EXAMPLES OF ACTIVE APPROACHES
Romeo and JulietKey Stage 2
Joe Winston and Miles Tandy
The example below is the final part of a one-hour scheme of work to introduce Romeo and Juliet to a Year 6 class. For the rest of the scheme of work, please see Beginning Drama 4 -11, Second Edition by Joe Winston and Miles Tandy (www.routledgeeducation.com/books/teachers)
Drama and Literacy: Example 3: Romeo and Juliet (Year 6)
The framework suggests the range for Year 6 Term 1 should include: 'where appropriate, the study of a Shakespeare play'. With children of this age, it is unlikely you would expect them to read every word of a play, but they can certainly enjoy exploring short extracts of Shakespeare's language, especially when these are placed within the context of a whole story.
Divide the class into eight groups and assign each the task of making a still image with one of the following titles:
1. A formal dance
2. A beautiful face at the window
3. A secret wedding
4. A sword fight in which two men are slain
5. Pleading for life
6. Banished forever
7. Ordered to marry
8. Planning in secret
Having learned the outline of the plot, you can use the children's still images to help tell the story.
Once they know the story, ask two children to represent the figures of the dead Romeo and Juliet. Then invite each of them to join the image in some way which represents their attitude or feeling about the story that have just heard: they may stand by the lovers but turn away; they may kneel as if in prayer; they may just hang their heads in sorrow. In this way, you can assemble a whole-class still image as a final tableau in the story. Over this image, you can read the last lines of Romeo and Juliet by the Prince:
PRINCE: A glooming peace this morning with it brings.The sun, for sorrow show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished;
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
