English and drama sessions in Year 10 at Lansdowne School have been focussing on understanding the main points in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Each class member has prepared a character file on Romeo.
We have asked the pupils to look for evidence by examining some of the things that Romeo says, some of the words that others speak about him and some of the actions that he carries out.
This character profile was then used to produce a piece of written work. One group of pupils was asked to write three paragraphs on Romeo, adding in some quotes as evidence to back up the character description. Another group of learners wrote three compound sentences on the character.
The practical element to this learning took place during the follow up Year 10 drama session. The students have been looking at Act 3, Scene 1 from Romeo and Juliet. Some of the original Shakespeare text has been kept in our scripts. The students were asked first to explain what some of the words and sentences might mean.
The motivations of the characters involved was also considered. The character files were referred to so that the actors could consider the motivations of their character. Plenty of expressions were added to the acting, as you can see from the video above.