Based on sports cards, literary cards are a useful way for students to study characters as well as themes, settings, or other significant elements in a work. Students can trade the cards or use them to play a game similar to Guess the Author . Live Theatre Field trips to live theatre expose students to the experience of drama as it was meant to be experienced. There really is no substitute for seeing a play performed on stage. Some schools have been successful in organizing field trips to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, and even theatre in London, England.
Many more schools take advantage of local productions.
Invariably, students are delighted and impressed with real theatre and come away with an enhanced appreciation of plays they are studying in class, as well as of theatre in general. At each station is the text of one of the poems to be reviewed and a large sheet of paper. After a few minutes, the teacher signals it is time to move to the next station, and the teams are given a new assignment. Teams continue to move from station to station until all students have worked at all stations. This activity can quickly reacquaint the class with a dozen major poems in an enjoyable way.