Much Ado About Nothing - complete 20-lesson scheme of work for Y9 / Y10

This is a 20-lesson scheme of work that I devised for Year 9 and Year 10 students. It includes powerpoints for every lesson, resources, homework and differentiation, as well as interim and final assessments.

I’ve also included some ‘use-anywhere’ extra lessons such as one for the students to do at home if there’s a snow day, and one which is purely an acting workshop (based on a day I spent at the Globe).

As you’ll see, the lessons focus primarily on different scenes, working through the play.

To accompany the lessons, I used a DVD of the Shakespeare’s Globe production starring Eve Best and Charles Edwards for close analysis. I recommend this as it is both clear and very accessible. To introduce the play before we started detailed work on it, I showed the students Kenneth Branagh’s film, which is shorter and great fun.

I should add that some of the lessons are entirely of my own invention, some are compiled from existing resources, and some are a genuine mixture. I trawled through dozens of resources while putting the scheme together.

I have deliberately avoided pinning every element of this course to Assessment Objectives in the GCSE specifications. Instead I have taken a more organic approach to appreciating the play. Nevertheless, students who engage with this course will be very well prepared to approach GCSE in years 10 and 11.

This scheme has been shared across the English department, and has been found to be very effective.