The Taming of the Shrew: Shakespeare Book Club

The Taming of the Shrew is Shakespeare's comedy about marriage and relationships. Shakespeare's plays are required reading for a lot of high school students. It is the perfect story for group discussion and analysis because Shakespeare's language and word choices can be hard to appreciate and understand when reading alone.  

Students will read approximately one act a week on their own time. Each act contains 1-5 scenes. A separate video will discuss each scene the student reads. I will also post a summary of each scene and a worksheet with vocabulary definitions to important words and phrases within the scene. I use the worksheets to address/remind the students of some of the important topics from each scene. The worksheets may also have space for short discussion questions and fill-in-the blank answers. 

Lesson Schedule Breakdown:
Students will receive access to one new video that discusses a different assigned scene. This class does not meet live. The prerecorded sessions will emphasize characters, their motivations, theme, social issues, story plausibility, and inferences about what might come next. Students will receive a scene summary paragraph and a corresponding worksheet with vocabulary definitions, discussion questions and places for fill-in-the blank answers. 

Once we have finished all of the scenes in the Act, students are assigned a one-two page writing assignment focused around that act. The more questions the students ask, the more "discussion" we can have in the classroom after each scene/act. I also post a link for an optional, online Kahoot! trivia game for the students to further immerse themselves in this week's reading before we move onto a new act the following week. In Lessons Two and Four, students will also have access to a Shakespeare related joke, pun, or activity.      

Kahoot is a free resource. The student does not need an account.