The multicultural accessibility of our interdisciplinary unit is produced by a multidimensional exploration of our central text, Romeo and Juliet. The geographical piece of this multidisciplinary thematic unit takes the central conflict of Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers whose romance is obstructed and thwarted by discriminatory prejudice and violence, and reimagines this story in multiple historical, modern day, and imaginary circumstances across space and time. The multidimensional nature of our investigation of this aged European text transforms what might easily be a Eurocentric lesson into a multicultural lesson which critically examines the way that humans erect discriminatory barriers between one another.
The English Language Arts lessons included in this multidisciplinary unit engage students in reading Romeo and Juliet critically to analyze class and status discrimination, as well as gender discrimination. These lessons investigate the class and status differences in Romeo and Juliet through the lens of language. Shakespeare uses different rhyming schemes and different vocabulary sets for characters who come from different classes or inhabit different positions of status. Students will be guided through the critical reading of these differences, analyzing power dynamics between class, gender, and social status.
Students will use a graphic novel version of the play: the entire original text situated amidst expressive illustrations. Students will interact with Westside Story to analyze Romeo and Juliet story from a different angle. As a culminating project, students will spend an entire week crafting original, modern renditions of scenes from Romeo and Juliet. Students will work in small groups. Each group will choose a scene, and reimagine the characters and conflicts present in that scene together, creatively using their own identities to recast this story from their multitudinous individual experiences and cultural vantage points.
Meanwhile, students will engage in an ethnicity unit in World Geography. Students will work on creating several definitions for ‘ethnicity’, exploring the elements of identity that might construct an 'ethnicity.' Students will explore and analyze ethnic conflicts across the globe; options might include the experiences of Kurdish people in Iraq or Turkey, the experiences of Uighur people in China, Hutu and Tutsi peoples in Rwanda, and so on. This will prepare students for three key lessons that link this study of ethnicity to the story of Romeo and Juliet. In addition to the class, social status, and gender discrimination analyzed in English Language Arts, students will use the lens of romance to investigate ethnic, or cultural versions of discrimination which might impede a romantic relationship. Students will look specifically at inter-caste marriage in India and inter-’racial’ marriage in the United States, engaging particularly with stories of marriage relationships that have transcended these boundaries. After engaging in this comparative investigation, students will work in pairs to design their own short story of two star-crossed lovers who are impeded by the cultural discrimination around them. However, in this rendition, students will be encouraged to take the Romeo and Juliet style tragedy and turn it in to a success story - a story in which their characters transcend obstacles in order to be together.