Shakespeare Cover Lessons: Myth vs. Document — Reading Passages, Questions and Crosswords

Four days of Shakespeare cover lessons, ready to print.

Each lesson runs 45–50 minutes, and the cover teacher needs no preparation and no knowledge of Shakespeare.

What's inside (PDF, 18 pages)

- A one-page note for the cover teacher: what to hand out, in what order, how many minutes for each part, and where to find the answer keys.

- Three reading passages, one page each, with six questions per passage: three multiple choice, two short answer and one "Think deeper" question.

- Five Shakespeare crosswords: The Tragedies, The Comedies, The Histories, Villains, Fools & Lovers, and Who Said It?

- Answer keys for every question and every crossword.

The passages

Each passage takes a popular story about Shakespeare and checks it against the documents.

- The Play That Must Not Be Named. Actors avoid saying "Macbeth" because a boy actor supposedly died at the first performance in 1606. The boy, Hal Berridge, first appears in a theatre review written as a joke in 1898.

- Three Women in a Wood. In April 1611 the astrologer Simon Forman watched Macbeth at the Globe and wrote down what he saw. He called the witches "feiries or Nimphes".

- Shakespeare's Mulberry Tree. A clergyman cut the tree down in 1756, a local clockmaker carved souvenirs from its wood for forty years, and in 1799 he swore on oath that every piece was genuine.

Lesson plan

Days 1–3: a reading passage with questions (20–25 minutes), then a crossword (20 minutes).

Day 4: two crosswords.

Years 10–13 (UK), Years 10–12 (Australia).

The file is US Letter size; choose "Fit to page" when printing on A4.

Licensed for use in one classroom.