Romeo and Juliet teaching pack

Last updated: 15/11/2023
Contributor: Teachit Author
Romeo and Juliet cover
Main Subject
Key stage
Resource type
Teaching pack

Take a fresh approach to teaching and learning this celebrated play.

‘There are so many resources available for Romeo and Juliet, so I really wanted this pack to offer some fresh ideas and hopefully get students and teachers enthused about the play. Although it's essential to have an exam focus, the lessons also offer fun activities (like the group fight scene task and creating the word masks) that give students (and teachers!) a chance to enjoy the play.’

Annabel Wall, writer

Designed for the GCSE English Literature specifications for AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC Eduqas, this six-week teaching pack features 20 lessons, accompanying resources and exam-style questions.

What's included?

  • 20 lessons
  • exam style questions with extracts for all exam boards
  • collaborative tasks to engage and enthuse students
  • activities to develop students’ critical reading skills in preparation for the GCSE.

What's inside?

Introduction (page 3)

Specification summaries (pages 4-7)

Act 1 (pages 8-40)

  • Lesson 1 - a brawl (Act 1, Scene 1)
    • Resource - thinking about themes
    • Resource - fighting in the streets
    • Resource - thinking about language
  • Lesson 2 - Lovesick (Act 1, Scene 1)
    • Resource - positive/negative words
    • Resource - oxymorons
  • Lesson 3 - wild Mercutio (Act 1, Scene 4)
    • Resource - Mercutio’s words
    • Resource - Describing Mercutio
  • Lesson 4 - love at first sight (Act 1, Scene 5)
    • Resource - the symbolism of masks
    • Resource - sharing the sonnet
    • Resource - a word mask
  • Act 1 exam style questions

Act 2 (pages 41-63)

  • Lesson 1 - balcony scene (Act 2, Scene 2)
    • Resource - rhythm of the lines
    • Resource - thinking about language
  • Lesson 2 - the Friar and religion (Act 2, Scene 3)
    • Resource - words of wisdom
    • Resource - the Friar’s speech
    • Resource - theme of religion
  • Lesson 3 - comedy and the Nurse (Act 2, Scenes 4 and 5)
    • Resource - comic characters
    • Resource - Juliet and the Nurse
  • Act 2 exam style questions

Act 3 (pages 64-92)

  • Lesson 1 - honour and violence (Act 3, Scene 1)
    • Resource - staging the scene
    • Resource - comparing Tybalt and Mercutio
    • Resource - Tybalt’s obituary
  • Lesson 2 - Juliet despairs (Act 3, Scene 2)
    • Resource - language of despair
    • Resource - Juliet’s diary of despair
  • Lesson 3 - Romeo’s character (Act 3, Scene 3)
    • Resource - Romeo’s character
    • Resource - Images of Romeo
    • Resource - key quotations
    • Resource - Romeo’s moods
  • Lesson 4 - Juliet and Lord Capulet (Act 3, Scene 5)
    • Resource - responding to this scene
    • Resource - offering advice
  • Act 3 exam style questions

Act 4 (pages 93-120)

  • Lesson 1 - Juliet and Paris (Act 4, Scene 1)
    • Resource - Juliet’s desperation
    • Resource - who is Paris?
  • Lesson 2 - Foreshadowing (Act 4, Scene 3)
    • Resource - what is foreshadowing?
    • Resource - focusing on a scene
    • Resource - searching the text
  • Lesson 3 - dramatic irony (Act 4, Scene 5)
    • Resource - creating a glossary
    • Resource - melodrama or moving grief?
  • Lesson 4 - prose and verse (Act 4, Scene 5)
    • Resource - prose and verse
    • Resource - presentations
    • Resource - Shakespeare’s motives
  • Act 4 exam style questions

Act 5 (pages 121-144)

  • Lesson 1 - Romeo resolved (Act 5, Scene 1)
    • Resource - annotate the extract
  • Lesson 2 - fate (Act 5, Scene 2)
    • Resource - character horoscopes
    • Resource - fate in the scene
  • Lesson 3 - personification of death (Act 5, Scene 3)
    • Resource - images of death
    • Resource - context of death
    • Resource - Act 5, Scene 3
  • Lesson 4 - structure and tragedy (Act 5, Scene 3)
    • Resource - the final tragedy
    • Resource - Aristotle’s tragedy
    • Resource - timeline
  • Act 5 exam style questions

These are sample activities from the teaching notes for Act 1, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet:

Oxymorons:

Support students in a reading of this key extract (Act 1, Scene 1 – from ‘Good morrow, cousin’ until the end of scene). Return to the speech containing Romeo’s oxymoron (Resource 5). In pairs, ask students to pick one oxymoron and create a freeze frame. The rest of the class must guess which oxymoron is being presented. (A02)

Have a class discussion about the effect of using this device in the play. Here are some possible answers to consider.

  • The oxymoron shows that nothing is as it should be.
  • The oxymoron shows that being in love can be painful.
  • The oxymoron shows the two extreme emotions at the start of the play: love and hate.
  • The oxymoron shows Romeo’s confused state of mind – he is happy to be in love, but unhappy that his love is not returned.
  • The oxymoron underlines that this play is full of opposites: love/hate, life/death and light/dark.

Making links: Remind students to look out for other oxymorons as they study the rest of the play. For example, Juliet uses ‘sweet sorrow’ in Act 1, Scene 2 and ‘beautiful tyrant’ in Act 3, Scene 2. (A02)


Different types of love:

Romeo is suffering from unrequited love at this point in the play. Ask students to work in groups of three and read Act 1, Scene 1 – from ‘Good morrow cousin’ until the end of the scene. They must find evidence of two other types of love, supporting their points with quotations from the text. (A01)

Possible answers:

  • The love of a close friendship: ‘… this love that thou hast shown …’ 
  • The love of family and loyalty to family: ‘Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love …’ 

Making links: There can also be different types of romantic love. Romeo thinks he is in love with Rosaline in this scene, but it could be an infatuation rather than genuine love. Compare this love with his feelings for Juliet later in the play.
 

Romeo and Juliet
£15.00
Free for Premium Subscribers.

All reviews

Have you used this resource?

5

24/05/2021

5

02/02/2021

5

06/01/2021

5

13/11/2020

5

24/05/2021

5

02/02/2021

5

06/01/2021

5

13/11/2020

5

17/10/2020

5

21/09/2020

Fantastic resources Will use with Y11 in September. Thank you for access.

Geraldine O'Brien

28/05/2020

5

22/05/2020

It is a useful resource.

paramjit kaur

13/05/2020

One of the best resources I've ever come across for teaching "Romeo and Juliet" This resource is priceless. I'm most grateful.

Olukayode Adu

14/04/2020