Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s most accessible works to modern readers, and its themes will be very familiar to young people today, since they still have to deal with the issues of gossip, relationship drama, and toxic people who just want to tear others down. Teenagers will enjoy this play not only for its fantastic wordplay and raucous plot, but also they way it addresses problems that affect trust, friendship, and forgiveness that will be very familiar to them.

Activity: Essay Prompts

Use one of the following prompts for a discussion or written essay about Much Ado About Nothing:

    • If you were Hero, would you have taken back Claudio at the end after he had caused you so much harm? Why or why not?
    • When Claudio accuses Hero, at first her father believes him and not his own daughter. What does Leonato’s angry outbust say about him? Was this just a moment of high emotions or does it show that he isn’t as good of a father as he seemed?
    • Is it ethical for friends to scheme to get couples together, even if the intentions and outcome are good? Where is the line between encouragement of and meddling in others’ relationships?
    • Don Pedro gave his toxic brother Don John a second chance, and sadly Don John used this as a chance to hurt others. How can you tell the difference between someone who deserves a second chance at friendship and someone who will just continue to be hurtful if you stay close to them? What should you do if it seems impossible to know for sure?
    • If you have had a big fight with a close friend but you want to make amends, what is the best way to get started?

Activity: Modern-day Beatrice and Benedick

Choose a scene from Much Ado About Nothing in which Beatrice and Benedick have a “merry war” of words between one another. Rewrite the scene, using the same style of insults and teasing but with modern-day English. The scene could be written as a play script or in prose as if it were in a novel.


Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is a survival story, but it’s also a tale about a boy beginning to learn about adult ideas.

Activity: How would you survive?

Have each student write a story about being in a survival situation all alone. They must include:

    • How they arrived at a remote location
    • Describe the location, including plants, animals, and climate
    • What resources or tools came with them to the location
    • What resources or tools can be found or made at the location
    • How they would obtain food, shelter, and protection from nature
    • What dangers they might encounter
    • How they would attempt to be rescued
    • How long they think they could survive in such a setting

The narrative can be a short response or a longer work of art or creative writing. Students should share their work and discuss whether their story is plausible or fanciful.

Activity: What vitamins do you need to survive?

This activity is designed to help students understand why the human body needs vitamins. Students will fill out a chart that lists vitamins, their function, and the food sources which provide these vitamins. Parents and teachers can decide how much detail to go into based on student understanding and ability. It may be better for younger students to only research a few vitamins, whereas older students can learn about the entire list. Students should do as much research on their own as possible.

Begin the activity by defining of a vitamin:

A vitamin is a nutrient that a living thing needs in order to function properly. Vitamins can almost never be made by the organism itself, so they must be obtained through its diet.

Next, provide students with a copy of this chart and instruct them to fill it out after performing research about which parts of the human body are affected by vitamins and which foods are rich in these vitamins. Answers will vary, as vitamins have many different functions in the body and they are found in many different food sources. After this activity students should be able to explain various sources of vitamins, how those vitamins support proper functioning of the body, and why it is important to eat a varied diet to obtain proper nutrition.

Advanced students can also write a research essay answering the following prompt:

In Hatchet, Brian spends fifty-four days eating only choke cherries, raspberries, hazelnuts, fish, grouse, and rabbit. What vitamins would he have been able to obtain from this diet? Which would have been missing? What would be the long-term effects of a diet with these vitamin deficiencies?