Re-thinking Romeo and Juliet: the window scene

My grade 10 class received the following instructions at the start of class -

After answering their questions, and providing them with an example, the class set to work.

This was a fun in-class activity that allowed students to experiment with the Shakespearean play and explore the play's characters. They took on the roles of directors. I had multiple goals for assigning such an activity to my students. First, I aimed to break the shy boundary within my students and allow them to take charge in the classroom. Getting students to interact with their classmates and, simply, to raise their hands became a lot easier after this activity. This activity opened up the chance for students to be fun, creative, and collaborative in the classroom, which broke the traditional boundaries of the classroom and created a welcoming and an encouraging atmosphere for the students. Second, I aimed to indirectly test students' understanding and comprehension of the lines in act 2, scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet. The window scene is by far the most popular scene in the play and the monologues and soliloquies present in the scene are rich in meaning. By asking the students to take the lines and apply them to different scenarios correctly, allowed me to see who really understood what Shakespeare is trying to communicate with his audience. Standing at the back of the class while groups presented allowed me to check for different aspects of the presentation.

This was a successful activity that, again, indirectly allowed my to test students' understanding. No grade level was assigned, but students did receive written formative feedback on their scenario scripts.