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Reading schedule · Grades 8–12

The Tempest in 5 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A five-week plan for reading Shakespeare's The Tempest, 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 The Tempest

Week 1: Act 1

Read: Act 1

A storm wrecks a ship carrying the King of Naples and his court. Prospero tells his daughter Miranda how his brother Antonio took his dukedom of Milan and reveals that he raised the storm with Ariel's help; he deals with Ariel's wish to be free and Caliban's claim to the island, and Ferdinand, the king's son, meets Miranda.

Discussion questions

1. Is Prospero a fair master to Ariel and to Caliban?
2. How does Caliban's claim to the island challenge Prospero's?
3. Why does Prospero make things hard for Ferdinand when he wants him to marry Miranda?

Escape room: The Great Storm (lockedlessons.com/rooms/the-tempest-act-1/)

Week 2: Act 2

Read: Act 2

Alonso grieves for his son, Gonzalo dreams of an ideal commonwealth, and Antonio persuades Sebastian to murder the sleeping king until Ariel wakes them. Elsewhere Caliban meets the jester Trinculo and the drunken butler Stephano and takes Stephano for a god.

Discussion questions

1. How does Antonio's plot against Alonso echo what he did to Prospero?
2. What do Gonzalo's ideas about a perfect commonwealth suggest?
3. Why does Caliban so quickly choose a new master?

Escape room: The Sleeping King (lockedlessons.com/rooms/the-tempest-act-2/)

Week 3: Act 3

Read: Act 3

Ferdinand carries logs for Prospero, and he and Miranda promise to marry. Caliban plots with Stephano and Trinculo to kill Prospero while the invisible Ariel makes mischief among them, and a banquet laid before the king's party vanishes when Ariel appears as a harpy to accuse them.

Discussion questions

1. How does Ferdinand's labour compare with Caliban's?
2. What does the comic plot of Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo mirror in the main plot?
3. What does Ariel, as a harpy, demand of Alonso and the others?

Escape room: The Vanishing Banquet (lockedlessons.com/rooms/the-tempest-act-3/)

Week 4: Act 4

Read: Act 4

Prospero gives Miranda to Ferdinand and entertains them with a masque of the goddesses Iris, Ceres and Juno. He breaks it off suddenly when he remembers Caliban's plot; the plotters are distracted by fine clothes hung out to tempt them, and spirit hounds chase them away.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Prospero warn Ferdinand so firmly before the masque?
2. What does Prospero's sudden anger reveal about him?
3. Why are Stephano and Trinculo distracted by the clothes while Caliban is not?

Escape room: The Wedding Masque (lockedlessons.com/rooms/the-tempest-act-4/)

Week 5: Act 5

Read: Act 5

Prospero chooses mercy over vengeance, gives up his magic and gathers his enemies in a charmed circle. He takes back his dukedom, reveals Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess, frees Ariel and pardons Caliban, who promises to be wiser, before asking the audience to set him free in the Epilogue.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Prospero choose to forgive, and has everyone earned it?
2. What does giving up his magic cost Prospero?
3. How does the Epilogue change our view of the whole play?

Escape room: The Broken Staff (lockedlessons.com/rooms/the-tempest-act-5/)