Romeo and Juliet: Friar Laurence and The Nurse!

This lesson enables students to gain a detailed understanding of the characters of Friar Laurence and The Nurse in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Students learn to demonstrate a developed understanding of their character traits, relationships with the title characters, and impact upon plot developments. Students also learn to empathise with the two characters, inferring and interpreting the motives behind their actions.

The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be attentive and interactive learners. It follows this learning journey:
- Remembering and understanding the impact of Friar Laurence and The Nurse up to Act IV;
- Reading and interpreting Act IV, particularly interpreting and inferring the key involvement of Friar Laurence and The Nurse;
- Identifying and analysing the key features of their characters;
- Empathising with the two characters through a fun and interactive drama activity, in order to understand their motives a little better;
- Anlaysing their impact upon the plot in Act IV, including their influence upon the two title characters;
- Peer/self-evaluating the learning in the lesson.

Included in this resource pack are:
- A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation;
- Resources for the reading and interpreting activity - including a teacher answer guide;
- Full Act IV transcript with space for notes;
- ‘In Your Shoes’ cut-out soles for the development task;
- A template to help scaffold the main task, complete with P.E.E instructions;

All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.