Lesson Plans - Week 5
Three lesson plans for your fifth week of teaching Romeo and Juliet
This is the next set of six weeks of lesson plans for Romeo and Juliet. Follow along with them week by week, or choose activities from them to supplement your teaching. All lessons come with downloadable PDFs of activities and plans.
LESSON 1
Exploring Juliet and Friar Lawrence’s characterisation in Act IV
Discover MoreLESSON 2
Exploring tragedy in Act V
Discover MoreLESSON 3
Exploring the aftermath of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths
Discover MoreFURTHER READING & ACTIVITIES
Supporting resources
Discover MoreLESSON 1
Learning Objective
To explore Juliet and Friar Lawrence’s characterisation in Act IV, scene 1. With Starter, Main and Plenary activities.
Downloadable Resources
Starter (15 mins approx.)
Start reading Act IV Scene 1 from after Paris leaves. Read the scene out loud – you could involve the whole class by one side of the room being Friar Lawrence and the other Juliet, and each student taking it in turns to read an entire line (from punctuation to punctuation) in turn, or if you have two very strong readers, just nominating them to read while the others listen. While this reading is going on, ask students to highlight all references to death and violence in both speeches.
When the reading is finished, ask students to share their first impressions of this exchange, and what highlighting the references to death and violence has shown them. Does anything surprise them about the behaviour they see in this scene, from either character?
Main activity (25 mins approx.)
Ask half of the class to just look at Juliet’s lines in this part of the scene, and the other half to just look at Friar Lawrence’s. For the students looking at Juliet’s lines, they can work in pairs or individually, depending on how much challenge you want to give them.
See the downloadable lesson plan for the full activity, prompt questions and more.
Plenary (15 mins approx.)
Ask students to write a short analysis of the exchange between Juliet and Friar Lawrence – what does it reveal about them as characters?
LESSON 2
Learning Objective
To explore tragedy in Act V, scene 3.
With Starter, Main and Plenary activities.
Downloadable Resources
Starter (15 mins approx):
Watch the section of the scene from Romeo opening the tomb to find Juliet, to Juliet’s death. A theatre version is preferable to the Baz Luhrmann film if possible, as it veers away from the text slightly and is also much longer than stage versions tend to be.
While they are watching this section of the scene, ask students to write down what elements they can see that are tragic. Discuss their immediate thoughts after watching.
Main activity (25 mins approx.)
Give students the Romeo edit provided. Ask them to work in pairs to identify all the examples of imagery/metaphor they can find in the text and highlight them. Ask them to explore the nature of these images and what they convey about a) Romeo’s influences and imagination and b) the nature of Romeo’s feelings for Juliet.
In what ways do these images help to create Romeo as a figure of tragedy? How do students respond to his depiction? Do they feel his emotions are genuine? Share ideas with the class.
Plenary (10 mins approx.)
Ask students to now look at Juliet’s final words towards the end of the scene.
How do these compare with Romeo’s? Can they notice any imagery? How do Juliet’s factual and pragmatic final words make them feel compared to Romeo’s? What do these very different final speeches tell us about Romeo, and about Juliet? Which is more tragic to a contemporary audience? Do they think Shakespeare’s contemporaries would have felt the same?
Discuss their ideas as a class.
LESSON 3
Learning Objective
To explore the aftermath of Romeo and Juliet’s death. With Starter, Main and Plenary activities.
Starter (20 mins approx)
Ask students to revisit Act V Scene 3 with a partner, going through from beginning to end and listing the events as they happen (summarising them in a short sentence, such as ‘Paris arrives with his Page to visit Juliet’s tomb. Romeo arrives with Balthasar to break into Juliet’s tomb’ and so on).
When they have finished, ask them to compare with another pair – have they got the same list, or do they need to add any details they missed? Share as a class what this list of events tells us.
Why do they think there are so many people in this final scene, and what purpose is their presence on stage at this point in the play serving to show us? How does the end of the play echo the beginning?
Main activity (25 mins approx)
Ask students to read the Prince’s words in this final scene. Who does he hold to account for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, and who does he absolve? What is his reasoning? In pairs, ask students to write a list of questions they would have for the character playing the Prince, to try and help them understand his reasoning.
Once they have their questions, ask students to get up and walk around the room. When they meet another student’s eye, they should stop them and ask them one of their questions, with the other student pretending to be the Prince and attempting to ask the question.
Give students the chance to ask/answer about 5 questions before bringing the activity to a close.
Plenary (5 mins approx.)
Ask students what they have discovered about this final scene. Who do they think is to blame for the events?
Supplement your lesson plans with our free-to-access learning resources.
CHARACTERS
Who’s who in the play
THEMES
Explore context and key themes
SYNOPSIS
Delve deeper with scene by scenes
VIDEOS
Watch scenes and interviews
LANGUAGE
Annotated extracts to dive into the text