English teachers - hold on to your feathered, silk hats - it's Shakespeare Week. Shakespeare Week is designed to give children positive and fun experiences with Shakespeare at a young age. His powerful characters and famous storylines will challenge and inspire your children to think about his impact on the English language to this day. 

If you are struggling with ideas on how to incorporate him into your lesson plans so we have found some resources that may be helpful.

Shakespeare told through Short Clips

The BBC have short clips suitable for KS2 and KS3 that will help your students understand his storylines through engaging and funny videos. If you’re planning on reading Shakespeare, starting with one of these clips will help with your student’s understanding of his plays.

Take them on a tour

School trips make up some of our favourite memories in school and we know kids love to learn through immersive experiences. Instead of dealing with the hassle of organising a trip to London the Shakespeare Globe website has a virtual tour that takes you through the theatre Shakespeare’s plays were shown.

Get your students thinking with in-class activities

As first-time readers, your students may find it hard to keep focused when reading Shakespeare due to the difficult language. Get them thinking with the activity toolkits made by the Royal Shakespeare Company. There are storyboards to help them understand the key plot points and creative tasks like mapping out the set of certain scenes.

For the older kids

If you teach KS4 you may not be impressed by storyboards and will want something to challenge your students as they come up to their GCSEs. The British Library have lots of teaching resources aimed at the age range of 14-18 with modern topical themes to encourage active engagement and discussions in class.

Extra teaching resources

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has worksheets that will help your students understand the impact Shakespeare had on our language today. We think your students will be shocked at how many words they use today were popularised by his plays and will be excited to see words and phrases they are familiar with.

We hope that these resources are helpful during this week to introduce Shakespeare to your students in a fun and engaging way. If you’re an English teacher looking to find new teaching opportunities have a look at our latest jobs or send us your cv.