Romeo, oh Romeo

I have to admit, I'm not a Romeo and Juliet fan. Yes, I realize Shakespeare is brilliant the play is a classic but...I'm just so over it! After taking many, many English classes over the course of my educational career, I have come to love many of Shakespeare's plays. Titus Andronicus immediately captured my attention, and I absolutely love the story. Maybe I'm just into creepy, dark tragedies, but Titus' story enthralled me. There are so many excellent things about Shakespeare's other works, and I've always felt that it was sad that Romeo and Juliet continues to outshine them all.

However, I am in a 9th grade English classroom, and the themes in Romeo and Juliet definitely apply to many of the life issues my students are currently dealing with. Forbidden love, family misunderstandings, lust; all of these themes can definitely be related to a group of 14 and 15 year old students. In my high school experience, we discussed the story of Romeo and Juliet as the tragic story of two young people who were desperately in love, and were forced into taking desperate actions.

I disagree.

I've always looked at Romeo and Juliet as two confused (and possibly not so bright) teenagers who chose to make a series of ridiculous choices without thinking. Over the course of three days, the lovers decide that they cannot bear to live anymore since they can't be together. I think it is important to focus on these details, because they play an important role in how students interpret the story. In my classroom, I would like to address these issues, and find new ways to present the story we all know so well.

I love incorporating reader's theater into my classroom, and I think Shakespearean text works wonderfully for this activity. Students really get into acting out the different scenes, and they tend to remember the main points and understand ideas more clearly when they actually perform a section of text and write it in their own words.

I recently read a blog on edutopia.org that discussed one woman's choice to have her students put on a modern performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for a fundraiser. She stated:
"So, I sat down with the Drama Club and presented this year's play: Romeo & Juliet: The Ferguson Way! And I wanted their help. How can we bring Shakespeare's romantic tragedy into the 21st Century? Who would the feud be between? Juliet was 13 in Shakespeare's version. In today's world, would a 13-year-old girl fake her own death? Would they get married? How can we have this sense of drama, yet make it realistic? Should they die? From these early meetings came the framework for our script."
I love the fact that she made her students think about how the events in the play would unfold in today's world, and how she connected the story to her students' personal lives. Creating meaningful lessons and connections to the text is so important, and activities that encourage student involvement really make a difference!