1. Language: director's edit

Our “script machines” display the script of five key scenes from the play, but with a twist: you have the option of showing the director's edit. This enables you to unpick AO2 more organically with learners, because the interplay between language (Shakespeare's text) and form (a script to be edited for the stage) becomes apparent. For example:

Juliet: O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

• What do the cut lines convey in terms of meaning?
• What does removing them achieve?
  
• What meaning is the director drawing our attention towards, or away from, through this edit?
  

This serves as a reminder that, in any performance text, there is more than one conscious construct at work. Although learners will need to know the whole text, the “meanings and effects” (AO2) has a greater plurality when considered in this light.

Indeed, this can also lead to discussions around the context: the origins of Shakespeare's writing, shaped by the theatre practices of his day, mean that even modern editions of the same, full play-text may differ. What an audience receives, therefore, is already layered with interpretation.

2. Language: literary terms

This part of the resource gives learners the opportunity to identify where certain literary techniques are being used by Shakespeare, across five key scenes. This can be used as a revision tool, but why not use it to model the thought processes in understanding how these techniques work to create meanings and effects? This moves learners away from the fallacy of technique-spotting, and can be adapted for KS3 and KS4.

With this in mind, several techniques in each scene are broken down into a series of questions, on our Teachers’ Notes page. For example:

• Tybalt describes the servants as “heartless hinds”. How does this metaphor show that Tybalt has a low opinion of the servants? Use the questions below to support your thinking.
  
• What possible meanings does the word “hind” have?
  
• How about the word “heartless”? Hint: remember that Shakespeare’s audience would have heard the play; “heartless” could also therefore be heard as “hart-less”. How could this link to “hind”?
  
• Consider the effect of the alliteration in making this link.
  
• How does this contribute to the servants’ definition of masculinity set up in the opening exchange between Sampson and Gregory?
  

To extend the challenge, learners could then create their own questions to deconstruct other techniques. Creating these questions demands higher-order thinking, as learners need to be at Bloom's level of “analysis” before attempting this. To scaffold them up to this level of challenge, they could look at how the same technique is deconstructed in a different scene. This has the added benefit of highlighting the nuanced effects of the same technique used in different parts of the text.

3. Research articles: Brooke versus Shakespeare

Brooke's 1562 poem, “The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet”, served as a key source for Shakespeare. So far, so bolt-on AO3. However, this resource allows learners to compare the differences between Shakespeare's prologue and Brooke's “argument”. It highlights how Shakespeare’s drama occurs over just five days, whereas Brooke’s poem unfolds over nine months, and that Juliet’s age is lowered from 16 to 13.

Drawing out these differences allows for rich exploration of writer's craft that cannot be separated from context, required for the top bands at GCSE.

• Have learners compare the time reference in Brooke's “argument” with Shakespeare's prologue, and discuss what effect this might have.
  
• Next, ask learners to find all the references to time within Shakespeare's version; what patterns do they spot? Why is it that time seems to pass so quickly in the play? Consider this also in light of Shakespeare's younger Juliet.
  
• What meaning is being created through these marked changes to the original source material? If time is compacted and Juliet is younger, what might this suggest about the speed of young love?
  
• How does the adaptation of form – from poem to play – affect how it is received?
  

4. Character interviews

Providing learners with the opportunity to engage with text in performance is a cornerstone of the work we do, and part of this involves providing access to actors taking part in the production.

Although learners wouldn't need to analyse actors' interpretations in their exam, the character interviews provide a window into hearing how someone else arrived at an informed, personal response (AO1). Questions cover: What are your initial impressions of your character(s)? What have you noticed about your character’s language, i.e. the way they speak to others/about themselves?

Characters are interviewed several times across the production, providing learners with opportunities to reflect on the complex nature of interpretation: how this can be revised with each more detailed exploration of the text.

To access these resources, plus a wealth of additional resources to support a challenging curriculum, visit 2019.playingshakespeare.org. Remember: the website tracks the production so please keep coming back to see what else we have added!

Charlotte Bourne is Deputy Head of Learning at Shakespeare’s Globe, with a focus on learners aged 3-18, plus the educators who support them. The Globe’s on-site Lively Action programme welcomes close to 80,000 learners per year, while its international outreach work sends practitioners to China, the US and Europe. A qualified English teacher and AQA examiner for GCSE Literature, Charlotte has worked closely with ITTs and NQTs across multiple subjects.

As schools across the UK celebrate Libraries Week (8-13 October), NACE Associate Judith Mason outlines seven approaches to ensuring more able readers are effectively challenged and supported.

Reading provides a wide range of opportunities to challenge more able learners and there’s certainly an abundance of wonderful books to share and explore. In my visits to schools I’ve been able to see some great teaching that has really inspired children to read and challenged their thinking. Here are my thoughts on some of the strategies that seem to work well in providing challenge in reading…

1. Cultivate independent reading for pleasure

For all children, it’s important to foster a love for reading. Children who enjoy reading are more likely to read well. And developing reading for pleasure and positive attitudes to reading is part of the English National Curriculum. There are lots of ways to encourage readers – and some ways that can put them off! Even our more able readers might sometimes enjoy re-reading an old favourite that seems rather easy for them. Of course, there can be enjoyment in tackling something harder and we need to encourage that too. Give them some choice – but also give them recommendations to extend the range of reading and try something new.

2. Select quality texts to teach reading

Choosing the right texts is really important. Again, we need to consider texts that will appeal to the children and provide motivation for reading, especially if they have to dig deeper into the meaning. Select texts with multiple challenge opportunities – through the theme or subject matter (which may be outside the children’s direct experience), the complexity of the sentence construction, unfamiliar vocabulary, narrative style, the organisation of the text or the visual features. By recognising the potential to explore these different opportunities, we can provide challenge for our more able readers – and also ensure that we give the right support for all readers to make sense of more challenging texts. Think about the different opportunities for learning, not only what must be learned.

3. Ask authentic questions

In discussion about a text, there is an opportunity to explore different ideas and views and to ask children to give their reasons for them. It can help to start the discussion with a really good, genuine question. Value and encourage different responses – though you can challenge them too.

4. Develop dialogue about reading

Encourage children to think about the ideas and views of others. Act as a “conductor” to build exchanges between them that develops thinking. Ask one child to respond to another, to add a comment or to ask another question. As teachers, we can add information into the discussion to develop knowledge and understanding, as well as asking our own questions in response to children’s comments. Deeper comprehension is more likely to be developed in this way than through written answers to a list of questions with little discussion.

5. Develop independent reading strategies

To read more challenging texts independently, children need to use a range of strategies and even more able readers may need to be taught how to use them. For example, it may help them to visualise what is happening where there is a lot of different information, to summarise to make sense of longer passages or to use prediction to develop the skill of inference.

6. Provide different ways to explore and respond to reading

Drama is often a great way to explore texts in depth, for example a character’s feelings or motivation at different points in the narrative. It can also be a great way to try using unfamiliar language. It can also be helpful to give children some choice in the way they respond to a text, through their own art, creative writing, film or on-screen presentation. 

7. Provide guidance for parents/carers

We often provide guidance for parents/carers to help their children when they are first developing as readers. Older and more able readers are then sometimes left to read on their own. This of course can be fine and it’s a joy to see children engrossed in a book, laughing to themselves at the humour or turning the pages as quickly as they can to find out what happens next. But just as dialogue about reading is good in the classroom, it can also be helpful at home. Providing some discussion points for parents – or for the children to use with their parents – is another helpful strategy.

Finally, be ambitious for all children. Present challenge opportunities that they can all access. They may surprise you!

NACE is proud to be supporting the School Library Association (SLA)'s Great School Libraries campaign – a three-year campaign dedicated to raising the profile of school libraries. Find out more here.