What Have I Learnt Post Teaching Shakespeare: Part 2!

Following on from my musings detailed on my previous post (What Have I Learnt Post Teaching Shakespeare), which can be found here, I decided to create a second post specifically pin-pointed at teaching Romeo and Juliet to a middle ability set.

Having read an excellent chapter on teaching Shakespeare from Trevor Wright (How To Be A Brilliant English Teacher) Wright states that you should by no means give away the ending of the play to students, as it allows them to engage with the plot and come back to lessons wanting to learn more, and find out what happens. However, with Romeo and Juliet this kind of goes out of the window as the first speech you read gives the game away, plus almost all students in the world know the ending from watching the film, or from previous study. This then begs us to ask the question: what can I do to engage them? 

Engagement Tips: 

Some things I found that helped me with a middle set year 9 are detailed below;

• Character comparisons: I found students really responded well comparing characters from the story with well-known celebrity figures around today. For example, the two star-crossed lovers could be compared to Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez, obviously not as gory but both young and torn apart by the issue of fame and constant media scrutiny. The list could go on. Comment on some you can think of below! 
• Drama, drama, drama: With very important scenes, for example Act 3 Scene 1, Tybalt's death, I took the students to the drama studio after reading and got them in groups to act it out! It really helped them engage with the material and feel the tension and conflict within the scene. 
• Contextual Clues: Information around status and power really worked well, such as characters of lower importance spoke in prose, and higher importance characters spoke in verse. Also, ideas around marriage and gender inequality got some really heated debates going on from the students, all of which contributed to their learning. 
• Critical Analysis: Offer students critical interpretations from scholars, this really widens their views on literature and helps them see where they could take their analysis. It also promotes a culture of excellence and adopts an ethos of high expectations from them. It can also boost their own self-esteem, I would just recommend you break it down into chunks that are understandable for them. 
• Non-Fiction Writing; Take the story of Romeo and Juliet, it has so many layers of events and meaning that can be transferred to non-fiction writing. For example, a newspaper article on the death of Tybalt, Spotted at Capulet's ball article to be written in the form of a report, diary entries, speeches and the list goes on! 

Hopefully you can use some of these strategies in your lessons, let me know how they work in the comments below!