2016 commemorates 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare. Therefore he’s being celebrated all over the world! We must join the celebration and partecipate by doing something creative. First it’s important to start knowing the Bard.

LESSON 1: Approximate time 1 hour.

If you’ve asked yourself the question. “Why do we have to study Shalespeare?” here you’ll find some answers. Why study Shakespeare?

• CHOOSE 3 REASONS write them in your notebook or copy them using EVERNOTE ( a virtual notebook) and bring them to class.

Here’s some links on W. Shakespeare http://absoluteshakespeare.com/index.htm or this one http://www.enotes.com/topics/william-shakespeare  From the beginning you’ll see there are TOO MANY TOPICS, related sites and too much info and you’ll feel … totally LOST ! Don’t worry, it’s normal! In order to help you cope with that feeling I have selected some links that will make you save time without feeling overwhelmed. You can plunge into the ocean if you feel like but let’s start surfing the lake! 🙂 Here are my suggestions:

1) Watch Shakespeare ‘s short biography. It gives the key events of Shakespeare’s life and work.

2) Watch a BBC video and do the activities  below. Click here:Shakespeare

3) Have  a look at the houses where he lived: beautiful Images of his properties in Stratford Upon Avon

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LESSON 2  THEATRES & THE GLOBE

I would like to start this second part of the post by sharing with you the magazine Gallant Gossip  created by a class of mine some years ago. I’m still so proud of it! Originally it was just printed as a booklet of paper like the copy I showed you in class. Then I created the on-line version. Reading it is a must as it will inspire you all for our next creative writing activity that, as for now, I want to keep secret. I’ll bring some copies in class.

Gallant Gossip by Laura Cimetta

2) Photos of the Globe theatre: http://www.wfu.edu/~tedforrl/shakespeare/globe.htm and if you like take a virtual tour of it. (The virtual tour requires the free Quicktime plugin for your browser but you can download it from page). It’s like being inside the theatre during a show! If you’ve got an iPad you can download the app and visit all sections of it. The app is free but to access all areas is 0.99€.

2) If you want to have an idea of how many theatres there were in London look at this beautiful map of all Elizabethan theatres: 

3) In the future, after studying some of his works, should you doubt about the existence of Shakespeare as the dramatist who wrote Shakespeare’s plays read this: How We Know That Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare: The Historical Facts. There’s also a movie Anonymous that claims he didn’t write his plays.

7) Thanks to the beautiful Interactive folio of Romeo & Juliet, you can read his comedy, have explained the difficult words and also listen to it 🙂

To end this post with a laugh watch this funny Video about Shakespeare’s language 🙂

Last but not least, for the MUSIC LOVERS this website offers you Shakespeare’s works through music. 

Let’s end this post with Shakespeare’s … dating tips so that you can get ready for your St. valentine’s day 🙂 If you register you can also do the activities (multiple choice ex. ) on the video here. Enjoy!

EXTRA WEBLIOGRAPHY:

1.  a list of the 13 words you didn’t know were invented by Shakespeare!
2. 60 second Shakespeare’s plays
3. Interactive Shakespeare
4. Tudor’s dressing game