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Reading schedule · Grades 8–12

As You Like It in 5 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A five-week plan for reading Shakespeare's As You Like It, one act a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 8–12, in class or at home.

Pacing

One act a week suits most high school classes. Read the act across the first part of the week, in class or at home and ideally with some of it read aloud, then use the questions for discussion or a short written response and finish the week with the escape room. Acts vary in length, so give a long act an extra lesson if it needs one: nothing is lost by stretching a week.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on As You Like It

Week 1: Act 1

Read: Act 1

Orlando quarrels with his elder brother Oliver, who keeps him like a servant, and we hear that the old Duke has been banished to the Forest of Arden by his brother Frederick. Orlando defeats the wrestler Charles, Rosalind and Orlando fall in love, and Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind, who leaves with his daughter Celia.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Oliver hate his brother?
2. What draws Rosalind and Orlando to each other?
3. Why does Celia choose to go with Rosalind?

Escape room: The Wrestler (lockedlessons.com/rooms/as-you-like-it-act-1/)

Week 2: Act 2

Read: Act 2

In Arden, Duke Senior praises the simple life of the forest. Orlando flees with the old servant Adam, Rosalind and Celia, disguised as Ganymede and Aliena, reach the forest with Touchstone and meet the shepherds Corin and Silvius, Jaques tells of the fool he has met, and Orlando arrives at the Duke's table.

Discussion questions

1. Is life in Arden as good as Duke Senior claims?
2. What does Adam's loyalty show about Orlando?
3. How does Jaques see the world, and do we agree with him?

Escape room: Tongues in Trees (lockedlessons.com/rooms/as-you-like-it-act-2/)

Week 3: Act 3

Read: Act 3

Duke Frederick orders Oliver to find Orlando. Orlando hangs love poems on the trees, and Rosalind, as Ganymede, offers to cure him of love by having him woo her as if she were Rosalind; Touchstone courts Audrey, and Phoebe scorns Silvius but falls for Ganymede.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Rosalind keep up the disguise when she could reveal herself?
2. What do Orlando's poems suggest about his kind of love?
3. How do the different couples show different kinds of love?

Escape room: Hang There, My Verse (lockedlessons.com/rooms/as-you-like-it-act-3/)

Week 4: Act 4

Read: Act 4

Rosalind teases Jaques, and Orlando woos Ganymede, ending in a mock wedding performed by Celia. Phoebe sends Ganymede a love letter, and Oliver arrives to tell how Orlando saved him from a snake and a lioness; when Rosalind sees the bloodied cloth, she faints.

Discussion questions

1. What does Rosalind teach Orlando about love?
2. Why does Oliver change so suddenly?
3. How close does Rosalind come to giving herself away?

Escape room: Fathom Deep (lockedlessons.com/rooms/as-you-like-it-act-4/)

Week 5: Act 5

Read: Act 5

Touchstone sees off William, his rival for Audrey, and Oliver falls in love with Aliena. Rosalind promises to sort out everyone's love, Touchstone explains the degrees of a quarrel, Hymen leads in four weddings, news comes that Duke Frederick has turned to a religious life, and Rosalind speaks the epilogue.

Discussion questions

1. How does Rosalind manage the ending?
2. Why do some characters choose to stay in the forest?
3. What is unusual about Rosalind speaking the epilogue?

Escape room: Four Weddings (lockedlessons.com/rooms/as-you-like-it-act-5/)