ROMEO AND JULIET CULMINATING ACTIVITIES

CULMINATING ACTIVITY PROJECTS

You may complete your Culminating Activity Project alone or in a group. There may be up to six people in a group. Submit the names of your group members to Miss Pesch as soon as you know them.

For Culminating Activities that involve original writing (Options 2-5): the finished product must include twenty lines per group member. If you choose to work alone, you will submit twenty lines; a group of two will submit forty lines, etc. Costume and blocking are required for Option 1; a written copy of your work is required for Options 2-5.

A’s will be earned by the students who demonstrate originality and creativity, and strive to present their original and creative ideas via careful editing of their written submissions. Likewise, a good work ethic and a mature, focused delivery will result in a high grade for oral presentations. The Culminating Activity is not “curved;” you are not competing against each other, but against yourself and the excellent standards that you know that you can reach. There is no shortage of A’s!

We will begin presenting our Culminating Activity Projects on Tuesday, April 11. This will conclude our Romeo and Juliet unit; if we finish early with the Culminating Activity Projects, then we will view the Baz Luhrmann William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet.

OPTION 1. Perform a portion of Romeo and Juliet for the class. Use costumes and props. Recite ten memorized lines or recite twenty lines with the book in hand. It is suggested that you memorize your lines (you may certainly memorize twenty lines!), as holding a book will interfere with your blocking (stage movements) and use of props and thus detract from the realism of the performance.

OPTION 2. Rewrite a Romeo and Juliet scene in verse or modern English (it may be a soliloquy), and overturn a major act of loyalty or disloyalty. I.e., write a scene in which Juliet decides to marry Paris, or a scene in which Romeo decides, though he is attracted to Juliet, to be loyal to his affection to Rosaline. Make it clear what the characters are thinking about loyalty. Consider also writing an epilogue for the Chorus that will tell us how the situation resolves.

OPTION 3. Write a scene in verse or prose.

*A soliloquy of the Nurse. How does she feel about having advised Juliet to marry Paris? Explore her motivations. Is she pleased with the advice that she gave Juliet? Is she indifferent? What does she think about her influence over Juliet’s loyalties?

*A conversation between Juliet and Rosaline – they talk about Romeo. What do they say? Present Juliet and Rosaline as having two different perspectives on loyalty.

*A conversation between Romeo and Rosaline – he asks her to marry him, and she refuses. Rosaline vows loyalty to her church, and Romeo tries to persuade her to be most loyal to her heart or her family. Show how Romeo and Rosaline’s loyalties are similar and different.

OPTION 4. Rewrite the Prologue in verse, getting the message essentially the same (i.e., offering a précis of the events of the play), but placing an emphasis on loyalty. (**In keeping with the original play, your Prologue need only be 14 lines long. You may write more than 14 lines!**)

OPTION 5. Write a poem about loyalty. You may reference Romeo and Juliet, but you don’t have to. You may use rhyming verse or “blank” or “free” verse. Loyalty issues that you’ve faced in your own lives are good subjects for these poems. Consider the relationships between family, loyalty, and love.

THEME TEACHING LESSON THIRTEEN - MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK

Students will use our studies in Romeo and Juliet and the main concept to choose musical selections that they feel “appropriately reflect” a character, relationship, situation, or theme in the play. This is designed to be a “musical intelligence” lesson. The lesson will require the students to link two kinds of performing arts. Students will learn how subjective elements such as art artifacts can represent other subjectivities.

Each student has chosen a musical work that he feels represents a character, relationship, situation, or theme in the play. Each student has prepared on paper the name, composer, and (if applicable) lyrics to the song they choose. They also submit a reference for where one can hear the song, including the song name, album name, artist, recording company, recording date, and release date. Most importantly, they furnish a paragraph (or more) explaining the reasons for their selection(s).

Each student presents the particulars of his chosen work and his reasons for choosing the work(s). Some students will have multiselections. We will play excerpts of the selections.

The students’ response to this has been overwhelmingly positive and positively overwhelming! Many students entered the room with CD’s with many songs on them; still more had requests that I visit AOL or Yahoo! music for their songs. Many wrote longer-than-necessary explanations for their choices. I think that this has been the most popular assignment thus far. I knew that most of my students were intensely into music, but this confirms it to a surprising extent. There are more requests to play music than we can accommodate in a single block. G-Block features a trio who raps a popular song that most of the students seem to know. The students are enthusiastic. A variety of genres is represented, and, collated, will create an engaging diverse soundtrack to represent the play.

LESSON TEN - LESSON TWELVE – 1968 FILM VIEWING

LESSON TEN – LESSON TWELVE - 1968 FILM VIEWING 1 - 3

The viewing of the film helps the students solidify our readings in their minds and reiterates to the students that the play that we are currently studying is poetry. Though many students will already have formed cogent images of Romeo, Juliet, et. al. in their minds, some will not have, and the film will help them form a context in which to do so. We are about two-thirds through the play, though many students have read ahead (some through to the end of the play). Those who have yet to finish the play will have increased motivation to do so. Film viewing uses the magnetism of “popular culture” to rivet these young men, who are very much attuned to popular culture. The viewing will also prepare the students for the dramatic element of the Culminating Activity.

The students will view the first/second/last 45-60 minutes of the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The students are entranced by the fighting, snigger at Tybalt's pants, and stare affixed when Juliet is on screen. It's exciting to see their reactions as they see the relationship dynamics unfold before them. The dance music of the Capulet party, especially the Moureska, is reminiscient of the Renaissance dance music that we listen to at the beginning of every class. Despite our class discussions, Juliet is younger than the student seem to have expected (and I think that Olivia Hussey was 14, not Juliet's 13, when she filmed this). The students appropriately find Lady Capulet icy and the Nurse "a blabbermouth."

THEME TEACHING LESSON NINE - GRAFFITI 2

Our purpose in practicing “graffiti” is to integrate what the class knows – its prior knowledge, what it has just learned, and opportunities for further learning within the scope of the unit and its questions. As with all collaborative activities, the graffiti model has the students learn from each other. Instead of sitting still and listening to a teacher, they are actively teaching each other with their ideas and skills from real life, as well as using their knowledge about Romeo and Juliet. The students’ opinions and knowledge are valuable and important to the class’ learning; it isn’t all from the teacher, and activities such as graffiti show this to the learners. Collaborative activities encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning, to take pride in it, and to enjoy it.

The students seat themselves in their “graffiti teams.”

Each group receives a piece of posterboard and a question. The group writes its question and team name at the top of the posterboard. The group discusses its question and writes the answer underneath the question. After three to five minutes on each question, the groups rotate the posterboards, and each group repeats the discussion-and-answering process, writing its answer underneath the previous group’s answer. The process is repeated until each group has answered each question and has its original questions in it hand. (Each group will submit these handwritten “session notes,” (which will be displayed in our classroom), however, these notes will not be formally assessed.)

When all the questions have reached their original group answers, each group reads its original question and then presents the collaborative answers of the whole class. As time allows, students may summarize the answers on the board.

THEME TEACHING LESSON EIGHT - THEMATIC COLLAGES

Students will develop their artistic intelligences by choosing and arranging bits of graphic media into collages relative to Romeo and Juliet.

Each student has supplied three magazines for general “consumption” during the making of theme collages.

For a week, we have been discussing the point behind our impending collage-making, and we now take a few minutes to review it. The students are to create collages that reflect 1. our core concepts of loyalty, family, and love, 2. particular character(s) in Romeo and Juliet, 3. particular scene(s) in Romeo and Juliet, or 4. any combination of the first three. We discuss the details of what might appear on a collage – pictures of people from magazines, text from magazine, individual letters from the magazines, arranged to spell thematically-appropriate messages, or supplemental pictures from the internet. Students meet in their graffiti teams and create their collages.

I am pleased at the variety of production from the students. Collages range from the literal to the metaphorical, from entirely-pictoral representations of the play’s characters to “bibliocollages” that spell out “Loyalty,” “Family,” “Love,” Family Feud,” “Dateless Bargain,” etc. Some students have taken the initiative to provide pictures from the internet especially for this project. The young men favor pictures of boxing rivals and corporate moguls glaring at each other; these chosen extracts receive penciled captions such as “Romeo and Tybalt,” “Capulet and Montague,” and “It’s my territory!” I had anticipated a certain degree of disorderliness, but the students seem engaged and intent on their work; the noise level is lower than I had expected. My mentor-teacher comments afterward that the manual manipulation and creation is attractive to the young men, and thus instrumental in the on-task attention.

I am seeking an available hallway bulletin board on which to post their work.

THEME TEACHING LESSON SEVEN - GRAFFITI 1

Our purpose in practicing “graffiti” is to integrate what the class knows – its prior knowledge, what it has just learned, and opportunities for further learning within the scope of the unit and its questions. As with all collaborative activities, the graffiti model has the students learn from each other. Instead of sitting still and listening to a teacher, they are actively teaching each other with their ideas and skills from real life, as well as using their knowledge about Romeo and Juliet. The students’ opinions and knowledge are valuable and important to the class’ learning; it isn’t all from the teacher, and activities such as graffiti show this to the learners. Collaborative activities encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning, to take pride in it, and to enjoy it.

The students seat themselves in their “graffiti teams,” Team Romeo, Team Tybalt, Team Mercutio, and Team Benvolio (which evolves into "Team Benvolio-Juliet" in one block. :) ).

The class reviews the Romeo and Juliet artworks or reproductions that they were assigned to provide for this class. Each student stands, shows his chosen piece, and explains how he chose it and where he found it (he made it, he Googled it, etc.).

Each group receives a piece of posterboard and a question. The group writes its question and team name at the top of the posterboard. The group discusses its question and writes the answer underneath the question. After three to five minutes on each question, the groups rotate the posterboards, and each group repeats the discussion-and-answering process, writing its answer underneath the previous group’s answer. The process is repeated until each group has answered each question and has its original questions in it hand. (Each group will submit these handwritten “session notes,” (which will be displayed in our classroom), however, these notes will not be formally assessed.)

When all the questions have reached their original group answers, each group reads its original question and then presents the collaborative answers of the whole class. As time allows, students summarize the answers on the board.

QUESTIONS:

1. What are the loyalties of Juliet the daughter? Whom does she love? Does she love any one person more than another? Who is her family? What do you think that the loyalties of Juliet the wife would be? Whom would she love? Would she love any one person more than another? Who would be her family?

2. Summarize Lord’s Capulet’s nature. What does his nature indicate about his perceptions of Juliet’s loyalties, and his expectations of his family’s loyalties? Are Lord Capulet’s notions of “loyalties” more or less “elastic” (bendable, changeable, open to interpretation) than those of Lady Capulet? Are Juliet’s notions on loyalty more like her mother’s or her father’s? Why do you think so?

3. Summarize the personal and professional relationships that the servants have with their masters. Are there bonds of loyalty to the masters? If so, cite events in the play that show this. If you discern no bond of loyalty between the servants and masters, explain why you think that there are no such bonds. How could the play’s servant and master relationships be improved (if at all)?

4. As a group, choose a character that you can agree on as your “favorite” or “most likable.” Why did you choose this character? What actions has s/he done that has made him or her likable? Has the character done anything that you have disliked? Cite specific instances that indicate this character’s ideas on family, loyalty and love. Do these instances have anything to do with why you consider him or her your favorite or most likable character?

THEME TEACHING LESSON SIX - DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION

Students view a filmed interpretation (Baz Luhrmann) of Act II, Scene 3 from Romeo and Juliet. After the viewing, we discuss Friar Laurence’s motivations in the scene. Why is he angry with Romeo (he feels that Romeo is being capricious and falsely avowing loyalties to every woman he meets)? Why does he agree to perform the marriage (he thinks that helping to forge such a bond of love and loyalty will dissolve the dissention between Romeo and Juliet’s respective clans)?

Students read “Script Scoring” from The Stage and the School (6th edition). We discuss the reason for and uses of script scoring. We discuss how the use of script scoring greatly influences the portrayal of a character, and thus influences all genres of literature. We discuss the great importance of script scoring to actors. We discuss the niceties of the use of this tool – that script scoring tells the actor when to pause, when to lift and drop inflection, etc.

Using the scoring marks presented in “Script Scoring,” the students score a copy of the Luhrmann Act II, Scene 3.

Volunteers read their scripts according to the marks they’ve chosen to include their copies of the Luhrmann script, and afterward elucidate which mark they chose for which point. We compare and contrast the students’ readings, and examine how the varied inflections create different interpretations of the same character, thus, the same play.

As an actor and a proponent of drama, I find this lesson tremendously exciting, but my enthusiasm ebbs as it becomes clear that the students don’t find the material riveting. They enjoy watching and discussing the Luhrmann clip, but they dutifully score their scripts in silence. They perk up a little bit when students read and the class compares the performances, but I am a still a little bit shaken. It’s just a great indication of how a teacher must hone his student-interest compass; I consider script scoring infinitely more enjoyable then Venn diagrams, which the students adored!

Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack Project

Each student will choose a musical work that he feels represents a character, relationship, situation, or theme in the play. You will submit the name, composer, and (if applicable) lyrics to the song you choose. You will also submit a reference for where one can hear the song, including the song name, album name, artist, recording company, recording date, and release date. You will furnish a paragraph (or more) explaining the reasons for your selection.

Each student will present the particulars of his chosen work.

(Optional:) You may bring to class a CD of your musical selection. As time allows, we will play excerpts of the selections.

Romeo and Juliet Collage Project

Each student will bring to class three to five magazines (school-appropriate content, please) that can be cut up and used for a collage project.

When we’ve amassed a font of magazines to use, we will have a collage-making block. Each student will make a collage relating to the essential questions of Romeo and Juliet. Remember, the essential questions that we’re studying are in your “My Notes and Thoughts on Romeo and Juliet” journals. Also remember that the essential questions are posted in the bulletin board in our room.

Romeo and Juliet Art Gallery Project

Romeo and Juliet Art Gallery Project

Each student will bring in a picture (preferably in color) relative to Romeo and Juliet and our essential questions. It will be due the next time that your block has class.

It may be printed from the internet. It may be of Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey from the 1968 film adaptation; it may be of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes from the 1997 film adaptation; it may be of Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn performing the ballet Romeo and Juliet; it may be of Ruth Ann Swenson and Placido Domingo singing the opera Roméo et Juliette; it can a copy of John Pettie’s The Friar and Juliet.

It may be a snapshot of a school production of Romeo and Juliet. It may be a photograph of you dressed up as an Elizabethan costume. It may be your own personal artwork depicting a scene in the play. It may be a picture of Madame Alexander Romeo and Juliet dolls. It may be a picture of Barbie and Ken dressed up as Romeo and Juliet.

The picture must be appropriate for the school setting. Please put your name and block on the back of the picture.

We will use the pictures to decorate our classroom, to make it festive and to remind us of our theme topic and our essential questions, which are posted on the bulletin board in our room.

THEME TEACHING LESSON FIVE - VENN DIAGRAMS

The students are even more enthusiastic about the Venn diagrams than I’d expected they’d be. We discuss what Venn diagrams are, what they are used, and what their purpose is. Students indicate that they have used Venn diagrams since primary in almost every academic subject. I explain that we will be using them to study pairs of Romeo and Juliet characters, as well as core themes. As a class, we choose a pair of characters to study. Romeo and Tybalt is the most popular pairing. Students pair and discuss, each student filling out his own copy of the Venn diagram, and then we reconvene. A volunteer pair puts its answers on the Venn diagram on the board, and explains their thinking processes. A second volunteer pair does the same, and the emphasis is on collaborative thinking, practicing how to analyze and merge the varied answers and varied expressions of these answers. Most of my blocks analyze two pairs, and there are varied discussion times of the second pair. The students seem engaged and interested in the lesson. Naturally, I was enthused by their enthusiasm.

REQUIRED SUPPLIES

What should I always bring to Miss Pesch's class?

1. My copy of Romeo and Juliet
2. "My Notes and Thoughts on Romeo and Juliet" journal
3. A writing utensil
4. Notebook paper or looseleaf