Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I have read it about four or five times and it never gets old. This book is a great tool to use in the classroom for many reasons. First off the language is beautiful. Second, we get to see how two different families, or cultures fight and resolve a problem. Third, the main characters are younger, making it easier for students at the high school level to relate to.

            This play is full of fancy talk. This play was one of the first challenging texts I had to read as a freshman in high school. At first I had some trouble understanding particular phrases but I learned how to use footnotes to help me understand. Reading a text that is just above the students ability to read, helps them to analyze the text and pull out a deeper meaning. That is what the play taught me to do. I think I love this play because it was the first time I truly studied what I read rather than just skimming.

            Romeo and Juliet are from to families that have been in a feud for generations.  A great lesson idea would be to study each side of the family and pull out traditions, religious background, wealth, and other aspects unique to a culture. After defining what each culture has compare them and ask the question, What causes these two cultures to clash? What can be done to help them to get along?

            Juliet is only 14 and yet she falls deeply in love with Romeo in what seems to be a matter of minutes. This seems quite comical but also sets up for good discussion on maturity and how our age and experience affects the choices we make. Throughout the story Romeo and Juliet make some pretty crazy decisions. How do their ages affect those decisions, how does their culture?

            Romeo and Juliet is a play full of teaching tools! As a high schooler I remember doing an activity using Shakespearean language. I also remember watching the movie and writing a compare contrast paper on it. We also made masquerade masks just like the masks used in the masquerade in the book. I want to teach this book in my classroom.