Romeo and Juliet - the world's favourite love story

Introduction:

This lesson is about the popular and tragic Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. Students find out about the characters and the plot and end the lesson by discussing some of the themes and issues raised by the play.

Learning outcomes:

• Develop students’ ability to read for general and specific information 
• Practice of talking about and discussing topics relating to Romeo and Juliet 
• Identify motivations of characters in Romeo and Juliet 
• Predict themes in Romeo and Juliet from prompts

Age and level: 

Aged 13-17 and Adult (CEF B2)

Time: 

60-75 minutes

Materials:

The following materials can be downloaded below:

• Lesson plan
• Presentation
• Worksheet 1 - Pre-reading activities
• Worksheet 2 - Reading

Warmer: Impossible love (10 minutes)

• The first part of this lesson is designed to get learners to become familiar with the plot of Romeo and Juliet by putting them in the shoes of Romeo and of Juliet themselves. 
• Put learners into pairs. 
• Show slide 2 or give out the student worksheet. Ask learners to read the question (warmer on the worksheet) and discuss their answers together. 
• Then they read the plot summary either on the worksheet or slide 3. 
• Ask learners how they feel about the plot. Is there anything that they find surprising?

Alternative warmer (10 minutes)

• You could show the trailer from the film if appropriate: https://youtu.be/4VBsi0VxiLg?si=TLGDwEzZTSYL8kOL. 
• Ask learners to watch the trailer, and then tell you what the play will be about. 
• Learners read the plot summary on the worksheet or slide 3 to check their ideas.

Task 1: The main characters in Romeo and Juliet (10 minutes)

• Show slide 4 or refer to Task 1 on the worksheet. Students can put the sentences into the correct order in pairs or individually before feeding back the answers as a class. 
• Answers (also on slide 5): 

1. Romeo is a young Montague man who is distracted by love. 
2. Juliet is a Capulet girl who falls in love with the wrong person. 
3. Mercutio is Romeo’s friend. He is killed by the Capulets. 
4. Friar Lawrence is a priest who marries Romeo and Juliet in secret. 
5. Count Paris wants to marry Juliet but she doesn’t love him. 
6. The Montagues are at war with the Capulets. 
7. The Capulets don’t want Juliet to marry a Montague boy.

Task 2: Props and themes in Romeo and Juliet (15 mins)

• Ask learners to look at task 2 on their worksheet or slide 6. 
• Learners individually match the objects and descriptions in box.
• They check answers in pairs. Then elicit the answers. 
• Answers: 1.d 2.c 3.b 4.e 5.h 6.a 7.f 8.g 9. I 
• Ask learners to discuss in pairs how each object might be used in the play. After a few minutes, elicit ideas from the groups. 
• If students don’t have many ideas, you could do this section after they have read the plot synopsis in Task 4.

Task 3: Prediction (5 minutes)

• Learners can continue to work in pairs or join two pairs to make a group of 4. Display slide 7 or give out the cut ups in Appendix 1. 
• If students know a bit about Romeo and Juliet, then they can put the sentences in order before they read the plot synopsis. If not, then get students to read through the sentences making sure that they understand the vocab. 
• Tell learners that the first sentence is h. They can then work together to sort the rest of sentences into the correct order before feeding back the answers the class as a whole. 
• Elicit the students’ suggestions as to the likely order; however, it is better not to give the answers at this stage, as students will find them in Task 4.

Task 4: Reading and sequencing the main events (10 minutes)

• Give out Worksheet 2. Ask the students to read the text and check their answers. 
• Conduct feedback. 
• Answers to Task 3) 1. h 2. g 3. a 4. i 5. b 6. f 7. d 8. c

Task 5: Understanding the characters’ motivations (10 minutes)

• Start by pre-teaching the word ‘motivation’. OUP Dictionary definition: the reason why somebody does something or behaves in a particular way. /ˌməʊtɪˈveɪʃn/ 
• Explain to learners that they are going to read the text again and discuss the possible motivations for some of the characters’ actions.
• Display slide 8 or dictate the following questions: 

1. Why does the Prince of Verona order all the fighting between the Montagues and Capulets to stop? 
2. Why does Romeo sneak into the ball? 
3. Why don’t the Capulets kill Romeo when they discover him at their party? 
4. Why does Friar Lawrence agree marry Romeo and Juliet? 
5. Why does Juliet want to leave Verona? 
6. Why does Juliet take a drug to make it look as if she is dead? 
7. Why does Romeo kill himself? 
8. Why does Juliet kill herself? 

• Get the learners to discuss their answers in groups before giving feedback. 
• Note: See Appendix 2 of the lesson plan for the answers

Extension: Discussion (15 mins)

• Either display slide 9 or write the discussion questions on the board: 

1. ‘Romeo and Juliet were stupid kids; they shouldn’t have fallen in love with each other because they knew it was wrong.’ Do you agree with this? 
2. Would you have acted differently if you were Romeo or Juliet? 
3. Do you think modern audiences would like watching Romeo and Juliet? Does the play have anything to say in the modern world? 
4. Do you think love is more important than anything else? 

• In pairs or small groups (perhaps different from in the previous tasks), ask students to discuss the questions. 
• Get students to summarise their ideas to the class and develop any interesting topics of conversation that spring from these discussions. 
• There may be some interesting ideas on duty to your family, being free to marry who you want or war and conflict.