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Professional Development

Join us for never-ending learning

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Teacher Members enjoy access to two kinds of Folger professional development: upcoming live-streamed webinars full of real-time interaction, and webinars on demand, available for viewing anytime! From practical workshops that let you experience the Folger Method as your students would to provocative conversations with scholars and artists, join us for never-ending learning. Connect with like-minded teachers and the institution that is cheering you all on.

Weekend Intensives

Words, Words, Words: Exploring Shakespeare’s Language at the Folger Shakespeare Library 
Friday, March 28 – Saturday, March 29

Join us for two jam-packed days of teaching and learning at the Folger. You’ll explore ways of engaging with Shakespeare’s language that will transform your classroom. You will also get the opportunity to explore highlights from the Folger’s collection, see the new exhibition halls, and watch a performance of A Room in the Castle in the Folger Theatre. 

Registration opens in December.

Professional development on demand

Folger Education a growing library of archived professional development sessions just for teachers. Some of our favorites are below. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Check out our entire library of professional development videos.

View all professional development options

The Folger Method

Take a deep dive into the most effective method for teaching and learning any complex text.

The Key to Getting ALL Students Understanding and Interpreting Complex Texts

Teaching Resource

The Key to Getting ALL Students Understanding and Interpreting Complex Texts

Free resource

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Trailblazing Women Poets You’re Probably Not Teaching—And Practical Strategies for Teaching Them Now

Teaching Resource

Trailblazing Women Poets You’re Probably Not Teaching—And Practical Strategies for Teaching Them Now

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Getting All Students Inside Tough Speeches

Teaching Resource

Getting All Students Inside Tough Speeches

How can any student encounter a speech for the first time and make meaning from it on their own, without any teacher explanation?
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Teach Their Eyes Were Watching God with Rigor and Joy

Teaching Resource

Teach Their Eyes Were Watching God with Rigor and Joy

How does the Folger Method help students discover and interpret Their Eyes Were Watching God?
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Master Class: Teaching Romeo and Juliet

Teaching Resource

Master Class: Teaching Romeo and Juliet

What are the most essential, and eye-opening, things any teacher must know about Romeo and Juliet? What are wildly effective approaches to teaching it?
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Master Class: Teaching Othello

Teaching Resource

Master Class: Teaching Othello

What matters most when we teach Othello? How can all students grapple with the language of race, religion, gender, and power?
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Shakespeare and Performance

Meet the artists behind visionary productions.

Directing Shakespeare: An Interview with Rosa Joshi

Teaching Resource

Directing Shakespeare: An Interview with Rosa Joshi

What drives Rosa Joshi to direct Shakespeare today? What does Shakespeare have for diverse casts and audiences?
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Directing Julius Caesar: An Interview with Michael Tolaydo

Teaching Resource

Directing Julius Caesar: An Interview with Michael Tolaydo

What can readers of Shakespeare learn from performing the text? What wisdom can we gain from a longtime actor and director?
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Juicy Lessons!

Juicy Lesson! Creating a Promptbook for Poet X (or ANY novel!)

Teaching Resource

Juicy Lesson! Creating a Promptbook for Poet X (or ANY novel!)

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Juicy Lesson! Pre-reading: A 20-minute Hamlet

Teaching Resource

Juicy Lesson! Pre-reading: A 20-minute Hamlet

Free resource

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Juicy Lesson! Choral Reading Dr. King’s I Have A Dream speech

Teaching Resource

Juicy Lesson! Choral Reading Dr. King’s I Have A Dream speech

Free resource

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Juicy Lesson! Paired Texts: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing 2.1

Teaching Resource

Juicy Lesson! Paired Texts: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing 2.1

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Juicy Lesson! The Monologue Project

Teaching Resource

Juicy Lesson! The Monologue Project

Find out how and why this project works with any text, every student.
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Juicy Lesson! Choral Reading Imtiaz Dharker’s “The Trick” and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43

Teaching Resource

Juicy Lesson! Choral Reading Imtiaz Dharker’s “The Trick” and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43

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Teaching Shakespeare Institute 2024

Shakespeare: Othello and The Taming of the Shrew in Conversation
July 7-July 19, 2024

Twenty-five middle and high school teachers came to Washington D.C. to with leading scholars, accomplished Folger classroom teachers, and Folger staff in the exploration of The Taming of the Shrew and Othello, texts that are considered Shakespeare’s signal treatments on race and gender. The institute included daily lectures from leading scholars, generative seminars, studio classes on performing Shakespeare’s characters, and curricular workshops knitting it all together.