Teaching Ideas for a Great Romeo and Juliet Unit Plan: Pre-Reading Activities, Discussion Questions & Final Exa

I love teaching Shakespeare’s over-the-top tale of two teens who get caught up in a death-obsessed, violence-soaked world. Romeo and Juliet is the first Shakespeare play for many students because it feels so relatable.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to teach. The language is hard for students. The story is old. Then there’s the barrier of knowing it’s Shakespeare— and we know how difficult that guy is. Add to all this the pressure of not just getting through the text but actually teaching a meaningful unit where students actually build real skills in discussion, analysis, and writing, and it’s no wonder you’ve ended up on Google looking for some good ideas.

When I first started teaching the play to freshman over 25 years ago, I was intimidated too. But over the years, I slowly integrated some routines and activities that really hit home with my students.

If you’re struggling to make your Romeo and Juliet unit work, you can check out my full Romeo and Juliet unit—or keep reading for my best tips based on teaching this play about a whiny boy and his clever girlfriend.

Pre-Reading Activities

My goal in a good pre-reading activity is to get students excited for the text ahead and also thinking about the big ideas and even the emotional reality of the characters before we start reading.

What I don’t do, therefore, is start with a biography of Shakespeare or a history of the Globe theater. They probably got those lectures last year anyway, and they’ve definitely forgotten all of the information on slide #3. I do, however, tailor my activities to my goals and the students in the room.

If I want students to dig deep on analysis, I start with a sonnet unit. This is a great choice for students who are mostly bought in on the idea of reading Shakespeare but could use some practice with the challenging language before we start the play. Sonnets 18 and 130 are classic choices for good reason—they deal with big questions around love and the words and metaphors we use to talk about something so abstract—but my personal favorite is sonnet 73. The reason I love starting with this sonnet, which is more about old age and death than it is about love, is that I have students draw and analyze the three images in the poem. When they trace the ways that the metaphors change, from cold to warm and from seasons to moments, they realize that figurative language isn’t something that exists to make writing fancy—it’s a way to make the indescribable understandable.

If I only have a day but want students to be invested in the themes and emotional realities of the play, I start with fictional prompts and low-key discussion questions. For the fictional prompts, I give students scenarios that will come up in the play like “A girl is forced to meet the man her parents have chosen for her to marry” or “A man’s best friend is killed and he vows to get revenge.” Then, I have them write from the first person POV as any character in the scenario and make up any details they want. What is really remarkable about this activity is that almost without exception, students tell stories that take place in times and places very different from those of the play, but they anticipate the emotional realities of the characters. Then, when Mercutio is killed, they remember their own writing about what it’s like to have a best friend murdered. I think that writing in the first person is really key to this connection and helps students connect with the characters.

If I have students who are really reluctant to read the play, I start with a unit on gang violence. This takes about a week, but I have found that the time really pays off. Whether students see gang violence as something that happens in other places or if they are all-too-familiar with the reality, this is a great way to connect them to the world of the play. When students explore both in-depth reporting on the everyday lives of teens as well as different ideas for ending the cycle of violence, they see that problems are nuanced and complicated but not without the possibility of hope. Giving teens perspective, nuance, and hope is always a great thing, and it’s even better when it can make a potentially challenging unit easier to teach.

Discussion Questions

I decided to become an English teacher in a college seminar when I realized it meant I could basically talk about literature forever. For me, discussion is the core of any great unit.

The most important element to great discussion is to make sure students are really prepared to answer the questions. The first way that I do this is by starting class with bellringer freewrite prompts on topics that we’ll be discussing. So if we are going to talk later about the impact of Juliet’s arranged marriage, I might start off class by having students write for a few minutes on the prompt “Write about a time when your parents made a decision about your life without consulting you first.”

The second most important element to great discussions is that students are basing their responses on details from the text. The way that I help them do this is by giving them close reading questions that get them noticing the important details so that we can all bring those details to the conversation when we come to discuss. When I have failed to do this in the past, the conversation really falls flat.

The next most important element to great discussion is to have good questions—questions that deal with important, universal issues that are relevant to teens but also speak to the human condition. And when the questions really don’t have any clear answers, then I know they’ll stimulate some good discussion in class.

Here are some of my favorite Romeo and Juliet discussion questions.

How do characters in the play talk about women, and how do Lady Capulet and Juliet offer an alternative to that view?
What makes a good parent?
What are the effects of growing up in a world where violence is always the answer?
Why are so many attempts to end the feud unsuccessful? (Do you think Juliet and Romeo’s deaths will actually end it?)
What is the effect of knowing the end of a story before it begins?
Is it better to be an obedient child, to openly rebel, or to play the part that’s expected and then just do what you want?
Do good intentions pardon a dangerously bad plan?
Who or what is to blame for the tragic deaths of Juliet and Romeo?

Final Exam Ideas

I’ll be honest that over the years I started steering away from traditional tests and towards more creative assessments. I think creating something original is a more meaningful experience for students—but honestly I think I just got bored of reading the same answers over and over.

But if I do have to give a test, I try to make it as focused on higher level thinking as possible.

I start off with quote IDs and have students write three-part responses for each one: Who says this? What is it about? Why is it important? I give partial credit for this section. I have found that students who really wrestle with the text—those who work to answer questions in class even if they are not effortlessly understanding the play from the beginning—are the ones who do well on this section. I’m not trying to trip anyone up; I mostly give them quotes that we analyzed as a class in their close reading questions.

The second part of the test is short essays, which, if students were active in discussions, are also fairly straightforward. Questions like “Is order and justice restored at the end of the play? Why or why not?” Or “Discuss the way that parents and children are portrayed in the play” give students plenty of leeway to include whatever details and ideas they have about the topic—and gives me at least some variety of responses!

Sometimes instead and sometimes in addition to the test, I like to have students complete a project or paper as a final assessment.

One of the most low-key, and a great choice when I need some art in my room, is to have them do a tracking poster. As long as I assign this early on in our study of the play, it works well. Students look for quotes on a specific topic—for Romeo and Juliet this includes things like poison, dreams, or time. Then, they make a poster with the quotes and some visuals. The goal of this project is for students to trace a motif or theme through the play and for them to think about the visuals created by the vivid descriptions throughout. While this is a low-key assignment that gives students a great deal of freedom, it is also a nice way to challenge them to work through the text independently, analyzing the quotes on their own.

If I have the time and energy for group projects, I have students write a group play which is a modernization of one scene from Romeo and Juliet. Students “translate” or paraphrase all of the dialogue, making it sound the way people talk today. They add as many details of plot or setting as they want to modernize it. Then, they turn in their process steps and perform their plays for the class! This can be a lot of work, but it’s so worth it in the end when they really own a scene of the play.

I hope these ideas help you to refresh your Romeo and Juliet lesson plans. If you only try one thing from this post, I think the fictional prompts have the most impact for the least effort!

And if you’d like to get all of these plans in a ready-to-go format plus close reading questions, extensive answer keys, bellringer freewrite prompts, and quizzes on every act, you can find my complete unit here.