Teach Romeo & Juliet with Concepts Over Content

We Need Change

If you don't already know the purpose of this blog, you can read about it here. However, the short of it is the English classroom needs a revolution. The heart of the uprising should be accepting we need to teach concepts instead of covering content. This idea isn't completely radical. I mean, the Chinese have been saying it for centuries: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." 

I know we aren't dealing in fish, but learning works the same way. Covering content is doing all the fishing for our students. We need to start teaching them how to fish for themselves. 

The First Step

Weaning ourselves off of reading every word of all the great literature available to us will be hard, I know. But, we can start small. I got started by skipping a chapter in Animal Farm in order to free up some time to practice more writing. And you know what? No kids were harmed in the process, no lighting bolts were thrown, my colleagues didn't pick up pitchforks and run me out of town. Somehow, it just worked. 

That experience gave me confidence to start chopping away at Romeo and Juliet. The first year, it began with small pieces. The scenes with the servants went first. Then a section from the Nurse babbling away endlessly, then parts of Queen Mab. And now, after four years of chipping away, I'm left with the best parts to teach symbolism, theme, expository structure, inference and so much more. These are skills the students can use on other Shakespeare plays or even sonnets. 

The Best Part

When you are ready, or if you already have made the leap to teaching concepts over content, you can find my one month long unit here or if you just want to try it out, here is the lesson just for the Prologue. I understand if you aren't ready to give up on every word of Shakespeare's beautiful language, but after going through this unit, my student's developed an appreciation instead of an aversion to Shakespeare. His name was no longer a curse word that incurred hissing when spoken aloud. You can find other lessons I did with Romeo and Juliet here.

Happy teaching!

Conquering the Sonnet

Get this lesson here. 

The Shakespeare Blues

When I was in high school, I took a Shakespeare class and it was my FAVORITE. My teacher was AMAZING!!! So, when I became a teacher, I hoped that I could make Shakespeare as engaging as my teacher did, but I've decided I don't have the same super power he did. The last few years have been rough. In fact, when we get to the part where Romeo finally dies, most of my classes applaud, me included. I needed to do something different before I had a full on riot on my hands. 

Sonnet Balderdash

Introducing sonnets doesn't have to be boring. Although my kiddos are too young to remember the board game Balderdash, they picked up the rules pretty quickly. You can use any sonnet with this, but choosing one with some salty language makes them realize Shakespeare isn't as boring as they previously thought. Directions are included here. 

When I do this, I line my desks into rows. The person farthest from the middle aisle is "it." After they write the paraphrase on the group paper, they pass it to the middle. Usually I count down from ten so they don't take four years to write something. Any team without a paper when I get to one is disqualified. Also, group members can't help the "it" person. Each round, the students move seats so everyone gets a change to be "it".

After playing this once, my students request this game. Let me repeat, they ask to read more sonnets. 

Behold, the Visual Sonnet

Downfall of this project = messy room.

My second solution to the Shakespeare blues was actually stealing using a lesson from my high school class. We worked in groups to visually represent a sonnet we were assigned. We did Sonnet 19, and I will never forget it. We had colored lights, a hula hoop bedecked with red and orange streamers, a tiger, a lion. It was EPIC. And that high school memory has never left me. For years, I wanted to do the project, but was too afraid I wouldn't be able to pull it off in my classroom. This year, I sucked it up and just did it. I used this YouTube video to introduce the project. I do not expect them to create shadow figures like this one, but it shows how the dancers create images from the spoken word. You can find the entire assignment here for free!!

This is something you can NEVER unsee.

The Dark Lady

This project can be used as an introduction to Shakespeare's language or as a culminating activity. I used it at the end of our Romeo and Juliet unit (which I will poster later. I actually had fun this year with it. Update: the month long lesson unit is posted here.) I wanted to test their ability to paraphrase the language and my kiddos did pretty well. If this project is at beginning of a unit, they will struggle more and need your support. 

By the end of this project, each group has practically memorized a sonnet (but I don't tell them that.) Also, each student recognizes the power of imagery in poetry. Can't get better than that, right?