Objectives:

• Learn about William Shakespeare
• Learn why we will study Shakespeare
• Be introduced to A Midsummer Night's Dream and watch a scene from it
• Be introduced to Shakespeare's Star Wars and read through Act 1

1. Biography and background of Shakespeare.

• Read Shakespeare's biography here.
• Watch the following video.

Here is another biography video:

• Optional: I had my students watch Shakespeare: the Legacy with John Nettles. It has in various times been available on YouTube and Netflix. Check your favorite streaming service or local library to see if it's there! You can shorten it for class viewing by only watching 16:30-32:40.

2. Learn Why we are studying Shakespeare.

Using the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig, read pages 1-16 and do the suggested exercise of memorizing a line from A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Teachers, read it to yourselves and teach it to the students.)

Print off the Quotation Sheet Passage 1-5 from How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare website. You will use these same papers for almost every lesson, so keep it in your notebook.

3. Introduction to one of Shakespeare's famous plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream

• Watch the synopsis here:

• Watch Act 1, scene 1 from the Rice University version here

https://vimeo.com/146237317

• Read through Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream with your students (assigning them different parts) using the script here:
• (Just for teachers: For further lesson ideas see here.)

4. Introduction to William Shakespeare's Star Wars

This will be the script for what we perform for the 10th class: Everyone should have this book: William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher.

Assign parts (not necessarily their final roles), and read through Act 1. If there is time, assign the parts to different people and do it again. (Students, if you are doing this on your own, read it aloud using different voices as you switch characters.)