Decode theText
Embrace the meter
"Yes, I speak English."
Shakespeare may be hard to understand at first, but he wasn't writing in Old English - his plays are all in early Modern English. And the more practice you get reading it, the easier it will be to understand.
So sigh no more, and let's get to it!
Iambic Pentameter:
What is it & Why did Shakespeare love it?
Shakespeare often wrote in
A poetic form which made his lines easier for actors to memorize and more emotionally expressive.
Classroom Activities
Is That Your Sandwich? (Beginner level)
Goal: Increase comprehension and understanding of subtext.
Small Group Writing (Beginner level)
Goal: Increase comprehension of iambic pentameter.
Goal: Deepen understanding of rhythm and iambic pentameter.
Sonnet Puzzle (Moderate to Advanced level)
Goal: Increase understanding of iambic pentameter through experimentation.
Shakespeare: Seen & Heard
Plays impact us most when seen and heard. Remove the performance, and you reduce the impact. Clips online, like the ones below, give us a taste of the bard as originally intended (though there's no substitute for seeing it live).
"to be or not to be..." in an accent??
You might be quoting SHakespeare
Shakespeare is credited with over a thousand words and phrases that are used in the English language today. If you use these sayings, you are quoting Shakespeare.
