Engaging, structured English resources.
My lessons are designed to support all learners — including those with SEND — through clear routines, rich vocabulary, and purposeful tasks that build confidence and real progress. Ready to teach. Easy to adapt. Focused on growth.
Engaging, structured English resources.
My lessons are designed to support all learners — including those with SEND — through clear routines, rich vocabulary, and purposeful tasks that build confidence and real progress. Ready to teach. Easy to adapt. Focused on growth.
KS3 Shakespeare Year 7 Unit – Shakespeare and Elizabethan England (20 Full Lessons)
A fresh, student-friendly introduction to Shakespeare – building contextual knowledge, analytical skills, and creative confidence from the very start of KS3.
This unique 20-lesson bundle takes a bold and engaging approach to teaching Shakespeare to Year 7 students. Rather than starting with a full play, this unit immerses learners in the world Shakespeare lived and wrote in, gradually building the knowledge, vocabulary and interpretive skills they’ll need for successful GCSE study.
Through structured, accessible lessons, students explore:
Life in Elizabethan England and Shakespeare’s theatre
Universal themes like love, power, betrayal and ambition
Key dramatic techniques such as soliloquies, irony, and comic relief
Creative responses including short stories, soliloquy writing and poetry
Extracts from Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Shakespearean sonnets
Every lesson follows a consistent format with:
✔️ A guiding Key Question
✔️ Vocabulary development tasks
✔️ A Focus Zone activity (analytical, creative, or performance-based)
✔️ Final reflection tasks
✔️ Supportive scaffolds and SEN-friendly structure throughout
This scheme doesn’t just study Shakespeare – it helps students understand why he matters, how he wrote, and why his stories still resonate. Ideal for laying contextual and conceptual foundations in Year 7 and setting students up with confidence for KS4.
Lesson 20 – Final Reflection
End the unit with a letter to their future self and exit slips that celebrate growth in confidence, empathy and understanding.
Lesson 16 – Understanding a Shakespearean Sonnet
Introduce poetic form through Sonnet 18, analysing rhyme, imagery and emotional impact using structured annotation tasks.
Lesson 15 – Analysing Language and Structure
Focus on Shakespeare’s use of language, structure and rhetorical technique with extract-based close analysis.
Lesson 14 – Short Story – Theme of Betrayal
Encourage creative writing through the lens of betrayal, using planning grids and modelled language to guide students.
Lesson 13 – Conflict in Relationships
Explore family and social conflict through character arguments, focusing on the language of tension and power dynamics.
Lesson 12 – Writing Your Own Soliloquy
Support students in writing powerful, emotionally rich soliloquies that express vulnerability and inner conflict.
Lesson 11 – Soliloquies – Inner Thoughts
Delve into soliloquies as a dramatic device by analysing Macbeth’s dagger speech and uncovering hidden emotion.
Lesson 8 – Theatrical Devices
Introduce students to dramatic techniques like soliloquies, stage directions and monologues through short performance tasks.
Lesson 7 – Comic Relief and the Fool
Unpick the role of comic characters in serious stories and analyse how Shakespeare uses humour to reveal deeper truths.
Lesson 5 – Shakespeare’s Language
Break down barriers to understanding Shakespeare’s language through paraphrasing, decoding, and discussion of meaning.
Lesson 4 – Actors & Audience
Compare the lively behaviour of Elizabethan theatre audiences to modern expectations, with a focus on projection and performance skills.
Lesson 3 – The Globe Theatre
Discover the unique design of The Globe Theatre and how its structure shaped the performance experience for actors and audience alike.
