Pre-AP 9 R&J Lesson Plans

Pre-AP 9: R&J || Day 6 || Wednesday/Thursday

Lesson Plan

Learning Target:
- I can recognize and comprehend Shakespearean vocabulary in his writings by
discussing it during reading and warmups.
- I can compare language and imagery the simultaneous undertone of
foreshadowing, allusion, and dramatic irony through discussion of it while reading
- I can discuss Shakespeare’s further character development and perspectives on
love during discussions, and I will also compare this to other works that have
influenced Shakespeare (Ovid and Brooke).

Standards:
2.1.a. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development
over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific
details; provide an objective summary of the text. (CCSS: RL.9-10.2)

2.1.b. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting
motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and
advance the plot or develop the theme. (CCSS: RL.9-10.3)

2.1.c. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events
within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such
effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

2.1i.e. Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work
(e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later
author draws on a play by Shakespeare). (CCSS: RL.9-10.9)

Materials
- Prezi
- Student dictionaries
- Two-column notes
- Elements of Literature
- “Romeo…the Pilgrim?” sheet
- Homework sheets

Differentiation

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Modifications
- Written and oral presentation of the play for student with auditory processing
issue
- Students choose what to write in the second column—or if they’d rather simply
write summary notes so that they can condense what they are reading and clarify
- Check for student understanding with clarification and summaries
Extensions
- Students choose to write analysis questions—motifs, metaphors, analytical
questions—in the second column
- Students choose which article of differing difficulties to read
- Students discuss and participate in in-depth analysis, collaborating as a class
- Point out opportunities for more in-depth analysis

Understandings
- Shakespearean language
- Literary elements in the play: e.g. foreshadowing, setting, and character
development

Evidence Outcomes
- Student behavior to meet the expectations set before them (either reading out
loud or taking notes for daily participation p
- Student reading out loud
- Student answers to my questions (checking for understanding)
- Students notating the “Romeo… the Pilgrim?” sheet

Assessments
- Student note-taking and participation in answering questions/reading out loud for
participation points
- Students fill out the “Romeo… the Pilgrim?” sheet and turn it in
- Students will show annotations of their articles to show understanding of the
article they chose

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Script
 Warm up (20 minutes)
o Grammar: students will write an important excerpt from the text in their
own words so that they can understand vital parts of the text
o Vocabulary: vocabulary word that will be found during the reading today
 Students will refer to the “Shakespeare dictionary” that they had
made and turned in earlier if they need to in order to understand
common vocabulary words in Shakespeare
o Root word: students guess which words use the root word provided and
then what the root word means
o Quote of the Week: “True love stories never die”—agree, disagree, and
provide evidence why
 Review of yesterday
o Characters—Tybalt, Benvolio, moody Romeo, Paris hoping to woo Juliet at
the party, Romeo hoping to see Rosaline at the party
o How important is the setting? Why begin with the fighting in the streets of
Verona?
 Get textbook and volunteer reading positions (8 minutes)
o While Montagues get books, Capulets volunteer to read; etc.
o Pass forward papers at the same time for me to collect soon
 Start reading Act 1, scenes ii-iv
o Students are writing two-column notes at the same time
 One column: summarizing parts of the play
 Second column: motifs, symbols, foreshadowing, character analysis
and development, critical questions for upcoming discussions
o Pause and ask questions to the students so they recognize and analyze how
Shakespeare is setting up…
 Foils (character development)
 Romeo and Juliet

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 Lady Capulet and Nurse

 Mercutio and Romeo
 Mercutio and Benvolio
 Tybalt and Benvolio
 The concept of true love
 Dramatic irony
 What foreshadowing Shakespeare is setting up so far
 How this compares to the “To the Reader” excerpt of Arthur
Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet (the inspiration for Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet) and Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe”
o Debrief
 Last scene (scene v)
 “Romeo… the Pilgrim?”
o Students work on the “Romeo… the Pilgrim?” sheet in which they write
quatrains from Romeo and Juliet’s sonnet in their own words in the right-
hand column
o Students answer the question at the bottom asking if comparing the two to
saints and pilgrims predicts Romeo and Juliet’s doom
 Closure
o Introduce assignments: three different articles on the importance of names
and identity
 One: an op-ed about personal and sociological importance of giving
names
 Two: from Freakonomics, a “pop economics” book, bordering on
sociological; excerpt of chapter about economical impacts of name,
“nominative determinism”
 Three: an academic article from psychologists about the impact of
names on identity

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o Read and annotate them; I’ll check the annotations on Tuesday, but for
those who are busy for weekdays you have an entire week to read the
article you choose
o Assignment will be due on Tuesday, so there’s time over Spring Break to
read them