yet, to say
the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. The more the pity
that some honest neighbors will not make them friends.
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 3.1.140-149)
Word Order
Shakespeare’s word order is often different from how we speak today. He frequently shifts his
sentences away from “normal” English arrangements – often to create the rhythm he needed, to
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emphasize a particular word, or to highlight a character trait by giving someone a distinct way of
talking.
Most often Shakespeare switches the verb and the subject: “Goes he” instead of “He goes.”
Sometimes, however, he moves the object instead of the subject, which is more confusing: “Me they
shall feel” instead of “They shall feel me.” Lastly, Shakespeare’s sentences are sometimes internally
interrupted:
CAPTAIN: …But all’s too weak;
For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),
Disdaining fortune with his brandished steel
Which smoked with bloody execution
Like valor’s minion, carved out his passage.
(Macbeth, 1.2 .18-21)
In this passage, the Captain is describing Macbeth’s bravery, and because the audience could not
witness the scene for themselves, he’s providing more description of the battle in the middle of the
sentence to give us a mental image of Macbeth fighting gloriously.
Stage Directions
Always remember that these plays weren’t meant to be read while sitting quietly. The words are
meant to be spoken aloud with action and gestures – to be performed!
Some stage action is implied in the lines, like in Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice asks her cousin
Hero, “How now, Hero, wherefore sink you down?” so the actress playing Hero must be fainting or
collapsing in order for this line to make sense.
In other places, stage directions have been added outside of lines, either by Shakespeare or his
actors. Such actions can denote offstage sound effects, like “Knocks,” in Macbeth, or the various
entrances and exits of characters. If all of the characters in the scene leave the stage, the direction is
“Exeunt.”
Figurative Language
Shakespeare uses language to create pictures in our imaginations. Shakespeare’s theatre did not have
the technologies that we do today, so his language had to create the setting, the characters’
descriptions, and many of the special effects for his audience. In Henry V, he asks us to use our
imaginations:
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CHORUS:
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
(Henry V, 1.1.26-28)
In King Lear, with no storm to be seen onstage, the mad king’s own words set the scene:
LEAR: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout …
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
(King Lear, 3.2.1-2,14)
Famous Shakespeare Phrases
Many of our everyday expressions come from Shakespeare. This is a great way to remind students
that they may already know some Shakespearean language!
elbow room (King John, 5.7)
budge an inch (Henry IV, Part 1, 2.4)
in a pickle (The Tempest, 5.1)
vanish into thin air (Othello, 3.1)
for goodness sake (Henry VIII, 3.1)
foul play (King Lear, 3.7)
your own flesh and blood (All’s Well That Ends Well, 1.3)
dead as a doornail (Henry VI, Part 2, 4.10)
as luck would have it (The Merry Wives of Windsor, 3.5)
seen better days (As You Like It, 2.7)
not a mouse stirring (Hamlet, 1.1)
one fell swoop (Macbeth, 4.3)
Click here to access additional classroom resources and Web 2.0 activities.