Shakespeare

When I was in high school (yes back when you had stone tablets and rode a dinosaur) I actually liked Shakespeare. We went on field trips several times to Detroit to see plays and one memorable trip to Stratford in Canada to see Macbeth. The play was wonderful - I don’t think you can fully appreciate Shakespeare without seeing a live play.

The trip was also memorable because we stopped to have a picnic lunch on the way home. I have tried to find the place we stopped and I can’t be sure. There was a stream and a very short waterfall because the teachers were all watching us like hawks afraid someone would fall and be injured but we were having such a great time wading in the shallow water above the little waterfall. It was a beautiful place and I would love to go back someday.

All this reminiscing started when I clicked on a link to an interactive website that is all about The Bard. The Weekly Reader Shakespeare website opens with a picture of Shakespeare’s head talking to give you an introduction to the site.

As you can see there are lots of activities a couple of pdf files of plays to read aloud Macbeth and a new version called Mac and Beth. There is also a timeline of his life which includes notable events in history that were happening during that time.

There is also a link to a teaching center where you can download some files to use with your students as they stroll through the website.

If you would like some more resources on William Shakespeare you can try BardNet where you will find a list of links.