This is the most fun I ever had in a classroom -- introducing my students to iambic pentameter through Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars books.

Honestly, I have two teens whose 8th and 9th grade teachers attempted introducing Shakespeare via Romeo and Juliet, and it was not ... good. The movie adaptations are bad. The reading in class was stilted. And the writing assignments! What does a 14-year-old know of love? Not to mention the mental health issues (hello -- suicide?!) the play brings up and most classrooms don't have time to address, although this librarian offers a fantastic lesson plan that I highly recommend, if you teach this play: Librarian's Devastating Loss Provides Mental Health Lens for Teaching "Romeo and Juliet."

So, c'mon, English teachers. Get hip. Get Ian Doescher. It was the most fun I ever had with my classes!

I'm offering a super simple lesson plan for whichever of his books you choose to have students read -- and it's good to mix up the books you use, from year to year. There are Reading Role Pages for all nine of the William Shakespeare's Star Wars books, as well as Doescher's iambic rendering of  A Christmas Carol and the Tragical History of Frankenstein. Next year, I'm tackling his rendition of the Marvel Avengers movies in iambic pentameter. Really looking forward to those!

And, English teachers, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Ian Doescher's Shakespeare 2020 Project! From the public group's FB page, "We're reading the complete works of Shakespeare together in 2020."

Introducing Iambic Pentameter Basic Lesson Plan

1.   Buy class copies of the book, Verily, a New Hope. This sounds like a no-brainer, but each student needs to have a book in their hands to follow along. You also need to have the movie to watch, either through iTunes or however you buy movies for your classroom. 

2.   Start by printing the Two Line Start Cards and laminating them, one set for each pair. Cut them up and put them in baskets on pairs of desks.  

3.  Allow students to pair up or assign partners. 

4.  If your class has already done the Two Line Start Cards for my lesson using Ian Doescher's Verily a New Hope, they'll know what to do. If your class is digital, aka online via video, this is perfect for having students read outloud. 

5.  Students watch Akala's TedX talk about the links between HipHop and the Bard. Have a copy of the Sonnet #18 ready for them to read and follow, as well as the lyrics to Akala's two other songs at the end. Then crank up the volume! The kids love them. 

6.  Then students practice reading the Two Line Start Cards to each other. 

7.  Students use a dry erase marker (or on screen pen) to write in the breaks between syllables and show the accent in the pairs. 

8.  TW circulate in the room (check student responses), checking to make sure students are placing the syllable breaks and accents in the correct places and that students "get" the iambic pentameter poetry form. 

9.  When they're familiar with the form, students begin reading the book and watching the movie. Keep track of which students read which parts using my Reading Role Sheets.

And bango!

You're ready to have some serious literary fun.

I offer reading roles pages and a brief discussion of them in a post for each book. Each post includes the Educator's Guides from Quirk Books, the publisher, in case you're inclined to teach some of the references to the Bard's work in Doescher's amazing plays. 

But don't feel like you have to -- leave that to their high school teachers. In middle school, it's enough if you introduce the 5-act story structure, the hero's journey and iambic pentameter.

Other Back-to-School Planning Ideas

1.  For Social Studies book related resources, check out my post, Back-to-School Planning 1: Teaching Social Studies with Books. 

2.  For novel units and other ELA book related resources, check out my post, Back-to-School Planning 2: English Language Arts Resources.

3.  Finally, be sure to check out the next post, Back-to-School Planning 3: Independent Reading Assignments by Quarter.  These assignments by quarter can be used in either English or Social Studies classrooms and examples of student work are provided to set expectations.

Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars

Using Star Wars to Introduce Iambic Pentameter William Shakespeare's Verily A New Hope, by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily, Verily Two Line Start Cards, the link to Akala's TedX talk, downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes, and a link to other Star Wars teaching ideas and materials from Star Wars in the Classroom. There's also a link / downloadable lesson plan that uses a FANTASTIC hero's journey graphic organizer students can use to identify elements of Luke's hero's journey.

Class Readers Theater: The Empire Striketh Back. William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back, by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily, Verily Two Line Start Cards, the link to Akala's TedX talk, downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes.

End the Year Right with Star Wars Readers Theater  William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return, by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily, Verily Two Line Start Cards, the link to Akala's TedX talk, downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes.

Prequel Star Wars Readers Theater To start your planning for the new school year, I'm offering The Phantom of Menace Reading Role Sheets and a lesson plan for introducing iambic pentameter. This post offers all the same supporting teaching materials as previous posts: Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily, Verily Two Line Start Cards, the link to Akala's TedX talk, downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes.

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Prequels  This post recommends teaching the second prequel book, The Clone Army Attacketh, and provides the lesson plan for introducing iambic pentameter. This post offers the same supporting teaching materials as previous posts: Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily; Verily Two Line Start Cards; the link to Akala's TedX talk and downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes; and a link to the publisher's extensive Teaching Guide.

Last Star Wars Prequel in Iambic Pentameter: Tragedy of the Sith's Revenge, by Ian Doescher. This post recommends teaching the third and last prequel book, The Tragedy of the Sith's Revenge, and provides the lesson plan for introducing iambic pentameter. This post offers the same supporting teaching materials as previous posts: Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily; Verily Two Line Start Cards; the link to Akala's TedX talk and downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes; and a link to the publisher's extensive Teaching Guide.

Book 7 Star Wars in Iambic Pentameter! William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken, by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily, Verily Two Line Start Cards, the link to Akala's TedX talk, downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes.

Book 8 Star Wars in Iambic Pentameter! William Shakespeare's Jedi the Last, by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets, to keep track of in-class readers daily, Verily Two Line Start Cards, the link to Akala's TedX talk, downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's 26 Plays and 16 Quotes.

Final Star Wars in Iamic Pentameter. William Shakespeaare's The Merry Rise of Skywalker, by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets, to  keep track of in-class readers daily, Verily Two Line Start Cards, the link to Akala's TedX talk on imabic pentameter, downloadable copies of Sonnet 18 and Akala's Plays and 16 Quotes.  

May the Fourth Be With You: Using Star Wars to Identify 2nd POV In this post, I offer a simple exercise and downloadable worksheet that will get your students out of their chairs and reading the first 1-3 pages of the books on your in-class bookshelves. You could modify this for distance learning by having students bring a book from a home shelf and reading the first few sentences out loud to identify the POV. It involves "stocking" your shelves with 2nd POV books -- those fantastical, Choose Your Own Adventure type books. And I've got Star Wars recommendations for you, including Adam Gidwitz's So You Want to Be a Jedi?

Recommended Additional Star Wars (Fun!) Reading

Powerful Stuff for Star Wars Fans. Cobalt Squadron, by Elizabeth Wein

For Star Wars Fans...  Star Wars: Spark of the Resistance, by Justina Ireland

Summer Reading: Star Wars. Ahsoka, by E.K. Johnston

Summer Reading: Star Wars Fighting Princess. Leia, Princess of Alderaan. Claudia Gray. 

Ian Doescher's Pop Shakespeare Series

Ian Doescher has thus far offered three other books in iambic pentameter that follow beloved movies. They're great opportunities for your students to get comfortable with reading the drama / poetry form and have some fun at the same time.

Mean Girls is meant for high school / YA mature readers and probably not appropriate for an 8th grade classroom. Get Thee ...Back to the Future! has the fewest speaking parts of any of Doescher's works, so it works well for small class sizes; and The Taming of the Clueless has some very mature references, per the movie. I offer Reading Roles Sheets for all three.

Use Mean Girls to Introduce Iambic Pentameter William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls, by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets to keep track of in-class readers daily, a fresh, new set of Two Line Start Cards for students to practice iambic feet, as well as links to Akala's TedX talk and his two songs, and Sonnet 18.

Go Back to the Future to Introduce Iambic Pentameter! William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher. This post includes downloadable Reading Roles Sheets to keep track of in-class readers daily, Two Line Start Cards for students to practice iambic feet, as well as links to Akala's TedX talk, lyrics to his two songs and Sonnet 18, and a fantastic new board game recommendation, Back to the Future: Back in Time, in case you have time to introduce role-playing board games to your students, as well!

Readers Theater Using Pop Shakespeare Series The Taming of the Clueless, by Ian Doescher. This post includes a lesson plan, downloadable Reading Roles Sheets to keep track of in-class readers daily, Two Line Start Cards for students to practice iambic feet, as well as links to Akala's TedX talk, and lyrics to his two songs and Sonnet 18.

William Shakespeare's Classic Dramas

William Shakespeare's Christmas Carol. This is a delightful, 85-page rendition of Dickens' classic short story in an iambic pentamter, 5-act play. It's perfect for right before the holiday break, when your 6th-9th grade English Language Arts students are too antsy or preoccupied to tackle longer works. I provide the Reading Roles Sheets so you don't have to make them and you can snag a lesson plan from this page on how to use it to introduce iambic pentameter. Enjoy!   

William Shakespeare's Tragical History of Frankenstein, by Ian Doescher. This post offers Reading Roles Sheets and Two Line Start Cards for this incredibly concise 5-act play that is an excellent, short adaptation of Mary Shelley's horror classic, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. It's true to Shelley's book, not Hollywood, which turned "Frankenstein" into the monster.

William Shakespeare's Avengers, The Complete Works. Look for Reading Roles pages coming in 2022 and 2023.