This course only contains enough material for about 10 hours. To earn a half-credit in Fine Arts or English (choose one or the other), you'll need about 90 hours* of work. I suggest working on the course plus the additional work below for an entire 18-week semester, 5 days a week for an hour each day.

What exactly will the student be doing for those 5 hours a week? Choose from the following:

• Read Shakespeare's plays and poems.
• Read explanations of Shakespeare's plays or easier versions in addition to the real thing.
• Listen to Shakespeare's plays on audiobook.
• Watch movies of Shakespeare's plays. (Be careful; many contain nudity.)
• Teach or narrate what is learned to a parent, sibling, or friend.
• Write a 5-paragraph essay, compare/contrast essay, literary analysis, or descriptive essay every week based on the lessons studied.
• Write a research paper based on a topic studied in the course.
• Give a speech, using one of the essays or the research paper as a basis. Include a multi-media presentation if desired. Emaze is a nice online presentation software for this activity.
• Go see a live Shakespeare play.
• Memorize more scenes and monologues than are included in the course.
• Perform what you have memorized for an audience.
• Finish reading and doing all the activities from How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.
• Read, watch, or do other suggestions listed in the Appendix section of this course.

Keep track of how much time is spent on each activity (reading, watching, writing, etc.) with the Log Sheet.

*There is some disagreement about how many hours are needed to constitute a half-credit. Ninety hours is on the high end. Some would say 60 or 75 hours is enough.