Shakespeare Sonnets Units Bundle: Love, Death, & Lies | Poetry Activities

Looking for Shakespeare units that will engage even the most reluctant learners?

By combining TED Talks, pop music, Shakespeare sonnets, and non-fiction articles, the innovative Shakespeare units in this bundle will make Shakespeare’s sonnets relevant to your students.

The variety of materials, real-life connections, and innovative approaches to the information will keep students engaged and excited about learning. Additionally, the concrete text-based questions and unique sources discourage cheating and encourage students to answer for themselves.

These lessons are a great supplement to your unit on a play or novel, and they are also great stand-alone units that will get your classes to engage in critical thinking, participate in discussions on big ideas, and have fun exploring language and meaning.

When you teach Shakespeare’s sonnets with these resources you will:

• engage your classes with a contemporary sources such as a fun film clip, a fascinating TED Talk, a classic Peanuts clip, and a pop song of their choice

• conquer your students’ fear of poetry by getting them to experiment with their own poetry writing

• fulfill common core requirements with fun, low-key lessons

• introduce your unit on a Shakespeare play by boosting your students’ confidence in reading his work

• give your students scaffolding to work through challenging texts by utilizing the proven questions and graphic organizers included here

• get your classes to compare the figurative language of Romeo and Juliet with those of a typical pick-up lines of the period by examining primary source documents

• add rigor to your lesson plans by inspiring your students to think critically with the ready-to-go handouts, writing prompts, and activities

• have fun grading student work when you choose from multiple summative creative projects, essays, or writing options

• quickly and easily grade the assessments using the provided rubrics

In all, there is enough here for over two weeks of rigorous, engaging, and fun lessons.

Pairings: These mini units are great choices for pairing with Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Twelfth Night, or any other novel or play that deals with romantic love.

Poems included in these lessons:

“A Certain Lady” by Dorothy Parker

Sonnet 18 or “[Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day”] by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 73 or "[That Time of Year Thou Mayst In Me Behold]” by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 130 or “[My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun]” by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 138 or “[When My Love Swears That She is Made of Truth]” by William Shakespeare

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

Some poems are not included because of copyright.

There are no lectures or power points here—students will do the work themselves, with guidance from you.

Rather than telling them what the texts mean, you will empower your students with the confidence and skills to tackle these challenges on their own.