It’s Shakespeare!!
Presented by your fabulous
English teacher
Who’s the smarty pants?
What do we already know….or think we
know….about Shakespeare?
 Create a 3 column KWL chart:
KNOW
WANT TO
LEARNED
KNOW
 Fill in the know and want to know columns
with at least 5 bullet points
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Um…..Who is Shakespeare?
Shakespeare is
possibly the most
famous author of all
time
 He wrote plays and
poetry
 He lived in England in
the late 1500s.
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OK….and why is he interesting?
Shakespeare literally
invented 1,700 words
in the English
language.
 Many common words
and phrases we use
today, he invented.
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Phrases invented by Shakespeare
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all that glitters isn't gold
barefaced
be all and end all
break the ice
breathe one's last
catch a cold
clothes make the man
disgraceful conduct
dog will have his day
eat out of house and
home
elbow room
fair play
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fancy-free
foregone conclusion
give the devil his due
green eyed monster
heart of gold
heartsick
housekeeping
lackluster
leapfrog
live long day
long-haired
method in his madness
mind's eye
naked truth
one fell swoop
to thine own self be true
too much of a good thing
wear one's heart on one's sleeve
Words invented by Shakespeare
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accommodation
amazement
apostrophe
assassination
bedroom
bloody
bump
changeful
control (noun)
countless
courtship
critic
critical
dishearten
dislocate
eventful
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exposure
generous
gloomy
hurry
indistinguishable
laughable
lonely
majestic
misplaced
monumental
obscene
puke
road
submerge
suspicious
So he’s important…but is he
interesting?
Random Shakespeare facts:
 In his will, Shakespeare
only left his wife his
"second-best" bed.
Awwww how sweet.
 Boys and men played all
the parts in
Shakespeare's plays in
Elizabethan times. (just
think about Romeo and
Juliet now….)
 No one knows how
Shakespeare died. Among
the possibilities are
kidney disease, murder
most foul, and too much
to drink.
So he’s important…but is he
interesting?
So many people have used
Shakespeare's works in their
books or plays that if he were
alive today, he would earn 55
million dollars a year without
lifting a finger!
 All knock, knock jokes began
with Shakespeare: he coined
the phrase “knock, knock,
who’s there?” (macbeth)
 In Shakespeare’s time,
mattresses were secured on
bed frames by ropes. When
you pulled on the ropes the
mattress tightened, making
the bed firmer to sleep on.
That’s where the phrase,
“goodnight, sleep tight” came
from.
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Good, but not great. I want more
interesting!!!
The Box Office
 In Elizabethan times many of
Shakespeare’s plays were
performed at The Globe Theatre
in London. To get in, you put one
penny in a box by the door. Then
you could stand on the ground in
front of the stage.
 To sit on the first balcony, you put
another penny in the box held by
a man in front of the stairs. To sit
on the second balcony, you put
another penny in the box held by
the man by the second flight of
stairs.
 Then when the show started, the
men went and put the boxes in a
room backstage - the box office.
 The phrase “the box office” is still
used today to tell people how
much money a movie makes.
Cool. But still not convinced….
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Ever heard the term “break a
leg”?
The groundlings were soooo
stupid, that they would forget
to close their mouths during
good performances, and they
would begin to drool.
You knew your play was great
when the groundlings were so
captivated that a river of drool
would flow along the front of
the stage.
If an actor did so well as to get
all the groundlings to drool,
then he might “break a leg” by
slipping in it.
Gross.
Shakespearian biography…as
painless as I can make it.
Willim Shakespeare
was an English
playwright and poet
who lived in the late
1500s and early
1600s.
 He was born on
Henley Street to
parents John
Shakespeare, a glover
and civil servant, and
Mary Arden.
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His father was elected
mayor, but was given
the boot when he fell
in to debt….can you
say political scandal?!
All grown up!
Shakespeare went to
King Edward VI
Grammar School.
 This was a sign that
his parents’ had cash,
as they were of a
class who could afford
to have their sons not
enter the workforce.
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We don’t need no education…
He left school at
14…..and did not go
to university.
 4 years later,
Shakespeare married
a lovely woman….8
years older than him.
 Annnnd she was
already pregnant
with his child. But
she already had her
own place though!
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Workin’ 9 to 5
By the time he was
20, he had a wife and
3 kids!
 Here’s the question:
how do you provide
for a family, when
even your own father
is having financial
woes?
 OFF TO LONDON!!
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Workin’ 9 to 5
Shakespeare left his
wife and children to
find work
 It is unknown exactly
what he did from
1592-1597; but
whatever he did,
when he returned, he
bought a new place
for his family and paid
off his family’s debt.
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Such a drama queen.
Shakespeare was an actor
and a playwright, having
written countless sonnets
and marvelous plays
 He spent much of his career
with an acting company
called the Chamberlain’s
Men
 After 1599, his plays were
usually performed at The
Globe, a circular theatre in
London.
 It held 3000 people and
there were 2 performances
daily.
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A life summary…in 3 minutes
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOHM7DhqT
pE
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P.S. Can you spot the two grammatical
errors?!?!
Tomorrow, it’s ON!!
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Now let’s fill out our
LEARNED column of
our KWL Chart
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Let’s Share!