The Merchant of Venice - Act 4 Scene 1 - The Courtroom Scene!

This engaging and informative lesson enables students to make clear, detailed and well-informed interpretations of Act IV Scene I of The Merchant of Venice. In particular, students develop their understanding of the key events/ implications of the scene, identify and analyse the language devices used by Shakespeare within key quotations from the scene, and consider the effect of these choices on Shakespearean audiences.

The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which children learn through:
Engage with an artist’s impression of the courtroom scene, honing their skills of inference and deduction;
Reading and comprehending the main events and meanings in the courtroom scene;
Identifying and analysing Shakespeare’s use of language through examples of Portia and Shylock lines in the scene;
Considering Shakespeare’s intentions and the Shakespearean audiences reactions to the scene;
Self assessing their learning through the lesson;

Included is:
Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and comprehensive;
Language devices cards for the card-sorting activity;
Key quotations cards;
Copy of Act IV Scene I;
Shakespeare’s Intentions/ Audience Reactions template;
Comprehensive lesson plan.

Resources are provided in PDF (to maintain formatting), Word (so that they are easily editable) and also in zipfiles.

The lesson contains opportunities for group learning, speaking and listening, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. I originally used these resources with year 10 and 11 classes, however colleagues have used them for between year 9 and year 13 with some adaptations.

All images are licensed for commercial use, and image rights are listed on the last page of the presentation.