Shakespeare on the Net
By Claire Cohen: Teacher, South River High School

In addition to our student field trip available from the Start Field Trip link at the top right, we also offer a teacher's resource field trip on Shakespeare.

If you are assigned Shakespeare, you are ready for advanced thinking. The language is not the same as yours, but Shakespeare targets personalities and describes complex personal issues that are as important today as they were in the 16th century. His work has survived because it accurately describes human reactions to the world.

This period of history was called the Renaissance because of the reawakening of interest in the arts and sciences. During Shakespeare's time, Queen Elizabeth and James I reigned in England, enthusiastically supporting the theatre. The Liberties, an area outside of London across the Thames River, housed Elizabethan theatres.

Each of the sites included in this module is very deep, so resist the temptation to wander through them. Follow the directions to get an overview, and then come back. A good reader makes connections using what is known to make sense of a piece of writing. This module will include sites relating to 16th century England and Shakespeare's work, showing you some of the resources available on the Internet.

Objectives

Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Describe Stratford and compare it to their environment
• Construct a Shakespeare timeline with at least ten important events
• List at least three ways Elizabethan speech was different from theirs
• Describe the Globe and explain why it was reconstructed
• Discuss the significance of the London plague including conditions during the plague and its relationship to Shakespeare
• Define sonnet, including an example of one of Shakespeare's sonnets
• Access Shakespeare's work online