Shakespeare Notebooking Pages

I can remember sitting in my 12th grade AP English class. When I initially saw the syllabus and discovered that we would be studying Shakespeare, I was less than thrilled. I had subscribed to the common thought of my teenage peers that learning about Shakespeare and reading through his plays would not only be a daunting task, but that frankly, it would be downright boring.

However, I quickly discovered that if you have a teacher who knows how to teach Shakespeare, it can be VERY interesting and, dare I say, exciting!

I want my children to have the same eye-opening experience I had with reading Shakespeare’s work…minus the ill, preconceived notion that it would be too hard and too boring. I want them to enjoy Shakespeare! I want them to be able to identify and even memorize and recite some of the many famous passages from Shakespeare’s plays!

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

I received this product free of charge for review/giveaway purposes and was financially compensated for my time. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and I was not required to post a positive review of the product.

Needless to say, the book, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, definitely caught my eye! Written by internationally acclaimed playwright, Ken Ludwig, the book showcases the method Ludwig used to teach Shakespeare passages to his own children!

His approach to learning Shakespeare has been described as “a foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare” and his book is referred to as “a teaching primer for parents and a manual for making Shakespeare manageable and fun for kids.”

Ludwig’s method begins with the memorization of short passages and progresses to longer, more complex passages; 25 passages in total. As you memorize the passages, you also learn more about Shakespeare’s life and time period, his choice of words, and the plots and characters found in the plays. Ludwig also explores the lessons taught through Shakespeare’s play in such a way that children can remember and utilize for years to come!   

Using Notebooking Pages to Learn Shakespeare

Through Ludwig’s process of memorizing passages, he suggested using quotation pages. These are free printable pages offered on the How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare website that present the passages in short easy-to-read, rhythmic chunks.

The idea of using the quotation pages sparked an idea that I knew my kids would enjoy doing along with reading the quotation pages…notebooking pages! I quickly got to work and created both fully-lined  and half-lined notebooking pages for each of Shakespeare’s plays! Yep, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet; they’re all there!

I created the printables as a way to help my children not only learn the passages from Shakespeare’s plays, but also as a way express what they have learned artistically!

As they learn a passage, they not only copy the passage from the quotation page onto the bottom of the notebooking page (hello…penmanship practice), but they also illustrate the passage on the upper portion of the page (hello…imagery and art)! I love when I can sneak extra “schooling” into activities that they already enjoy!

Download the Shakespeare Notebooking Pages here.

I am excited for my kids to continue learning passages from Shakespeare! And, I’m even more excited to have an awesome resource to guide me along the way!

 

Win How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

Ken is graciously giving away 10 copies of his book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare! Giveaway is open to entrants worldwide! See the giveaway widget below for more details on entering to win!