Julius Caesar Summary Activity: 5 Act Structure

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Five Act Structure

Activity Overview

Students can create and show a storyboard that captures the concept of the Five Act Structure by making a six-cell storyboard, like the one below. For each cell, have students create a scene that follows the acts in order: Prologue, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement.

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Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 9-10

Difficulty Level 2 (Reinforcing / Developing)

Type of Assignment Individual or Partner

Type of Activity: The Five Act Play (Dramatic Structure)

Common Core Standards

[ELA-Literacy/RL/9-10/2] Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text
[ELA-Literacy/RL/9-10/3] Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme
[ELA-Literacy/RL/9-10/5] Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise

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Template and Class Instructions

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Student Instructions

Create a visual plot diagram of Julius Caesar.

Separate the play into the Prologue/Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement.
Create an image that represents an important moment or set of events for each of the acts.
Write a description of each of the steps in the plot diagram.

Five Act Structure Template

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Rubric

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Five Act Structure Rubric (Grades 9-12)

Create a plot diagram for the play using Prologue/Exposition, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.

	Proficient	Emerging	Beginning	Try Again
Descriptive and Visual Elements	Cells have many descriptive elements, and provide the reader with a vivid representation.	Cells have many descriptive elements, but flow of cells may have been hard to understand.	Cells have few descriptive elements, or have visuals that make the work confusing.	Cells have few or no descriptive elements.
Grammar/Spelling	Textables have three or fewer spelling/grammar errors.	Textables have four or fewer spelling/grammar errors.	Textables have five or fewer spelling/grammar errors.	Textables have six or more spelling/grammar errors.
Evidence of Effort	Work is well written and carefully thought out. Student has done both peer and teacher editing.	Work is well written and carefully thought out. Student has either teacher or peer editing, but not both.	Student has done neither peer, nor teacher editing.	Work shows no evidence of any effort.
Plot	All parts of the plot are included in the diagram.	All parts of the plot are included in the diagram, but one or more is confusing.	Parts of the plot are missing from the diagram, and/or some aspects of the diagram make the plot difficult to follow.	Almost all of the parts of the plot are missing from the diagram, and/or some aspects of the diagram make the plot very difficult to follow.