Romeo & Juliet Blog Post

I have never actually read Romeo & Juliet all the way through. I have read portions in high school, but embarrassingly haven’t had much exposure to Shakespeare (especially embarrassing for a soon to be English teacher). I definitely have seen the movie though, the rendition with Leonardo DiCaprio – loved it! Even though I don’t really understand what they are saying always. Shakespeare, for me is difficult but I am open to more Shakespeare experiences (I think my Shakespeare class will cover that).

As far as teaching Romeo & Juliet in a high school classroom, doing a class rendition of the play is always fun and exciting for the students. Assigning a role each day to a new student would keep most students in the class involved in the day’s lesson, or even having two different sets of students who read or “act” out the play. If there is the right allowance of space you could split the class up into their literature circles groups and have them take on character roles in their smaller group settings as well.

Because Shakespeare is difficult for me it is likely to assume that it is difficult for some high school students as well. I wonder if beginning the lesson with some scenes from a visual rendition of the play would be beneficial. For example, introducing the opening scene of the movie might help students in getting a mental picture of the characters while being able to hear the language of Shakespeare and putting this foreign wording to actions. Then after watching a brief section of the film, begin reading the novel. This would allow students to start the novel with a mental image of some (or all) of the characters as well as having digested some of Shakespeare’s language. I can see how this would inhibit some of the student’s creative juices in putting a mental image to the characters but it might help with comprehension.

It was really nice to re-read something from high school that I hadn't gotten the chance to read again. It will only help me as a teacher, or student-teacher when I am exposed to this text again in my career.