Active learning challenges students to learn through experience and reflection on what they have done (Frost, Levitt, and Kosslyn 2017). As this pedagogy has developed, the principles have been useful in teaching a variety of subjects. This paper discusses research from many disciplines and observations from sixteen years of working with secondary students in an active learning environment for Shakespeare education. Key observations from the active learning model include transferring responsibility to the student, encouraging student-led discussion, providing for experimentation, utilizing dual coding, reflecting real-life tasks, and coordinating space for learning. This research is shared with the hope that these foundational principles and illustrations can be applied more broadly across disciplines.