"Romeo and Juliet"

Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” is a timeless play that should be taught in secondary schools. The play is usually taught in ninth grade – where I believe the play should remain. Due to the fact that there are so many different interpretations of the play, I believe that teachers should skip around through the different films and show different clips of the movies as the class moves through the text. The students in class could read aloud while in class and each day there would be new speakers. This method would also allow the teachers to get a read of their students reading level – which several teachers do not know. Once the text has been read aloud for the students (and the vocabulary has been identified and understood), the class could take the level of understanding to the next level and act the play out. The teacher can divide the class up into several groups depending on their class size. From there, each group would be assigned one major section of the play. This could be decided as an entire class where the students work to decide on the top 4 or 5 major scenes. Then the students could work on analyzing the play and the characters so they can recreate them. In order to involve technology, teachers may choose to have the students make a film of their sections and then show them in class. However, if technology is difficult to get ahold of, the teacher may elect to have that as just an option. Upon the end of the unit teachers can show the videos or have the groups preform in order to close up the play, “Romeo and Juliet.”