Shakespeare Journal Prompts

PicMonkey CollageHere’s a collection of journal prompts for the Shakespeare plays that are most commonly taught in high/middle school: King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night. Below is a sample of the prompts I created for Romeo and Juliet.

Also check out my Busy Teacher’s Guides and other support material for teachers HERE.

I’ve also had some fun creating coloring pages to go with the journal prompts. (Hint: My mailing list members have had access to these for a while now. 🙂 )

colouring pagesHere are the links to the colouring pages for King Lear, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth.

Here are links to PDFs of journal prompts for all 5 plays:

KING LEAR, ROMEO AND JULIET, MACBETH, HAMLET, TWELFTH NIGHT

Love to hear your feedback and suggestions for any other plays that you think I should cover. Please drop me a note in the comments below to let me know your thoughts and ideas.

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ROMEO AND JULIET

1. What is your opinion of “love at first sight”?

2. Have you ever found yourself between two friends who are angry at each other? What happened?

3. How hard is it to keep a secret? Are there circumstances when you think you should break a promise about keeping a secret?

4. Who in the play shows the most courage? Give reasons for your choice?

5. Why or why not should parents have any control over the personal lives of their children?

6. Is suicide ever a justified option? Explain your answer.

7. Who is the truest friend in the play? Explain your answer.

8. Is lying ever justified? Explain your answer.

9. Write Juliet’s or Romeo’s diary entry after the balcony scene.

10. Write a letter that Juliet might have written to her parents to be read if she died from the potion that Friar Lawrence gave her.

11.  Write a letter that Juliet might have written to Romeo to be read if she died from the potion that Friar Lawrence gave her.

I’ve always thought that a few soliloquies were missing from Shakespeare’s plays. Perhaps these suggestions will encourage your students to fill in the blanks:

  • Nurse while she keeps guard during Romeo’s and Juliet’s wedding night
  • Paris before he visits Juliet’s grave
  • Romeo as he passes through Verona’s gates into exile
  • Juliet after the balcony scene
  • Priest after he ‘buries’ Juliet for the first time

12 thoughts on “Shakespeare Journal Prompts”

  1. Good selection of prompts:
    My middle schoolers enjoyed “translating” monologues and dialogues from Shakespeare plays into “contemporary English” and performing/reading them for their peers in class.

    Reply
    • Thanks for dropping by my website! I’m glad you liked the prompts. I always think that students respond to Shakespeare more positively when they can put the plays ‘on their feet.’ My grade 9s loved acting out scenes from Twelfth Night.

      Reply
    • Thanks for dropping by, Becky! So glad that you’ll be able to use these with your students. Hope you have a great school year ahead!

      Reply
  2. I am a ninth grader in high school having to write a diary entry for the play Romeo and Juliet about one of the characters what font shall i use

    Reply
    • Hi Halee! Your best bet is to choose a font that’s easy for your teacher to read. Remember, your teacher has to read a lot of these assignments. If your teacher wants a fancy font that looks like handwriting, I’d pick Segoe Print from the options in Word. It’s a little fancy, but also pretty easy to read. Make sure it’s at least 12 point–14 point is good, too.

      Reply

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