Templates from Smart Bard on the Smartboard - Teaching Shakespeare with LessonUp

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Smart Bard on the Smart Board

Making Teaching Shakespeare Interactive with 

TEMPLATES

Templates 

For more explanation of these templates please watch our Smart Bard on the Smart Board Webinar!

Templates 

• Making the most out of videos
• (Smart)Board games
• Teaching literary terms
• Using polls
• Hotspots
• Digital Roleplay

Making the Most out of Videos

"The play’s the thing." — Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

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(Smart) Board Games

"All is but toys." — Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3

01:54

Discussion point: why do you think Shakespeare has three witches?

Discussion point: why do you think
Shakespeare has three witches?

03:22

Are these witches more effective than the last version? Why?

Are these witches more effective

than the last version? Why?

05:00

This version merges Act 1 scenes 1 and 2. What are the advantages or disadvantages of this?

This version merges Act 1 scenes 1 and 2. What are the advantages or disadvantages of this?

07:31

What effect does having one of the witches enter the stage through the audience have? How would you feel if you were there watching the play?

What effect does having one of the witches

enter the stage through the audience have? 

How would you feel if you were there watching the play?

START

FINISH

HEX GAME RULES - 

Use the spinner to advance across the board, 1, 2 or 3 hexagons. You may move in any direction.

You cannot pass through a PEEL hexagon. If you land on a PEEL space your group must make a PEEL point on imagery based on the whole group feedback. If the answer covers POINT, EVIDENCE, EXPLANATION, LINK TO TEXT then you get to advance one hexagon. If the next space is a PEEL space then repeat the process.

If you land on a '!' square you get to move an opponent's dagger, If this is a PEEL space they must answer this on their next turn before being able to spin the movement wheel.

HAVE FUN

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HEX FEEDBACK GAME

rules are in the ? hotspot.

You can modify the rules quite easily to suit your class!

Hex game template

Using Interactivity to Teach Literary Terms

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." — Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2

Text

ZEUGMA

SYNECDOCHE

PLEONASM

SCESIS ONOMATON

ANADIPLOSIS

HUBRIS

In drama, a character's self pride

A structurally and semantically similar list of qualities of a person or thing

Tautological words in close proximity

Ending a sentence with a word and starting the next with the same word

Getting a double meaning off the same word without repeating it, usually a verb

Using a part to represent a whole

Drag and drop on terms

The Wheel of Terms

Spin the wheel to be allocated a term (or terms) to research - find a definition and an example. Write them down.

Spin the wheels to allocate different terms for students to research and become the expert in.

Polls

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." — Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2

How confident do you feel writing about Lady Macbeth?

How confident do you feel

writing about Lady Macbeth?

😒🙁😐🙂😃

Bianca is an unnecessary character.

Disagree

Partially agree

Agree

Using Hotspots

"All the world’s a stage." — As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7

A versatile trapdoor - characters can be elevated or lowered as the play requires

One of three entrances and exits

Upper stage

Galleries....richer visitors could pay for seats and pay even more for cushions!

This is where the standing audience watch the play - known in Shakespeare's time as 'groundlings' - the cheapest tickets

360 view of the Globe theatre from the exterior

One of three entrances and exits

One of three entrances and exits

secret hatch up here!

Click on the hotspots to reveal facts about the Globe theatre!

MALVOLIO

SIR TOBY BELCH

FABIAN

SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK

Using moveable images to reflect staging.

Drag the scenery around and activate the characters from the hotspots!

Learning Objectives

OTHELLO

FEMALE CHARACTERS

Critical Opinion - DESDEMONA

AGREE

DISAGREE

MARILYN FRENCH

(Feminist Critique, 1982)

French argues that "Desdemona accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males," which seals her tragic fate. Desdemona's line, "His unkindness may defeat my life, / But never taint my love" (Act 4, Scene 2), reflects this submission even in the face of Othello's cruelty.

LISA JARDINE

(Reading Shakespeare Historically, 1996)

Jardine notes that Desdemona's marriage to Othello is a "bold transgression" against patriarchal norms. However, Jardine asserts that her eventual passivity signals her reintegration into the traditional role of a submissive wife. Her declaration, "I am obedient" (Act 3, Scene 3), encapsulates this shift.

ANIA LOOMBA

(Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama, 1987)

Loomba emphasizes that Desdemona becomes "the site upon which racial anxieties converge." Her love for Othello disrupts societal expectations, and Loomba contends that this destabilization partly fuels Iago's manipulation. The reference to Desdemona as a "fair warrior" by Othello (Act 2, Scene 1) illustrates her symbolic challenge to racial and gender norms.

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS

Now find evidence from the play to demonstrate why you agree/disagree/partially agree with the critic. Be prepared to report your findings!

Ideally share the screen with the students but it will work without devices, either as a whole group discussion or asking individual students or groups.

The hotspots will expand and are moveable into the hexagonal 'Venn' diagram.

Digital Roleplay

"The better part of valour is discretion." — Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, Scene 4

Digital Roleplay

MISSION BRIEFING

In pairs focus on the following pairs of characters:

Desdemona and Othello

Iago and Emilia

Bianca and Cassio

Desdemona and Emilia

Prepare a digital roleplay - what conversation will they have. You will perform it live via the mind map function. Your tutor will select pairs to perform. You may use modern language - but you must communicate in character.

The rest of the group will then identify quotations the discussion was based on.

DIGITAL ROLEPLAY

Use this to have your learners take part in a different kind of roleplay!

Drawing on their own experience of social media, the pair should rehearse and then perform a roleplay as if the characters were communicating with each other.

The conversation could be based on a particular scene or be broader.

You will need to arrange the mind map bubbles in a coherent stream as they come in to emulate social media chat apps.

When finished drag all the bubbles to the bin and start with another pair.

You can allocate pairs or let them choose!

Digital roleplay - swap out the images of characters of your choice.

Notes and Advice

• These are just a selection of ideas
• Explore LessonUp and how it can work for your Shakespeare teaching
• If  starting out, just focus on one technique or idea - don't include everything!
• Have fun with it! 

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be." — Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5

Final thoughts and advice!

Inspiration and 

Support

- LessonUp Academy 

- Help button on home screen

- Support chat in LessonUp

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