Much Ado About Nothing - Beatrice and Benedick!

This engaging, in-depth lesson enables students to understand how plot and language are utilised to develop the characters of Beatrice and Benedick in William Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado about Nothing.’

The lesson places a particular focus upon how language is used between the two characters to present the audience with ideas about their intelligence, attitudes, and emotions. Students also analyse how their behaviour develops over the course of the text.

The lesson follows a step-by-step learning journey, in which students learn through:
- Taking part in a fun team quiz to secure understanding of the two characters;
- Completing a 'love graph' (backed up with textual evidence) to show how the prevailing attitudes and emotions of the two characters develops through the text;
- Analysing quotations in which Shakespeare used advanced language techniques to portray both of the characters in a particular light;
- Completing an essay style response in which they consider how Shakespeare's use of language helps to develop the two characters;
- Peer assessing each other's learning attempts.

Included is:
- Whole lesson PowerPoint - colourful and detailed - just download and teach from it!
- Love Graph - to track the two characters' feelings towards one another;
- 'Beatrice and Benedick Quotations' worksheet;
- Analysis template with success criteria for creating well-structured responses;
- Comprehensive lesson plan.

There are also opportunities for group learning, peer assessment, and whole class discussion. This was originally taught to higher-ability year 9 and 10 groups, but can easily be differentiated for groups of different ages and abilities.