A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Big Question

A ready-to-teach KS2 Shakespeare, PSHE & Citizenship resource

Get your pupils debating, questioning and thinking deeply about Shakespeare, without spending hours planning the lesson.

Was Oberon right to take the changeling boy from Titania? And more importantly: is it ever acceptable to take something that doesn’t belong to you?

Using A Midsummer Night’s Dream as its starting point, this engaging KS2 teaching resource turns Shakespeare into a lively exploration of choices, consequences, persuasion and different points of view.

Rather than simply learning the story, pupils get inside it. Through practical drama, discussion and debate, they explore Oberon’s actions and motivations, listen to opposing viewpoints, justify their own ideas and discover that the most interesting questions don’t always have easy answers.

Perfect for teachers who want Shakespeare to feel active, accessible and relevant.

The resource includes:

• a 10-point story summary and practical activities to introduce A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• a complete Big Question teaching sequence
• Shakespeare text extracts to explore Oberon and Titania
• ready-to-use Role on the Wall templates
• hot-seating question stems
• a lively Conscience Alley activity
• Value Continuum activities to get every pupil forming and defending an opinion
• sentence starters to support balanced and persuasive writing
• clear learning objectives, success criteria, differentiation and assessment opportunities.

Shakespeare that earns its place in a busy curriculum

This isn't Shakespeare as an isolated literature exercise. The sequence creates opportunities across KS2 English and Citizenship, including spoken language, drama, inference, reasoned justification, discussion, debate and persuasive or balanced writing. Pupils are encouraged to articulate their views, listen and respond to others, consider other people's experiences and recognise how actions affect those around them.

The activities are deliberately practical and participatory, so pupils can encounter the story through freeze frames, thought-tapping, role play, discussion and movement before developing more sophisticated arguments of their own.

Less planning for you. More thinking, talking and Shakespeare for them.

Ideal for KS2 teachers, English leads, drama practitioners and schools looking for creative cross-curricular Shakespeare resources.

Add it to your teaching toolkit and turn one of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays into a debate your class will genuinely want to have.