Romeo and Juliet for kids

It is one of a series of lesson plans to accompany the short animated videos of six of Shakespeare's plays on LearnEnglish Kids.

Introduction

In this lesson plan, which can be delivered as one long lesson or as shorter segments over three lessons, learners will be introduced to the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet through a short animated video. They will watch the video and complete comprehension activities, and then will be guided to think about and discuss the idea of 'family feuds' from the play. Finally learners will develop their speaking skills by role playing a situation where two friends have argued.

Learning outcomes

• Use watching and understanding a short video based on the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet.
• Practise comprehension and speaking skills by discussing ideas from the play.
• Practise speaking skills through a personalised speaking activity based on an element from the play.

Age

9–12 years (CEFR B1)

Time

120 minutes. This plan could be used in three parts.

Materials

• Lesson plan
• The Romeo and Juliet video, worksheet and other materials can be accessed here: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/romeo-and-juliet

Part one (40 minutes)

Warmer (10 minutes)

• Give an example of a time you had an argument with someone and how it ended. Or use the example from a friend or colleague.
• Ask your learners if they have ever had an argument with a friend, classmate or neighbour. What was it about? Did they make up?

Prediction (10 minutes)

• Tell the learners that they are going to watch a video called Romeo and Juliet, which is a story about a feud (a long, ongoing argument) between two families. 
•  Give learners the video worksheet and ask them to match the words and pictures (exercise 1). Check answers as a class. Ask learners to make some predictions about the video based on the words. 

While watching (10 minutes)

• Play the video and ask learners to match the characters and their names as they watch (exercise 2). 
•  Ask them to compare in pairs and then check as a class. 

Post watching (10 minutes)

• Now ask learners to try to order the sentences (exercise 3). Tell them it doesn’t matter if they can’t remember everything, because they will watch the video again. 
• Play the video again and learners check their answers to exercise 3. 
• Ask them to compare in pairs, then go through as a class. 
• At this stage, you might like to ask learners additional questions to help clarify their understanding or ask them to say which of their earlier predictions were correct. Alternatively, play the video again and ask learners to circle true or false (exercise 4) as they watch. Fast finishers can try to correct the false sentences.
• Ask learners if they liked the story and why. Did they think it was funny, interesting, happy/sad, etc.?
  Note: If your learners need more support understanding the video, you might like to adapt the transcript of the video and get learners to act it out.

Part two (35 minutes)

Discuss ideas from the play (10 mins)

• One of the ideas in Romeo and Juliet is ‘family feuds’. The depth to which you discuss the ideas and questions in this stage will depend on your learners’ age and maturity, and you may need to provide more or less support.
•  Ask your learners if they think it was a happy ending and why. Elicit that it was sad for Romeo and Juliet, but also positive because the two families ended their feud. 

Language of cause and effect (15 minutes)

• Tell the class they will review the story
• Prompt this with the following consequences sentences, i.e.:
  1.    Because of the family feud, Tybalt is angry when he sees Romeo with Juliet. 
  2.    Because Tybalt is angry, he kills Mercutio. 
• Write ‘Because Tybalt kills Mercutio’. Elicit the end of the sentence: Romeo kills Tybalt.
• Write ‘Because Romeo kills Tybalt’. Ask learners to discuss the end of the sentence before getting whole class feedback (he is sent away.) 
• Continue this sequence with the rest of the review sentences:
  1.    Because Romeo is sent away, Juliet makes a plan but Romeo doesn’t find out about it.
  3.    Because Romeo doesn’t find out about it, he thinks Juliet is dead and kills himself. 
  4.    Because Romeo is dead, Juliet kills herself. 
  5.    Because Romeo and Juliet are dead, the families end their feud.

Note: Learners may express the same ideas using different language, so accept any viable ideas. 

Discussion (10 minutes)

• Ask your learners what happens each time someone retaliates – does it make the situation better or worse? Is it better to retaliate or try to forgive people?
•  Ask learners to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups before leading a whole group discussion.

Part three (45 minutes)

Brainstorming (10 minutes)

• Ask your learners to imagine a situation where two friends or classmates have done something bad to each other. For example, one friend told another friend’s secret, so the other friend also tells a secret, or one classmate copied another classmate’s work, so the other classmate draws on their book. 
• Brainstorm ideas on the board. 
• Circle or underline 3 of the situations.

Dialogue writing and role play (20 mins)

• Elicit a few things people might say in those situations (It’s your fault, I didn’t do that, etc.)
• Put learners in pairs and ask them to select one situation from the 3 you’ve highlighted. 
• Pairs should imagine what happened in that situation and write a dialogue together between two people in their notebooks. They need to explain to each other why they did what they did and how they were feeling and decide whether to apologise and forgive each other.
• Monitor and support

Role play (15 minutes)

• Tell learners they are going to role play the situation. Explain that during the role play they can add to the script. They take turns with each role.
• Fast finishers can play another role.
• Ask learners what happened in the end. Did they forgive each other?
•  Ask some pairs to perform their role play to the whole class.

Further activities and useful links

• Extend your learners’ work with Romeo and Juliet: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/shakespeare-extension-activities-kids
•  BBC KS2 English, Romeo and Juliet: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/articles/zhm8239