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Character
Technology Profiles |
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Have students imagine what types of technology their character would use if they had access to today’s technologies. Students analyze the character, based on a list of guiding questions about what technologies that character would be familiar with and how comfortable the character would be with technology, and create a technology profile for the character. This project requires that students consider the role of technology in their own lives and apply their understanding of their characters to decide how they would be similar or different in their use of technology. |
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Memory Map |
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After reading the play, have students choose a character (hopefully there will be an assortment—not just Romeo and Juliet). The student should review and reflect on that character’s life, family, and the places where the character is seen in the play. What is important to that character? Sketch a map of the places the character is known to go during the play, then add other places that are probably important in that character’s life. By each location, jot down a few thoughts about the character’s experiences in this place. These should be true to the text or appropriate for the character. After this step is completed, the student should choose one of the locations on the map and write the character’s thoughts about this place. What is it like? Why does the character like or dislike the place? What happened there? Describe the experience in modern language, in vivid detail, revealing the story through the character’s point of view. Adapted from: Nelson, G. Lynn. “Maps and Memories.” Writing and Being: Embracing Your Life Through Creative Journaling. Maui, HI: Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004. 95-99.
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AIM Conversation Assign each student a character (or let them choose their own), and give each them screen names on AIM or another instant messaging service. In the computer lab or using laptops in the classroom, students have a conversation with each other in a virtual chat room. Students show their understanding of characters and plot through their online conversation, and construct their understanding of the text by considering point of view and responding to their partner’s comments.
Adapted from article: Hill, Lara and Ford, Kim. “To What Extent Should English Teachers Embrace Technology?” English Journal 90.2 (2000): 22-27. |
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MySpace Character
Profiles |
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Students create an entire profile for a character from the play, including a playlist, interests, a blog. This lesson plan may require parental permission, or it could be adapted to have students create the “Myspace profiles” using a regular word processing program, but doing it online is worth the challenge because students will interact with each other in character, leaving comments and reading each others’ blog entries. This lesson plan contains well-developed directions and a rubric for a 200 point assignment See Lesson Plan by Eyatta Fischer |
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Words and Their Meanings |
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Using the “find on this page” function on their internet browser, students note the way that key words are used throughout the play. Have students find each use of the word they have chosen and analyze the way the word works in each context. What does this word mean to the play in general? Does its context change from beginning to end? Good words for Romeo and Juliet include: blood, love, light, dark, marriage/marry, die/death, fortune. Try this searchable Shakespeare page: http://www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare/ |
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Write A Song About Romeo and Juliet Jim Burke writes, “ in the English class, we make various texts in different styles using a range of media to make meaning and, at the same time, demonstrate our understanding.” (p.4) In this activity, students write their own songs about Romeo and Juliet, create a display with the lyrics of the song, and then perform it in front of the class for a project grade. This site offers many other project ideas, but the idea of having students create their own song is particularly interesting, as it would provide teachers with an opportunity to let those students who enjoy singing and music to bring their talent into the classroom. Other project ideas listed at this site include the following: Create a comic book or write a children’s book that tells the story of the play, allow them to perform a scene as a group, or let students draw a blueprint of The Globe Theatre based on research. The range of project ideas given at this site, obviously, appeals to the different intelligences that are usually present in the classroom. The English teacher who created this list of project ideas, Mr. Lettiere, provides a handout of the project choices to students, which, along with examples of student work, is available on his webpage: http://www.argo217.k12.il.us/departs/english/blettiere/romeojuliet.htm |
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Headline News Read several newspaper articles about events that are mirrored in the play, and then have students write their own newspaper story covering one of the events of the play. Students must consider the expository form of newspaper articles and, and can reflect their understanding of point of view by choosing to align their newspaper with either the Capulets or the Montagues. See this and other Modern-Day Interpretation Projects, from Readwritethink lesson plan by Tracy Gardner |
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Reading Journals |
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As students read the play in class or at home, keep a reading journal in which they “record quotations, observations, lists, and images from their reading and then return to those entries for reflection and comment”(Andrasick, 45). One way to do this is to have two columns on each page, one in which the student records primary observations or lines from the play, and the other column for interpretation and analysis. This could be an open assignment, or an assignment with a different focus in different situations.( See an example of an imagery journal for Romeo and Juliet Act 4 Scene 3) The image is on the left, and the interpretation as to “what it means” is on the right. By keeping reading journals, students experience a closeness with the text. They interact with it as they record their own unique observations. Teachers could replace a reading quiz with this more interactive activity. Students remember their thoughts more, and have more to go on in class discussion when they have their reading journals to work with. This activity also gets students in the practice of thinking critically about the text, constantly both observing and interpreting. Adapted from: Andrasick, Kathleen. Opening Texts: Using Writing to Teach Literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books, 1990. |
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“What if” What if the characters of Romeo and Juliet had access to the technology we use today? How might the play be different? Could it still be written to follow the same plot? What could be a modern-day interpretation of the letter that got stuck in the city because of the quarantine? Have students rewrite a scene, keeping with the plot or changing it, with the addition of one item of modern technology. See Technologies list for ideas. See Modern-Day Interpretation Projects, from Readwritethink lesson plan by Tracy Gardner |
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Digital Artifacts Imagine that you find a USB drive belonging to one of the characters in the play. What would be on it? To-do lists, journal entries, letters to friends, or perhaps business-related letters? Re-Create a few documents you might find on this USB drive, as well as a disk directory page. Documents must stay true to the character, but must also show creative interpretation of the clues in the text See Modern-Day
Interpretation Projects, from Readwritethink
lesson plan by Tracy Gardner |
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“Why doesn’t he
just say that?” – Words and meaning in the Queen Mab speech |
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This lesson focuses on allowing students to decide for themselves what elements of Shakespeare’s language are important to the meaning of a text. Give students a photocopy of the Queen Mab speech, and put one on the overhead in large print. Read through the speech as a class, then have students break into groups to define any unknown words and phrases. Then, as a class, take out anything “extra.” Break the speech down to only what is necessary to convey the bare outline of what Mercucio is saying. Next, work in groups to rephrase the parts that were removed. Restate these parts in modern, simple language. How has the meaning changed? Is the speech still as powerful? Return to the minimalist version of the text and have students decide in their groups which of the phrases that were removed are really necessary for the meaning of the speech to remain intact. This lesson prompts students to consider vocabulary, imagery, and allusion. It requires that they think critically about the text and its meaning and actively construct their understanding of the way literary elements work together to shape the meaning of the text. Adapted from Rare Words Vs. the Facts, by Judith Elstein |
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Performance
and Digital Video |
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After reading the play have students analyze a scene from the play and convert it into a screenplay. Students create a promptbook for filming and editing and learn vocabulary associated with film editing (establishing shot, panning, zooming). Students then film the scene using a digital camera. The teacher who wrote this article did the editing himself, to get the scenes looking good and the music at the appropriate times, but comments that this was his first experience with the editing software, which has evolved to be more user-friendly since then. Students could be assigned to do the editing themselves. Each group has many variables to control, resulting in unique interpretations even when groups are performing the same scene. This project requires that students return to the text and analyze for meaning of lines, the emotion they imply, and action on the stage. Doing this assignment effectively requires a good understanding of the whole play. Adapted from Performance and Digital Video, by Christopher Shamburg |
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“Standing on the
Bookshelves of Giants” |
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Have students break into groups—this author suggests a jigsaw structure as well—and research the books which William Shakespeare would most likely have studied when he was in school. Each group is assigned one text to research (see link for a list of books). After carefully researching and recording sources and information, students regroup (into their jigsaw groups) and discuss what they found. The new groups discuss which texts seem to have had the most influence on Shakespeare, and why. Assessment is based on fact sheets compiled about the texts, notes takes from discussion, research logs, and a performance of five minutes from the researched text for each group. See lesson plan: Standing on the Bookshelves of Giants, by Sean Cavazos-Kottke |
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Helpful online resources: |
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