1. English (KS4) Year 11 (Spring HT 1)
Curriculum Aims:
As part of their AQA GCSE in English, pupils are required to write three written responses – each of around 500 words – in order to
demonstrate their understanding of creative texts (Unit 3a). This Scheme of Work is designed to prepare students to respond to a
Controlled Assessment task based on Romeo and Juliet. At the conclusion of this scheme, pupils should be given 1 hour 20 minutes to
complete their Controlled Assessment task. The task is worth 15 marks.
Information:
• Pupils will study Romeo and Juliet
• They should focus on the following statement: ‘Explore the way love is presented in Romeo and Juliet’.
• Prior to this SOW, pupils should be given the opportunity to watch Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and read the entire play.
Assessment Opportunities
AO2: Reading
- Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate
to purpose
- Develop and sustain interpretations of writers’ ideas and
perspectives
- Explain and evaluate how writers use linguistic, grammatical,
structural and presentational features to achieve effects
and engage and influence the reader
- Understand texts in their social, cultural and historical
contexts
Skills Developed Summative Assessment
Comprehension Linguistic features
“Explore the way love is presented in Romeo and Juliet”.
Controlled Assessment: 1 hour and 20 minutes
15 marks based on AO2 (Reading)
Inference Grammatical features
Analysis Structure and presentation
Evidence selection Contextualising texts
Evaluation Discussion
Title/ Key Learning Available Possible teaching activities Key Assessment

2. English (KS4) Year 11 (Spring HT 1)
Question objectives resources Words/Literac
y
opportunities
1. What
characterises
love in Romeo
and Juliet?
To be able to use
appropriate evidence to
categorise different
aspects of love in the
play.
Text of the
play
Baz Luhrmann’s
Romeo & Juliet
Excerpts from
the text
relating to
types of love
Starter: In pairs, pupils should think about or jot down
different aspects or types of love. They should then
consider; ‘How would you define love?’
Main:
The class will be split into groups. If the class consists of
around 30 pupils, they could be separated into groups of 3,
with two groups analysing Type A and so on.
Type A: Romeo’s early love for Rosaline.
Type B: Romeo’s idealistic love for Juliet.
Type C: Love between friends (Juliet, the Nurse and the
Friar).
Type D: Love between friends (Romeo, Mercutio and
Benvolio).
Type E: Love as sexual (the references of Mercutio and
the Nurse).
Pupils should be provided with select excerpts from the
text to prompt their analysis. So, for instance, the groups
studying Type A could begin with Act 1 Scene 1. They
should produce an informative visual display outlining the
main aspects or characteristics of their type of love. This
display should include selected evidence from the text, as
the display can then be used as a learning resource for
peers throughout the course of the S.O.W.
Plenary: The two groups studying each ‘type’ of love should
then collaborate to produce a final presentation on their
type of love, which should be showcased to the class.
Aspects
Characteristics
Analyse
Love
Idealistic
Evidence
Hinge Questions
In-task feedback
from teacher and
peers
Peer assessment

3. English (KS4) Year 11 (Spring HT 1)
2. How does love
link to
violence in the
play?
To be able to analyse
how the writer uses
various features to link
love to violence in the
play.
Text of the
play
Baz Luhrmann’s
Romeo & Juliet
Starter: In pairs, pupils should think about or jot down
different aspects of types of violence. They should then
consider; ‘How might love lead to violence?’
Main:
Present pupils with the following extracts relating to love
and death/violence.
Tybalt resolves to kill Romeo just as Romeo catches sight
of Juliet and falls in love. [Act 1, Scene 5]
Romeo and Juliet are plagued with thoughts of suicide.
[Act 3, Scene 3 & Act 4, Scene 1].
Romeo and Juliet imagine each other look dead. [Act 3,
Scene 5].
The double suicide. [Act 5, Scenes 1-2]
Pupils should produce a diary entry relating to one
particular excerpt, from the perspective of the
predominant character. In this diary entry, they should
use clues and textual evidence to examine the relationship
between love and violence, referring back to the
characteristics of love referred to in the previous lesson.
Plenary: ‘Only through death can Romeo and Juliet
preserve their love’. Discuss.
The class should be divided into those arguing for and
against the accuracy of this statement. Students should
be given time to reflect on the key learning points from
the lesson and embed these into their arguments.
Subsequently, orchestrate a class debate in which this
statement is evaluated. Ensure that pupils refer to
specific evidence and features of the text to support
their viewpoints.
Violence
Death
Suicide
Perspective
Relationship
Characteristics
Preserve
Hinge Questions
Self-assessment
Bloom’s
Questioning

4. English (KS4) Year 11 (Spring HT 1)
3. Individuals vs.
Society
To be able to evaluate
how the writer uses love
to portray the conflict
between the individual
and society.
Text of the
play
Baz Luhrmann’s
Romeo & Juliet
Starter: Present pupils with examples of situations they might
find themselves in. In each case, how would they act? Similarly,
how would society expect them to behave?
Main:
Present various quotations on the interactive whiteboard. Pupils
should be encouraged to draw links to the features of society
identified below, and to select particular words/evidence to
support their judgments.
Families and the placement of familial power in the father.
[The patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance families,
wherein the father controls the action of all other family
members, particularly women, places Juliet in an extremely
vulnerable position. Her heart, in her family’s mind, is not hers to
give.]
Law and the desire for public order.
[The law and the emphasis on social civility demands terms of
conduct with which the blind passion of love cannot comply.]
Religion. [Religion similarly demands priorities that Romeo and
Juliet cannot abide by because of the intensity of their love.
Though in most situations the lovers uphold the traditions of
Christianity (they wait to marry before consummating their love),
their love is so powerful that they begin to think of each other in
blasphemous terms.]
The social importance placed on masculine honour.
[The maintenance of masculine honor forces Romeo to commit
actions he would prefer to avoid. But the social emphasis placed on
masculine honor is so profound that Romeo cannot simply ignore
them.]
Pupils should create PEEL paragraphs based on these features of
the impact of love upon the conflict between the individual and
society. The more able may be able to use their own quotations, or
excerpts could be provided.
Plenary: Using pre-defined (and perhaps student-created)
success criteria, pupils should self-assess their paragraphs. They
should then use this self-assessment as a basis upon which to
improve one of their answers.
Individual
Society
Portray
Conflict
Familial
Social
Masculine
Hinge Questions
Bloom’s
Questioning
Students create
own success
criteria
Self-assessment
and STAR

5. English (KS4) Year 11 (Spring HT 1)
4. What did
Shakespeare
think of love?
To be able to use
appropriate evidence to
interpret the writer’s
ideas and perspectives
on love.
Text of the
play
Baz Luhrmann’s
Romeo & Juliet
Starter: Pupils should identify the positive aspects of love
presented in Romeo and Juliet, and alongside each they
should note the related negative aspects. Then consider;
‘Does Shakespeare appear positive or negative about love
in Romeo and Juliet?’
Main: Throughout the play, Mercutio serves as a critic of
the delusions of the characters around him. In Act 1,
Scene 4, Mercutio makes a speech about the fairy Queen
Mab.
Present pupils with a breakdown of Mercutio’s speech
about the fairy Queen Mab. Allocate each pair to analyse a
particular sentence/section of Mercutio’s speech. Then, as
a class, analyse and the speech as a whole, referring to
Mercutio’s overall perspective and any contrasts with the
views of other characters.
Extension: Present pupils with further examples of
Mercutio’s critical views; use Bloom’s Questioning to
prompt higher order thinking around the impact and
relevance of these pieces of evidence.
Plenary: Hot-seating.
Place pupils into groups of 3 or 4, and assign each group a
character from the play. Each group should then have time
to discuss their character’s attitude toward love in the
play (and to refer to supporting evidence). Subsequently,
one pupil from each group should be nominated to take
their place in a ‘hot seat’ scenario, in which the rest of the
class have the chance to ask probing questions regarding
each character’s attitude towards love.
Love
Interpret
Perspective
Critic
Analyse
Contrast
Relevance
Whole-class
discussion
Teacher-led
feedback
Bloom’s
Questioning
Student-led
learning and peer
feedback

6. English (KS4) Year 11 (Spring HT 1)
5. How does love
tie in to the
play’s social
and historical
context?
To be able to
understand love in
Romeo and Juliet in
relation to the social,
historical and cultural
context.
Text of the
play
Baz Luhrmann’s
Romeo & Juliet
Starter: Card sort activity. Pupils should be given a table
stating certain scenarios, and with a column for both the
Elizabethan era and the present day. The cards given to
them state attitudes of Elizabethan audiences and
attitudes of modern audiences. Pupils should sort them
accordingly.
Main: Pupils should be introduced to a more thorough
summary of Shakespeare’s background, and an explanation
of the prominent features/characteristics of Elizabethan
society.
Students should be provided with a selection of love-
related events from the play and a note as to where in the
text this event can be located. The more able students
could, of course, use their own initiative to select a
suitable event.
Students should then produce two newspaper reports
regarding the same event; one from the perspective of an
Elizabethan journalist (and thus audience), and one from
the perspective of a modern-day journalist (and thus
audience). Their newspaper reports should clearly
distinguish between elements of continuity and change in
attitudes between the two eras.
Plenary: Pupils should be placed into groups of three or
four. In their groups, pupils should collectively examine
their newspaper articles. They should explain to each other
how their articles portray the social and historical context
of the play.
Subsequently, pupils should produce three ‘Elizabethan
Rules’ and three ‘Modern Rules’ about love to illustrate their
understanding.
Social
Historical
Cultural
Context
Background
Society
Article
Attitudes
Hinge Questions
Teacher-led
feedback during
the task
(individual 1:1
tutoring and
support)
Peer assessment
and feedback
Bloom’s
Questioning

7. English (KS4) Year 11 (Spring HT 1)
6. ‘How is love
presented in
Romeo and
Juliet?’
To be able to analyse
and evaluate the
presentation of love in
Romeo and Juliet.
Text of the
play.
Baz Luhrmann’s
Romeo & Juliet
Model answers
AO criteria
Starter: Pupils should be provided with a card-sort
activity involving the assessment objectives and level
criteria for the Controlled Assessment task. They should
decide which criteria links to which level, and should be
prepared to justify their decisions.
Main: Re-cap the aims of the Controlled Assessment task
and the assessment objectives that students will be
expected to address in their assessment. Break down
these assessment objectives into manageable chunks, and
ensure that pupils are aware that they have covered these
objectives throughout the previous lessons.
Present students with a model answer. Using the success
criteria addressed during the Starter activity, pupils
should (individually/in pairs) mark the answer, annotating it
as they go along to demonstrate their evaluation and giving
it a final mark/banding. The marking process can then be
discussed as a class, and misconceptions addressed.
Students should then repeat the process with another
model answer (of differing quality). Using the success
criteria addressed during the Starter activity, pupils
should (individually/in pairs) mark the answer, annotating it
as they go along to demonstrate their evaluation and giving
it a final mark/banding. The marking process can then be
discussed as a class, and misconceptions addressed.
Plenary: In groups, pupils should create their own ‘model
answer’ for the question. In doing so, they should be able
to clearly demonstrate how they have incorporated each
assessment objective, and how they have ensured that
they have used evidence to support their analysis and
interpretations.
Analyse
Evaluate
Presentation
Assessment
Objective
Justify
Criteria
Model
PPPB
]
Peer assessment
Hinge questions
Summative
assessment
following the
conclusion of this
S.O.W.