The Tempest Unit of Work

The Tempest is a 192-slide PowerPoint-based unit of work with a 22-page booklet of accompanying worksheets. The resource contains a series of engaging lessons designed to develop knowledge and understanding of the play’s context, plot, characters, themes and language. The unit is designed for Year 9 but can be used at GCSE too. It covers a range of activities for pupils of all abilities, such as:

• How to approach Shakespeare (tips for reading Shakespeare’s language and understanding unfamiliar vocabulary)

• Analysing the characters in The Tempest - Prospero, Miranda, Ariel, Caliban, Ferdinand, Antonio and Sebastian

• Understanding the play’s plot and subplots

• Examining Shakespeare’s use of language and poetic imagery

• Exploring the play’s themes - order and disorder, power and control, colonisation, slavery and freedom, redemption and forgiveness

• Getting to grips with the historical and social context of the early 1600s (attitudes to foreign countries and colonisation)

• Understanding Shakespeare’s creation and resolution of conflict and order

• Varied lessons - comprehension questions, spoken English tasks, extension activities, etc

• Learning how to write an essay-like answer about a Shakespeare text

• Use of video to help the learning of key scenes and characters

Not quite what you’re looking for? Click below for more GCSE English Literature drama resources:

An Inspector Calls
Blood Brothers
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
The History Boys
The Merchant of Venice