Education Introduction

Dear Educators, Students and All Shakespeare Learners:

The National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with Arts Midwest, is delighted to provide you with a wide range of resources to deepen and broaden your knowledge of, and appreciation for, Shakespeare's work. In this section, you will find information on the playwright, the Elizabethan period in which he lived and wrote, Shakespeare in America, and much more. For information on each of Shakespeare's 38 plays, as well as Iambic Pentameter, the meter in which much of the work is written, please refer to The Plays section of this Web site.

And classroom teachers, don't forget: the National Endowment for the Arts will provide you with a free Shakespeare Toolkit for your classroom. This amazing resource provides you with two DVDs, a CD, and full-color print resources for use in your classroom. In addition to a dynamic Teacher's Guide, the toolkit contains a collection of Shakespeare's most well-known sonnets and monologues, a timeline and poster suitable for hanging, and a set of “Fun with Shakespeare” game pages. No matter what Shakespeare play you are teaching, or what grade level you serve, this toolkit will be an invaluable resource that you will turn to year after year. To order your free Shakespeare in American Communities Educator Toolkit, visit the Video Placement Worldwide Web site.