Romeo and Juliet Activity Bundle - Creative Activities & Assignments Shakespeare
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Romeo and Juliet Activity Bundle - Creative Activities and Assignments includes 14 fun and engaging activities and assignments to help students respond to Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Help your students form connections and analyze the play with these high-interest activities and assignments. The activities were created to allow students to form text connections, analyze characters, understand the plot, and immerse themselves in the text.
Included in the Romeo and Juliet Activity Bundle:
Introducing the Family Feuds: Montagues vs. Capulets
➡️ Family Feuds Resources: Using the long-standing conflict between the Montagues and Capulet families as inspiration, you will divide your class into two houses: The Montagues and the Capulets. After each act, the “families” will participate in activities where they have the opportunity to get points for their house in competition for a prize of the teacher’s choosing. If you choose to use this optional framework for the unit, there is an included slideshow that introduces the Family Feuds. There are also slides with poems and instructions that can be used before each act to hook students into the specific challenges. There is also a tally sheet you can use to keep track of the points after each activity and a family-crest-making activity that students can complete to build team and family pride. This is optional in the unit.
Pre-Reading / Prologue
➡️ The Perfect Partner: In this assignment, students are prompted to contemplate their ideal life partner and contrast it with the hypothetical partner their parents might select for them. This thought-provoking exercise is designed to pique students' interest in Shakespeare's tragic tale, fostering discussion and setting the stage for a deeper exploration of the play's themes and characters.
➡️ Prologue Paraphrase: Students will take a step back in time and reimagine the iconic prologue of the play in modern English with a ready-to-use, eye-catching graphic organizer that includes the original text and a space for students to rewrite a modern translation.
Act 1
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare Insult Battle: Students will delve into Act 1 to decode and modernize the insults, gaining insights into how Shakespeare crafted his cutting words. The highlight of the day? A spirited classroom duel between Montagues and Capulets, where students can unleash their newfound wit in a friendly war of words. This Romeo and Juliet activity promises to engage even the most reluctant learners and equip them with a playful understanding of Shakespeare's language.
Act 2
➡️ Star-Crossed Texting: In this activity, students will reimagine the classic balcony scene exchange between Romeo and Juliet using the format of text messaging. By drawing on the play's original text evidence, they'll craft a modern text dialogue between the star-crossed lovers for the digital age.
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Classroom Wedding: In the play, the young lovers' wedding is an intimate and secret affair, hidden from the prying eyes of their feuding families. With this ready-to-use activity, students will imagine a Verona where their union was a public celebration attended by various characters from the play. After gaining some context on wedding speeches, students will write and present wedding speeches of their own from the perspective of various characters in the play at an immersive classroom wedding.
Act 3
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Sonnet Slam: Engage your students in a poetry slam by teaching them Shakespearean sonnet writing and applying it to the play with the included assignments, handouts, and graphic organizers. With instruction on iambic pentameter, rhyme scheme, and what to include in each of the quatrains and final couplet, students will be absolutely prepared to start writing their poems about Romeo and Juliet
Act 4
➡️ Juliet Soliloquy Mystery Word: Students will analyze Juliet's soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 3, just before she drinks the fateful potion. They will then respond to a series of multiple-choice analysis questions that will test their comprehension and critical thinking. When they have all the answers correct, they will decipher the letters associated with the correct answers to reveal a mystery word related to the scene!
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Social Media Page: This assignment is ready-to-use! Students will create a "Fakebook" social media page based on a Romeo or Juliet from Shakespeare's play. Students will enjoy considering the character's physical appearance, thoughts, personality, and relationship with other characters. It also looks great on display in your class or the hallway!
Act 5
➡️ Romeo's Red Flags Character Assignment: A red flag is a warning sign of concerning behavior or characteristics that may indicate potential issues or problems in a relationship. Although Romeo is often hailed as a romantic figure, this resource invites students to explore a different facet of his character. Students will delve into the red flags that emerge throughout the story about Romeo and decide if they would recommend him as a potential partner for someone they know!
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Symbolism Assignment: Students will turn to the play to form a conclusion about what prevalent symbols like roses, stars, masks, fire and more mean represent in the text. They will also provide text evidence in the form of a quote to support their choice. This assignment also comes with a detailed answer key that will allow for easy class review or grading.
➡️ Friar Lawrence Mock Trial: This ready-to-use activity engages students in a classroom mock trial to find a verdict as to whether or not Friar Lawrence should be held responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. After learning context about the courtroom trial students will participate in a classroom mock trial to defend or prosecute Friar Lawrence. This resource has absolutely everything you need to facilitate the mock trial so all your students are engaged.
Post-Reading
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Plot Calendar Activity: What's truly remarkable about this play is that despite its wealth of events, the entire story unfolds within an astonishingly brief five-day period. Students will move small paper strips with key plot moments from Romeo and Juliet in order to their correct days. Once they have accurately sequenced the events, a mystery phrase from the play will be revealed! This alternative to the plot diagram assignment will hook your students and allow them to fully understand the events of the plot.
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Newspaper Final Project: Students will be given the opportunity to create a newspaper called "The Verona Times", in which they act as journalists living in Romeo and Juliet's world. This project is an excellent final assessment for a unit on the play with the bonus of exposing students to some of the skills and terms used in journalism.
Included in the Romeo and Juliet Activity Bundle:
Introducing the Family Feuds: Montagues vs. Capulets
➡️ Family Feuds Resources: Using the long-standing conflict between the Montagues and Capulet families as inspiration, you will divide your class into two houses: The Montagues and the Capulets. After each act, the “families” will participate in activities where they have the opportunity to get points for their house in competition for a prize of the teacher’s choosing. If you choose to use this optional framework for the unit, there is an included slideshow that introduces the Family Feuds. There are also slides with poems and instructions that can be used before each act to hook students into the specific challenges. There is also a tally sheet you can use to keep track of the points after each activity and a family-crest-making activity that students can complete to build team and family pride. This is optional in the unit.
Pre-Reading / Prologue
➡️ The Perfect Partner: In this assignment, students are prompted to contemplate their ideal life partner and contrast it with the hypothetical partner their parents might select for them. This thought-provoking exercise is designed to pique students' interest in Shakespeare's tragic tale, fostering discussion and setting the stage for a deeper exploration of the play's themes and characters.
➡️ Prologue Paraphrase: Students will take a step back in time and reimagine the iconic prologue of the play in modern English with a ready-to-use, eye-catching graphic organizer that includes the original text and a space for students to rewrite a modern translation.
Act 1
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare Insult Battle: Students will delve into Act 1 to decode and modernize the insults, gaining insights into how Shakespeare crafted his cutting words. The highlight of the day? A spirited classroom duel between Montagues and Capulets, where students can unleash their newfound wit in a friendly war of words. This Romeo and Juliet activity promises to engage even the most reluctant learners and equip them with a playful understanding of Shakespeare's language.
Act 2
➡️ Star-Crossed Texting: In this activity, students will reimagine the classic balcony scene exchange between Romeo and Juliet using the format of text messaging. By drawing on the play's original text evidence, they'll craft a modern text dialogue between the star-crossed lovers for the digital age.
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Classroom Wedding: In the play, the young lovers' wedding is an intimate and secret affair, hidden from the prying eyes of their feuding families. With this ready-to-use activity, students will imagine a Verona where their union was a public celebration attended by various characters from the play. After gaining some context on wedding speeches, students will write and present wedding speeches of their own from the perspective of various characters in the play at an immersive classroom wedding.
Act 3
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Sonnet Slam: Engage your students in a poetry slam by teaching them Shakespearean sonnet writing and applying it to the play with the included assignments, handouts, and graphic organizers. With instruction on iambic pentameter, rhyme scheme, and what to include in each of the quatrains and final couplet, students will be absolutely prepared to start writing their poems about Romeo and Juliet
Act 4
➡️ Juliet Soliloquy Mystery Word: Students will analyze Juliet's soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 3, just before she drinks the fateful potion. They will then respond to a series of multiple-choice analysis questions that will test their comprehension and critical thinking. When they have all the answers correct, they will decipher the letters associated with the correct answers to reveal a mystery word related to the scene!
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Social Media Page: This assignment is ready-to-use! Students will create a "Fakebook" social media page based on a Romeo or Juliet from Shakespeare's play. Students will enjoy considering the character's physical appearance, thoughts, personality, and relationship with other characters. It also looks great on display in your class or the hallway!
Act 5
➡️ Romeo's Red Flags Character Assignment: A red flag is a warning sign of concerning behavior or characteristics that may indicate potential issues or problems in a relationship. Although Romeo is often hailed as a romantic figure, this resource invites students to explore a different facet of his character. Students will delve into the red flags that emerge throughout the story about Romeo and decide if they would recommend him as a potential partner for someone they know!
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Symbolism Assignment: Students will turn to the play to form a conclusion about what prevalent symbols like roses, stars, masks, fire and more mean represent in the text. They will also provide text evidence in the form of a quote to support their choice. This assignment also comes with a detailed answer key that will allow for easy class review or grading.
➡️ Friar Lawrence Mock Trial: This ready-to-use activity engages students in a classroom mock trial to find a verdict as to whether or not Friar Lawrence should be held responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. After learning context about the courtroom trial students will participate in a classroom mock trial to defend or prosecute Friar Lawrence. This resource has absolutely everything you need to facilitate the mock trial so all your students are engaged.
Post-Reading
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Plot Calendar Activity: What's truly remarkable about this play is that despite its wealth of events, the entire story unfolds within an astonishingly brief five-day period. Students will move small paper strips with key plot moments from Romeo and Juliet in order to their correct days. Once they have accurately sequenced the events, a mystery phrase from the play will be revealed! This alternative to the plot diagram assignment will hook your students and allow them to fully understand the events of the plot.
➡️ Romeo and Juliet Newspaper Final Project: Students will be given the opportunity to create a newspaper called "The Verona Times", in which they act as journalists living in Romeo and Juliet's world. This project is an excellent final assessment for a unit on the play with the bonus of exposing students to some of the skills and terms used in journalism.
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