Year 6 - English
Planning Juliet's diary entries
Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet': diary and narrative writing
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils learn to empathise with and understand different characters in one of Shakespeare's iconic plays. They write a diary entry from Juliet's perspective, a climactic narrative scene based on the duel scene and begin to debate around a key question raised from the play.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to plan the structure and content of Juliet's imagined diary entries after meeting Romeo.
Key Notes
- Writing is most successful when its content is planned.
- A diary entry is most often written retrospectively, but it may contain both present and past tense sections.
- Juliet's diary is written as two entries - one on her return from the ball and one after the balcony scene.
- A diary entry should include both descriptions of the event(s) and details about the emotions that a character feels.
- We can use rich vocabulary and show-not-tell to describe events and emotions.
Vocabulary To Learn
- past tense: used to tell the reader that action happened before now
- present tense: tells the reader that action is happening now
- events: things that happen to a person or a character
- emotions: strong feelings experienced by a character in response to their experiences
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may struggle with the idea of jumping between past and present tense.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Writing is most successful when its content is planned. A diary entry is most often written retrospectively, but it may contain both present and past tense sections.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'past tense'
used to tell the reader that action happened before now.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may struggle with the idea of jumping between past and present tense. Correction: Explain that this is a common way of writing a diary: the person writing begins by saying how they feel right now before going back to explain the events that led up to them feeling this way.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Debating a question raised by Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' Study Guide
- Exploring Act III Scene 1 in 'Romeo and Juliet' Study Guide
- Exploring Juliet's emotions after meeting Romeo Study Guide
- Exploring vocabulary relating to the duel scene Study Guide
- Generating vocabulary for Juliet's diary entry Study Guide
- Planning the duel scene Study Guide
- Understanding themes, characters and plot in 'Romeo and Juliet' Study Guide
- Writing the first half of Juliet's diary entry Study Guide
- Writing the first half of the duel scene Study Guide
- Writing the second half of Juliet's diary entry Study Guide
- Writing the second half of the duel scene Study Guide
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