Home › Guides › Teaching Shakespeare act by act

Teaching guide

Teaching Shakespeare act by act

Shakespeare's plays can feel enormous to a class meeting one for the first time. Taking a play one act at a time makes it manageable: each act is a unit with its own shape, a clear place to stop, check understanding and talk, before going on. This guide sets out a simple routine for teaching a play act by act, with suggestions for which plays to teach at which grade.

Why act by act

The plays as we read them are divided into five acts, and the acts do real work. The first sets up the people and the problem; the third very often holds the turning point. Caesar is killed in Act 3 of Julius Caesar; Banquo's ghost appears at the banquet in Act 3 of Macbeth; Hamlet stages his play in Act 3; Mercutio dies in Act 3 of Romeo and Juliet. Stopping at the end of each act lets students see that shape for themselves.

Before reading: get the people straight

Most confusion in a Shakespeare lesson is about who is who. Spend ten minutes at the start on the cast: a family tree for the Montagues and Capulets, a seating plan for the Scottish lords, a chart of the four lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Keep it on the wall and add to it after each act.

Reading: hear it aloud

The plays were written to be spoken. Give out parts, get students on their feet for the key scenes, and do not stop for every difficult word; the sense usually comes through the voice. Watching a filmed or live performance of a scene after reading it helps too, and comparing two productions of the same scene is an excellent discussion starter.

After each act: check, then talk

At the end of each act, check that everyone has the plot before you discuss it. On the site every play has a self-checking escape room for each act. Students solve a crossword of names and key words, scrambled names, a coded message, a who's-who, a set of pairs and an odd one out, then use two of the words they have earned to answer a final clue. The rooms work with any edition, and most students take 30 to 45 minutes. After the room, give one question to discuss or write about: why does Brutus join the conspirators, who is really in charge in the Macbeths' marriage?

Writing about each act

Short, regular writing keeps students thinking about the play rather than waiting for the end. After each act, ask for a paragraph on one question: what has changed for the main character, which scene was the turning point, or what a character wants and what stands in the way. Encourage students to refer to particular moments and, where it helps, to quote a line or two. By the end of the play each student has five short pieces to draw on, which makes a final essay far less daunting and gives you a running picture of how well the class is following.

Choosing plays by grade

The rooms are pitched at grades 8–12. As a rough guide:

• Grades 8–9: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing.
• Grades 9–10: Julius Caesar, Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice.
• Grades 11–12: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, The Tempest and As You Like It.

Every play's rooms are on the Shakespeare page.

Lines worth learning

Ask students to learn a few lines by heart from each play, perhaps four to eight lines from a speech they like. It takes little time, and students who have spoken a speech from memory understand its rhythm and sense far better than those who have only read it. Lines learned in school also tend to stay with people for life, which is one of the best arguments for teaching Shakespeare at all. Choose different speeches for different students and let them perform them to the class at the end of an act.

Difficult material

Some plays need preparation. The Merchant of Venice turns on prejudice against Jews, Othello on race and jealousy, and King Lear contains some of the cruellest scenes in drama. Read ahead, decide how you will frame the material, and give students space to respond. Every room has free taster locks that anyone can try with a class, with no sign-up. Members get all seven locks of every room and a private class link to share.

Rooms to try

Questions

More guides

• Rhetoric-stage great books for grades 9–12
• Teaching Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in translation
• Escape rooms for a classical education
• All teaching guides