Composition & Essays

Lord of the Flies

Other Studies

Poetry

Shakespeare

To Kill A Mockingbird

Karen Ounpuu

Romeo and Juliet: an interactive approach

Grade: 8

Lessons: 12 x 75 minutes Time: 5 weeks

Global Rationale and Unit Objectives:

My main objective with this unit is to present Shakespeare as a provocative, insightful and relevant writer and shatter any preconceptions of Shakespeare’s work as stale, difficult to understand or boring. I hope to accomplish this by employing engaging activities, audio / visual presentations and a lot of student participation and performance.

Through the study of Romeo & Juliet, students will be introduced to the language and world of Shakespeare, a genius playwright and master businessman of the theatre. This unit will draw focus to the play as it was meant to be - performed entertainment - and how this affected the writing. The major themes of Romeo and Juliet will be compared and contextualized with modern ideas using music, film and creative projects.

The unit will begin with an exploration of main excerpts from the first two acts, including a brief biography of Shakespeare, some background history on the play and a discussion of foreshadowing and dramatic irony. Interactive activities and video clips will be used to encourage student engagement. A central focus of the unit will be student performances of brief scenes from Acts 3 -5 (around 15 -20 lines per student) that enforce high production values (Incorporating sound, music, memorization, blocking). This will be introduced and modeled by a performance of older students (grade 9s), though any outside group would do the trick, during the first week. There will also be class time spent familiarizing students with basic acting techniques and time will be given for them to rehearse. This reinforces the idea that Shakespeare’s intention was to entertain and his words were to be performed! As student audiences follow their peers’ performances through the acts, there will be constant discussion times in which to comment on major issues and happenings.

Once the play has been covered, and concluding thoughts examined, the unit will finish with a look at the world of Shakespeare, his language and his characters. Students will analyze character roles and status in the play and have an opportunity to design prop and costume ideas for the characters of their choice, as well as perform some character role plays (Talk Show and Hot-Seating) if they choose. This will then lead to the major written assignment of a mini-essay on the character analysis of a supporting player (350-400 words, defending a minor character’s role in the development of plot and analyzing their relationship to the major characters). As a finale, students will be able to view the film version of their choice.