Teachers' Lounge
- Teacher Starter Packets
- Script Leads
- Preview: An Educational Guide to Shakespeare
- Shakespeare Hot Line
- CU4-K12
- CPG Study Guides
- English-Speaking Union: 2006 National Shakespeare Competition
- Colorado Ushers
Welcome to a wealth of resources, all provided to make your job of teaching and directing Shakespeare a whole lot easier (whew!) and a whole lot more fun (yippee!) We hope to keep adding more information to these pages as we unearth more treasures related to Shakespeare, so visit often. And if you are looking for something specific and you can’t find it on these pages, or you have some of your own resources to share, contact us. For additional websites and curriculum-related ideas, check out our Shakespeare Resources page.
The CSF Education Outreach Office has collected and compiled resource materials for each of Shakespeare's most notable plays. These materials provide a "jumping off point" for teaching Shakespeare in the classroom, and infuse a bit of humor into what might be a very intimidating subject.
Our "supplementary materials packet" includes a series of Fast Fact Sheets, designed to pique curiosity and spark classroom conversation. These slightly irreverent compilations include information on:
Queen
Elizabeth
William
Shakespeare
The Elizabethan Age
The Elizabethan Stage
We also include a Selected Bibliography of reference books pertinent to The Bard
and his works, a Play Chronology plus a Filmography of thirteen of Shakespeare's most popular plays.
(Click on topic to download PDF.)
In each of our Teacher Starter "play packets" you'll find a Fast Fact Sheet with various curiosities relevant to the play, an in-depth plot synopsis, a "whirlwind plot" (a fast-paced, whimsical treatment in modern English), and a brief essay on the play's qualities and traits.
We have play packets for the following plays:
#1: As You Like It
#2: Comedy of Errors
#3: Hamlet
#4: Julius Caesar
#5: Macbeth
#6: A Midsummer Night's Dream
#7: Much Ado About Nothing
#8: Othello
#9: Richard III
#10: Romeo & Juliet
#11: The Taming of the Shrew
#12: The Tempest
#13: Twelfth Night
(Available soon in downloadable PDFs.)
Contact us and we'll send you your packet request via e-mail.
For teachers who are looking for shortened versions of Shakespeare’s plays but don’t have the time to cut them down to a manageable size, we offer the following to get you started:
Shakespeare for Young People Series, edited
by Diane Davidson
www.writingco.com
Shorter Shakespeare
Series, through Carel Press (they also have downloadable resource sheets!)
www.carelpress.co.uk/sshak.htm
The Sixty-Minute Shakespeare, a series
by Cass Foster
www.fivestarpublications.com/sites/thebard/
Preview: An Educational Guide to Shakespeare
Preview is a free annual
spring publication designed as a teaching
guide. It contains a synopsis of each of
the upcoming season’s plays, along
with commentary on each play and its production
concept. If you would like to be
added to our Education Outreach mailing
list and receive a free copy of Preview,
Contact us!
CSF Education Outreach's free,
all-ages informational service has developed
over several years as a teacher/student/public
resource and information center for research
on Shakespeare’s works and his culture.
We won't do your homework or your research
for you, but if you are dedicated to uncovering
Shakespeare's treasures, we'll give you
a map and show you where to dig!
Phone: 303.492.1537
Looking for specialists to add some magic to your learning unit? The "almost summer!" blues affecting your classroom? Check out CU4K12: Educator Resources at CU-Boulder—great for all levels of education, on subjects ranging the curriculum and spanning the globe.
Coordination Group Publications, situated in our very own beautiful Boulder offers a 3-book series of guides for studying Shakespeare's plays. Titles include guides for Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night. After accessing their site, select "Books" in the vertical menu bar to the left and scroll down to "Shakespeare." Geared toward grades 6-12, these comprehensive guides are neatly arranged and infused with humor—a great resource for teaching and learning these plays.
English-Speaking Union: 2006 National Shakespeare Competition
Every year around Shakespeare’s birthday (April 23) approximately 60 teenagers from around the US converge in New York City to compete with prepared monologues from Shakespeare’s canon. Initiated in 1983, this competition is a vehicle for students to “explore the beauty and scope of Shakespeare’s language.” There are 3 qualifying stages: the school level, the branch level and the national level. The winner is awarded a summer acting course at the British American Drama Academy. To learn more about the National Shakespeare Competition and other programs featuring Shakespeare, visit The English-Speaking Union of the United States.
To receive information so that your school may participate, contact the Denver-Branch Shakespeare Competition Coordinator:
Jeffrey Johnson
jeff.johnson@adams12.org
Northglenn High School
601 West 100th Place
Northglenn, CO 80260-6003
Phone (720) 972-4644
FAX (720) 972-4738
Colorado Ushers is a non-profit group that provides trained volunteer ushers to performance organizations. Their new program, Going to the Theatre, targets kindergarten through eighth grade, introducing and reinforcing various theatre etiquette skills. This program is invaluable for preparing students for field trips and school assemblies—especially when the assembly features a guest! Best of all, the program is free to metro area public schools. For more information, visit Colorado Ushers.
