Stickmen Shakespeare
This lesson is one of three parts that won Conor the innovative lesson competition. Conor Sneyd has just finished his third year of studying English at Trintiy College. He's always loved English, because he's always loved reading, and he thinks that if Shakespeare was still alive he'd be annoyed that everyone takes him so seriously.
The aim of this lesson is to revise characters and themes in Shakespeare, to present information in a visual way, to get students actively involved in the lesson and to have a bit of fun with it
There is a lot going in a Shakespeare play, for example Hamlet, and it can be hard for students to remember the details of who exactly every character is, and what exactly they do. One way of revising characters and themes which I’ve found works well is by drawing everything on the board – simple drawings with stickmen. When drawing a character I ask the class things like what expression I should give them, and why – eg. giving Hamlet a sad face, as he’s sad that his father is dead and his mother has remarried so soon, or giving him an angry face, as he wants revenge on the man who murdered his father; or what they should be wearing or holding – eg. Claudius should be holding a bottle of poison because he poisoned Old Hamlet and tries to poison Hamlet during the duel, Laertes should be holding a sword because he’s trying to kill Hamlet; or who they should be standing beside – eg. Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius should be together as they’re all part of the same family.
Sneaky Shakespeare
This lesson is one of three parts that won Conor the innovative lesson competition. Conor Sneyd has just finished his third year of studying English at Trintiy College. He's always loved English, because he's always loved reading, and he thinks that if Shakespeare was still alive he'd be annoyed that everyone takes him so seriously.
The Aim of this lesson is to make students feel more confident when approaching Shakespeare
A lot of students are very intimidated by Shakespeare, which is hardly a surprise. The biggest problem students have with it is the language: besides using lots of old words which a modern English speaker wouldn’t recognise, it is also written in a very abstract and poetic style which means that even if you do know all the words, you still might not have a clue what he’s on about. Reading Shakespeare can be a massive challenge even for a well-read adult who usually has no problems with comprehension, so for a secondary school student, who might not read a lot, or might have major difficulties with comprehension, it can be an absolute nightmare.
Human Clock
This lesson was created by Ellen Kelly. She is in her final year studying Maths and Biology at NUI,Maynooth. She has always enjoyed maths and hopes to teach it at a secondary school level soon enough! however when im not pondering some maths problems or prepairing my classes she likes to relax with a bit of yoga. 
For this lesson
- Cut out the numbers 1-12 and place them around the table to resemble a clock face. (or you can get the students to draw the numbers on the table now that we can do that!)
- Now simply ask each student to be either the minute hand or the hour hand and given a time ask them to possition themselves appropriatley around the table.
- This lesson can be easily adjusted depending on the number of students to a class and the eqiupment/space available to you.
- For instance with only one student the clock hands can be cut out so the student can place them in; or with more than 12 students each one can be a number and stand in a circle representing the clock itself while the remaing students act as the clock hands.
