explore how shakespeare shows conflict in romeo and juliet act 1 scene 1 act 3 scene 1

Sample units of work
Year 7, Year 8, Year 9, GCSE
Globe Education Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

by Georghia Ellinas and Michael Jones

Year 7: Romeo meets Juliet

Year 8: What’s in a name?

Year 9: Father or Lover?

GCSE: The presentation of conflict in Romeo and Juliet
Sample units of work using Globe Education Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet
The sample units of work offer possible routes through the resources in a way that builds confidence and skills in exploring Shakespeare’s plays across KS3 and supports success at GCSE:
Year 7: Romeo meets Juliet
Year 8: What’s in a name?
Year 9: Father or Lover?
GCSE: The presentation of conflict in Romeo and Juliet

At GCSE, the requirements of different awarding bodies will determine which specific assessment opportunities are appropriate. In GCSE English Literature there is evidence that the more precise the link between a Shakespeare play and related text(s) the easier it is for students to meet the assessment criteria. Generalised comments and comparisons gain fewer marks than detailed exploration of specific aspects of texts.
A link between texts based on content is usually less effective than a link based on the writers’ techniques.
Any linked text needs to be appropriate in terms of the English literary heritage if this is an awarding body requirement.

Year: 7
Unit title: Romeo meets Juliet
Duration: 4 weeks Intentions for this unit: To enhance students’ understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare as a playwright. To use a range of active approaches that will enable students to explore and express personal response to characters. To help students enjoy exploring Shakespeare’s language through different dramatic approaches and conventions. Assessing learning prior to this unit:
What experiences of seeing or engaging with Shakespeare plays through work in the classroom, watching films or visiting the theatre have students had?
What prior knowledge of Shakespeare’s life and the Globe theatre do students have? Key concepts

Creativity: a – Making fresh connections between ideas, experiences, texts and words, drawing on a rich experience of language and literature.

Competence: e – Making informed choices about effective ways to communicate formally and informally.

Cultural understanding: a – Gaining a sense of the English literary heritage and engaging with important texts in it.

Functional skills

Speaking and listening (Level 1)
Take part in formal and informal discussions/exchanges make relevant contributions to discussions, responding appropriately to others present information/points of view clearly and in appropriate language
Overview of 12 lesson unit:

Focus

1. You looking for a fight?
2. Shakespeare’s World
3. Romeo: First impressions
4. A marriage is arranged
5. At the ball
6. Romeo and Juliet
7. Love and death
8. Preparation of scene summaries
9. Presentation of scene summaries
10. Loving death
11. Diary writing
12. Review and self-assessment

Learning objectives

1. Engaging with Shakespeare’s language
2. Exploring prior knowledge
3. Character analysis
4. Plot Appreciation
5. Language exploration
6. Character comparison
7. Analysis of key dramatic moments
8. Selection of significant content
9. Collaborative presentation
10 Exploration of dramatic presentation of themes and ideas
11 Recreating the ‘voice’ of a character
12. Reviewing experiences and learning Key words

actor character director discussion drama dramatist hero/heroine playwright Jacobean presentation rehearsal theatre The Globe

GCSE objectives

For example:

Characters
Characterisation
Voice
Ideas
Language
Themes
Voice

English KS3 learning focuses

Character
Language
Themes & ideas
Performance

Speaking & Listening

Reading

Writing

Year: 7
Unit title: Romeo meets Juliet
Duration: 4 weeks
WEEK 1
WEEK 2
WEEK 3
WEEK 4

Outline of unit:

(1) Start with the idea of a fight. Ask pupils to talk about any fight they have seen. Why did it start? How did it finish? To familiarise them with Shakespearean diction put the class in halves (Capulets and Montagues) and ask them to re-enact the servants’ fight verbally, using only words from Act 1 Scene 1. Intervene in role as the Duke and say the Duke’s lines. Look at the fight photographs of the 2004 and 2009 productions and then revisit the Duke’s lines using the first activity on page 10 in From the rehearsal room – Ancient grudge.
(2) Use Shakespeare’s World on page 10 to explore prior knowledge of Shakespeare and the Globe. Talk about what pupils already know of Shakespeare as a playwright and what they know about Romeo and Juliet. Ask them to imagine being in the Globe, as audience or actor, and to describe what it looks, smells and sounds like.

(3) Look at and discuss the photographs on page 12 of Romeo in modern and Elizabethan costume. Then use the first two activities in From the rehearsal room to explore first impressions of Romeo.

(4) Follow the guidance in From the rehearsal room on page 22 so that pupils understand the plan to marry Juliet to Paris.

(5) Refer briefly to the Director’s Note for Act 1 Scene 4 (page 26). Then read aloud Romeo’s speech when he first sees Juliet (Act 1 Scene 5, lines 39–51 on page 28). Look at the photograph of the 2009 production and ask pupils to suggest which line was being spoken. Read the exchange between Tybalt and Capulet, then use the suggestions in From the rehearsal room on page 30 – Clues in the punctuation.

(6) Put pupils in pairs and use From the rehearsal room – Palm to palm on page 30 to explore the lovers’ first meeting. Share ideas in a plenary discussion and see which line the class vote for to match the photograph on that page.

(7) Look at the photographs of the balcony scene on pages 38 and 40. Then in pairs pupils read the opening 60 lines of Act 2 Scene 2. Use the sequence of photographs and the Director’s Notes to summarise the rest of Act 2. Then discuss with pupils what happens in the photographs on pages 66–7 (the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt). Discuss what the pupils think of Romeo’s conduct.

(8)Model for the class how to write a diary entry which includes detail and quotation. Pupils then write what might have been one key day’s diary entry for either Juliet or Romeo.

(9) Put pupils into groups. Their group task is to use quotations, photographs and the Director’s Notes to help summarise one of the following scenes in a way that includes a freeze-frame of the key moment:
Act 3 Scene 3
Act 3 Scene 5
Act 4 Scene 1
Act 4 Scene 5
Act 5 Scene 1

(10) Pupils present their scenes in sequence so that the class know what has happened up to the point of Romeo’s return.

(11) Read Act 5 Scene 3 as a class up to line 222. Allocate the main characters to different groups to talk about what part they played in bringing about the deaths of the two lovers. Then decide as a class about who is most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. (You could try to put the characters in rank order of contribution.)

(12) Pupils use the Shakespeare self assessment sheets to review their learning progress in the unit and to answer the question ‘What have we learnt about Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet?’

Assessment opportunities in this unit:
Use of key questions about language, characters and performance.

Insights shown and contributions made in group work and discussion.

Fluency in speaking Shakespeare’s language.

Ideas about which lines match the photographs show understanding of characters in performance.

Capacity to understand and engage with the language is assessable through discussion.
Diary writing shows level of personal response, drawing on textual evidence, and reveals capacity for empathy.

Ability to pick out key points shows understanding of the play’s development.

Impact of freeze frames and effectiveness of summaries indicate quality collaborative learning.

Peer and self assessment of presentations demonstrates speaking and listening.

Use of Shakespeare progression sheets to identify individual progress.

Year: 8
Unit title: What’s in a name?
Duration: 4 weeks Intentions for this unit: To deepen pupils’ enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare as a playwright and Romeo and Juliet as a play
To enable pupils to explore and express personal response to characters and ideas in Romeo and Juliet through a range of active approaches To help pupils explore the effect of Shakespeare’s language through different dramatic approaches and conventions

Assessing learning prior to this unit:
What experiences of Shakespeare plays through work in the classroom, watching films or visiting the theatre have students had?
What prior knowledge and experience do students have of Shakespeare and of Romeo and Juliet? (If they have met the play before this should be reflected how you approach the unit.)

Key concepts

Overview of 12 lesson unit:

Key words

Creativity: a - Making fresh connections between ideas, experiences, texts and words, drawing on a rich experience of language and literature.

Competence: e - Making informed choices about effective ways to communicate formally and informally.

Cultural understanding: a - Gaining a sense of the English literary heritage and engaging with important texts in it.
Focus
1 Shakespeare’s theatre
2 Spoiling for a fight
3 First impressions of Romeo
4 An arranged marriage
5 Love at first sight
6 The language of love
7 Honour as a matter of life and death
8 Mixed emotions
9 Juliet’s courage
10 Romeo’s death
11 Who is to blame?
12 Self-assessment

Learning objectives
1. Establishing prior knowledge of Shakespeare
2. Responding to Shakespeare’s language
3. Analysing Romeo’s character
4. Understanding Juliet’s character
5. Exploring a dramatic situation
6. Interpreting the impact of Shakespeare’s words

7. Understanding character and situation
8. Analysing language and character
9. Character analysis

10. Understanding a dramatic situation

11. Planning and writing a critical response

12. Self-assessment

actor character director discussion drama dramatist freeze frame hero/ heroine playwright Elizabethan presentation rehearsal theatre The Globe

honour arranged marriage

Functional skills

Speaking and listening (Level 1)
Take part in formal and informal discussions/exchanges make relevant contributions to discussions, responding appropriately to others present information/points of view clearly and in appropriate language

GCSE objectives

For example:
Characters
Characterisation
Voice
Ideas
Language
Themes
Authorial intention

English KS3 learning focuses
Character
Language
Themes and ideas
Performance

Speaking and Listening
Reading
Writing

Year: 8
Unit title: What’s in a name?
Duration: 4 weeks
WEEK 1
WEEK 2
WEEK 3
WEEK 4

Outline of unit:

(1) Look at and talk about the fight photographs on pages 8 and 10. Then read and re-enact Act 1 Scene 1 with volunteer pupils as characters. Build a list of words they think are meant to be hurtful. What are the modern equivalents when two groups (e.g. at a football ground) engage in verbal battle?
(2) Use activities in From the rehearsal room: First impressions of Romeo to explore their initial reactions to Romeo. Share first impressions of Romeo as a class and make a display of the words which are used to describe him. For homework pupils could find images of contemporary celebrities whose style links with the impression they have of Romeo.

(4) Discuss the homework task on Romeo. Then use the Director’s Notes for 1.1 and 1.2 to explain that Capulet wants his daughter to marry Paris. Read lines 55 to 101 of Act 1 Scene 3 where Juliet’s mother tells her of the marriage plan. How would they feel in her situation? Hot seat a volunteer pupil (male or female) as Juliet. Then pupils independently write down the thoughts that might be going through Juliet’s head during that dialogue with her Mother. Sample responses as a class.

(5) Read lines 40 to 70 in Act 1 Scene 5 where Romeo sees Juliet and is seen by Tybalt. Then use the Working Cut text on page 32 to enact the first meeting of the lovers.

(6) Use the Director’s Note 2.1on page 38 to move on to the balcony scene. Look together at the photograph on page 38 and discuss which lines match that photograph. Then follow the guidance in From the rehearsal room (page 42) and use the Working Cut version of Romeo and Juliet’s speeches.

(7) Move rapidly through the plot by using the Director’s Notes for 2.2 (page 47) and 2.3 (page 50) to summarise events including the marriage. Explore the fight in which Mercutio and Tybalt are killed by using the photographs on page 64 and 66 and by reading lines 105 to 135 of Act 3 Scene 1. Discuss what pupils think of Romeo’s actions.

(8)Use the page 74 Working Cut version of Juliet’s soliloquy, and follow the suggestions in From the rehearsal room: Mixed emotions. Then look at the photographs of desperate Romeo on page 84 and the Director’s Note 3.3 on page 86 so that pupils engage with the plight of both lovers.

(9) Follow the guidance in From the rehearsal room (page 90) and use the Working Cut version of Romeo and Juliet’s words as they part. Use the Director’s Notes for 3.5 (page 98) and 4.1 (page 106) to outline events whilst Romeo is in Mantua. Then use the From the rehearsal room: Power words (page 110) and the Working Cut version of Juliet’s soliloquy to explore and discuss how Juliet feels at this point.

(10) Direct the attention of pupils to the Director’s Note 5.1 (page 122) so that they understand the situation Romeo is in before he returns to Verona. Look as a class at the photograph on page 126 and ask pupils to answer the question about which line it refers to. Draw attention to lines 119 and 120 in Act 5 Scene 3 during which Romeo takes poison.

(11)Pupils look through the text of the play, concentrating on the photographs and the director’s notes, in order to talk about Who bears the most blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet? Model for the class how to plan a written response to that question, using textual evidence. For homework pupils plan and write their responses to the question Who bears most blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet?

(12). Review the homework task. Pupils then fill in the Shakespeare progression sheets and discuss what they have learnt during the unit.

Assessment opportunities in this unit:
Use of key questions about language, character and performance.

Insights shown in group work and discussion.

Rationale for choice of images in homework.

Capacity to understand and engage with a complex text assessable through writing about Juliet’s character.

Dramatic awareness evident through enactment.
Insights shown in group work and discussion.

The effectiveness of collaborative learning in presentations of scene summaries.

Peer and self assessment of presentations.

Writing shows level of personal response and ability to draw on textual evidence.

Use of Shakespeare progression sheets to identify individual progress.

Year: 9
Unit title: Father or Lover?
Duration: 4 weeks Intentions for this unit:
To deepen pupils’ enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare as a playwright and Romeo and Juliet as a play
To develop pupils’ ability to analyse dramatic text and express personal response to characters and ideas in Romeo and Juliet
To help pupils to analyse and comment on the effect of Shakespeare’s language through different dramatic approaches and conventions

Assessing learning prior to this unit:
What Shakespeare experiences have students had?
What prior knowledge and experience of Romeo and Juliet do students have?

Overview of 12 lesson unit:

Key concepts

Creativity: a - Making fresh connections between ideas, experiences, texts and words

Competence: e - Making informed choices about effective ways to communicate formally and informally.

Cultural understanding: a - Deepening their sense of the English literary heritage by engaging with an important text from a different chronological context.

Focus

1 Role on the wall – images of Romeo and Juliet
2 Freeze framing early scenes to share and confirm understanding of events
3 The balcony scene
4 Marriage and murders
5 Echoing emotions

6 Romeo and Juliet’s night together
7 Father vs daughter
8 Nurse’s eye view
9 Ways of seeing a scene

10 Temporary death

11 Advice to an actor

12 Self assessment

Learning objectives

1. Establishing prior learning
2. Explore the structure of the play using dramatic techniques
3. Character analysis of Romeo and Juliet
4. Clarifying the dramatic context
5. Exploring audience response to character
6. Analysing character
7. Exploring characters’ emotions and motivations
8. Empathetic writing
9. Exploration of possible interpretations
10. Analysis of character and language
11. Interpreting a character on stage
12. Review of progress

Key words

actor analysis character criticism culture director discussion

dramatist hero/heroine Interpretation playwright
Elizabethan
presentation rehearsal scenes theatre The Globe

Functional skills

Speaking and listening (Level 1/2)
Take part in formal and informal discussions/exchanges make relevant contributions to discussions, responding appropriately to others present information/points of view clearly and in appropriate language

GCSE objectives

For example:
Characters
Characterisation
Voice
Ideas
Language
Themes
Voice

English KS3 learning focuses
Character
Language
Themes and ideas
Performance

Speaking and Listening
Reading
Writing

Year: 9
Unit title: Father or Lover?
Duration: 4 weeks
WEEK 1
WEEK 2
WEEK 3
WEEK 4

1 Explore prior knowledge of Romeo and Juliet by displaying large silhouettes of male and female figures – Romeo and Juliet. Pupils use sticky notes to add to the figures anything they already know about them. Use the ideas in From the rehearsal room on page 7 to explore the Prologue. On screen or on the wall create a map of Verona showing the Montague and Capulet houses, the square, the Friar’s chapel, etc.
2 Ask different groups of pupils to read and then create a freeze-frame for each of the scenes in Act 1 and for Act 2 Scene 1. They can use the photographs and Director’s Notes as appropriate. Each group should display a key quotation (writ large) from their scene. Present those freeze frames in sequence as a summary of the play up to the balcony scene.
3 In pairs and using the guidance in From the rehearsal room on page 38, explore Romeo’s speech. Use page 42 From the rehearsal room: Pointing on pronouns to explore the Working Cut version of the lovers’ conversation. Discuss as a class how Romeo and Juliet have behaved and add quotations to their silhouettes.

4 Read Act 2 Scene 6 together where Friar Lawrence marries Romeo and Juliet. Then use the photographs and Director’s Notes to make sure that the class understand how Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths put Juliet in such a difficult situation.
5 Use the activity in From the rehearsal room: Echoing emotions and the Working Cut text on page 78 to understand how Shakespeare’s language influences an audience’s response to Juliet’s plight. Look at and discuss the Shakespeare’s World section on page 88 about arranged marriage. Read Act 3 Scene 4 together as a class and talk about what the plan to marry her to Paris will mean for Juliet.
6 Use the activity in From the rehearsal room: Tactics and the Working Cut text on page 90 to explore the feelings of Romeo and Juliet. Add comments and quotations to their silhouettes.

7 In groups use the activity in From the rehearsal room: Juliet and Capulet and the Working Cut text on page 94 to engage with the emotions behind this father/daughter confrontation. Talk about how pupils feel their parents/carers might react in a comparable situation.
8 As a class discuss and prepare a plan for an eye-witness account by the Nurse. The teacher might model the opening paragraph, emphasising the need to draw on textual evidence. Pupils could write their account for homework.
9 Review the writing about the father/daughter scene. Use the pictures on pages 94 and 96 as the starting point for exploring some of the different ways a director might choose to present the scene on stage. Add to Juliet’s silhouette and discuss whether Capulet deserves any sympathy from the audience.

10 Look together at the photograph of the Friar on page 106 and read lines 66–125 of Act 4 Scene 1. Look at the sequence of photographs along with the Director’s Notes 4.1–4.5. This should enable pupils to understand what has happened prior to Juliet’s awakening in the tomb alongside Romeo’s dead body.
11 Read Juliet’s dying speech together (Act 5 Scene 3 lines 160–5, page 129). Add to the silhouette of Juliet before modelling for pupils how to write advice for an actor playing Romeo in Act 5 Scene 3. Ask them to write the advice they would give to an actor playing either Juliet or Capulet her father.
12 Share and compare the advice to actors. Finish with individual and whole class review of what has been learned throughout the unit.

Assessment opportunities in this unit:
Use of questions about character when building the roles-on-the-wall and in plenaries.

Insights and capacity for dramatic engagement shown in group work on freeze frames.

Use of questions about plot development to reveal understanding of the dramatic situation.

Capacity to understand and engage with complex Shakespearean language apparent through discussion.

Insight into character visible through comments on Romeo and Juliet and choice of quotation for silhouettes..
Capacity for empathy and dramatic understanding evident in discussion during work on From the rehearsal room: Juliet and Capulet and the Working Cut text.

Ability to write from a character’s perspective apparent in Nurse’s diary piece. Writing shows level of personal response drawing on textual evidence.

Understanding of the possibility for multiple interpretations shows in discussions of direction.

Capacity for linguistic and dramatic understanding evident in discussion during work on From the rehearsal room: Power words and the Working Cut text.

The advice to an actor shows level of personal response drawing on textual evidence.

Evaluating class progress against unit intentions through plenary discussion.

Using Shakespeare progression sheets to track individual progress.

Year: GCSE
Unit title: The presentation of conflict in Romeo and Juliet
Duration: 4 weeks Intentions for this unit:
To enable students to build on their previous experiences of Shakespeare as a playwright and of Romeo and Juliet as a play
To help students evaluate the effect of Shakespeare’s language and dramatic techniques through different dramatic approaches and conventions
To support students in developing and expressing personal and critical responses to characters, themes and ideas in controlled assessment as specified by different awarding bodies
To link Romeo and Juliet link with other texts from the English Literary Heritage if required by an awarding body

Assessing learning prior to this unit:
What experiences have students had of exploring Shakespeare and writing critically about his techniques as a dramatist?
What prior knowledge and experience of Romeo and Juliet do students have?

Overview of 12 lesson unit:

Key concepts

Creativity: a - Making fresh connections between ideas, experiences, texts and words

Competence: e - Making informed choices about effective ways to communicate formally and informally.

Cultural understanding: a - Deepening their sense of the English literary heritage by engaging with an important text from a different chronological context.

Focus

1 Sharing responses to Shakespeare and the Globe, and knowledge of the play
2 Fight as an aspect of conflict
3 An ancient grudge, and its consequences – scene summaries in groups
4 Exploring the structure of a scene and Placing the author: Shakespeare at the ball
5 Montagues vs Capulets: planning and writing a critical essay
6 Juliet’s conflicting emotions
7 Romeo’s situation and the feelings of the lovers
8 Capulet’s confrontation with Juliet
9 Juliet’s temporary death
10 Romeo’s and Juliet’s dying moments
11 A Director’s perspective
12 Self assessment and assignment writing

Learning objectives

1 Assessing prior learning about Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet
2 Exploring the language of conflict and of Shakespeare as a playwright
3 Analysing language and understanding plot development
4 Analysing of authorial intention
5 Writing about the dramatic presentation of the family conflict
6 Exploring the dramatic presentation of internal conflict
7 Exploring character
8 Analysing the characters of Juliet and her parents
9 Further analysis of Juliet’s mood and character
10 Analysing how Romeo & Juliet are presented in their dying moments
11 Exploring how a Director might present the scene
12 Reviewing progress and writing of GCSE assignment
Key words

Actor analysis author character complexity contemporary culture director discussion

dramatist hero/ heroine implication infer insight interpretation linguistic literary playwright Elizabethan presentation rehearsal theatre The Globe

Functional skills

Speaking and listening (Level 1/2)
Take part in formal and informal discussions/exchanges make relevant contributions to discussions, responding appropriately to others present information/points of view clearly and in appropriate language

Ways to link Romeo and Juliet with other texts
(depending upon Awarding Body requirements)

Texts linked with Shakespeare; e.g. other plays or poems by Shakespeare e.g. Much Ado, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Sonnet 18
Texts linked through use of language; e.g. drama or poetry
Texts linked through characters; e.g. My Last Duchess, Lord of the Flies, The Mayor of Casterbridge or The Crucible
Texts linked through form; e.g. plays
Texts linked through time; e.g. poems or plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries such as Donne or Marlowe
Texts linked through opening or closing scenes; e.g. Great Expectations
Texts linked through a focus on a particular moment of high emotion; e.g. the death of Nancy in Oliver Twist
Texts linked through themes such as evil; e.g. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

GCSE objectives

For example:
Respond with detailed reference to the text
Analyse language, structure & form
Take account of context
Link with other texts

Assessment areas

For example:
Characters
Characterisation
Voice
Ideas
Language
Themes
Voice

Year: GCSE
Unit title:
The presentation of conflict in Romeo and Juliet
Duration: 4 weeks

WEEK 1
(1) Explore prior knowledge of Shakespeare by asking for a ‘tweet’ of up to 140 letters which they might post on hearing that their next few English lessons were on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Exchange ‘tweets’ in groups and sample them as a class. Then discuss page 3 which shows the Globe as a theatre and use ideas in From the rehearsal room on page 7 to explore the Prologue.
Refer to the Examiner’s Notes and Personal Tutor to explain the essential skills needed for GCSE and how the Shakespeare unit will be assessed by your awarding body.
(2)Look at and talk about the photographs on pages 8 and 10 of 2004 and 2009 Globe productions. Allocate characters and have an unrehearsed reading of lines 1–67 of Act 1 Scene 1.Does the fight remind them of any real or fictional confrontations? Which words are intended to be the most hurtful? Draw a large outline portrait of Shakespeare and ask students to add post-its with anything they know or think about Shakespeare. Over time add ideas and quotations about language, staging and the theme of conflict in Romeo and Juliet.

(3)Focus on the language of the Prince (lines 74–96) through using the suggestions in From the rehearsal room: Ancient grudge on page 10.
Students then work in groups, using the text, photographs and Director’s Notes as appropriate to work out what happens between the Prince’s speech and the Capulet ball. Each group has to choose three important quotations and compare its understanding with that of another group.

WEEK 2
4) Use the From the rehearsal room: Clues in the Punctuation (page 30) to explore the tensions when Tybalt recognises Romeo at the ball. Analyse the way the scene develops using From the rehearsal room: The structure of the scene (page 32) and the Working cut text. Allocate characters and have students take up the positions they might occupy on stage. Then ask them where the teacher, as Shakespeare, should stand in relation to characters and audience, and why. This could also be a paper activity with cut outs of the characters being moved about on the backdrop of The Globe stage and the pupils working in groups to discuss possibilities.

(5) Set the writing task:
How does Shakespeare present the conflict between Capulets and Montagues in Act 1? Discuss ideas and model how to plan such a piece of writing. The teacher might model an opening paragraph, emphasising the need to draw on textual evidence and to focus on the author rather than the characters.

(6) In pairs, use From the rehearsal room: Magnets along with the Working Cut text on page 46. Then look at the Director’s Note for 2.2 and the photograph on page 60 of Romeo and Juliet kissing to frame a discussion of the lovers’ feelings at this stage in the play. Explore Juliet’s conflict of emotions by working in pairs on From the rehearsal room: Echoing emotions along with the Working Cut text on page 78. WEEK 3
(7) Use the pictures on pages 82 and 84, plus Director’s Note 3.3 to focus on Romeo’s feelings and situation. Then move to exploration of the conflicting emotions of the lovers via From the rehearsal room: Tactics and the Working Cut text on page 90.

(8) Review the writing about the conflict between Capulets and Montagues in relation to the criteria for GCSE assessment. Then use the pair activity in From the rehearsal room: Juliet and Capulet on page 94 and the Working Cut text to explore Juliet’s internal conflict because her loyalties are divided during the confrontation with her father.

(9) Follow the suggestions in From the rehearsal room: Power words on page 110 and the Working Cut text to explore how Juliet is feeling as she drinks the potion. Then look at and talk through the sequence of photographs and Director’s Notes between Act 4 Scene 4 and Act 5 Scene 2 so that students understand Romeo’s situation.

WEEK 4
(10) Use From the rehearsal room: Monologue as duologue on page 126 to explore Romeo’s state of mind as he drinks the poison. Then read Juliet’s dying speech as a class (Act 5 Scene 3 lines 160–5.)

(11) Give students an insight into the directorial perspective by using From the rehearsal room: Shakespeare and the director. Then discuss the final photographs and in groups try From the rehearsal room: Punished and pardoned and the Working Cut text on page 134.

(12) Individual and whole class review of what has been learned throughout the unit. Discuss how to plan and write the controlled assessment title students will be doing; e.g. for Tier f: Choose any two scenes and explore how Shakespeare presents the conflict between Capulets and Montagues.
For Tier h: Choose any two scenes and analyse how Shakespeare uses language to show the conflict of feelings within Juliet.

Controlled Assessment outcomes
The requirements of different awarding bodies will determine which specific assessment opportunities are appropriate, but there is ample opportunity to assess speaking and listening through observation of discussion and through the dramatisations.

For some Awarding Bodies there is a requirement to link a Shakespeare with another text. There is growing evidence that the more precise the link between a Shakespeare play and related text(s) the easier it is for students to meet the Assessment Criteria. Generalised comments and comparisons gain fewer marks than detailed exploration of specific aspects of texts.
A link between texts based on content, which tempts candidates into story-telling, is often less effective than a link based on the writers’ techniques.
Any linked text needs to be appropriate in terms of the English literary heritage if this is an Awarding Body requirement.