Schedule: 60 min class
Class: 9th Grade English
Source Material: Romeo and Juliet original text graphic novel adaptation by John McDonald
In history, you read about and reflected on stories that address themes including Discrimination.
We will then play a slideshow defining Discrimination and providing common real-world examples of Discrimination including:
***My slideshow will be an interactive slideshow, on Google Slides, so they will each be assigned their own copy where they will type their answers on slides and then turn it in at the end of class for credit***
End of slideshow ends stating something along the lines of:
In this play, Romeo and Juliet, we will encounter multiple different types of discrimination.
Then, I will turn the slideshow to the next slide that reads:
“Does anyone know who wrote Romeo & Juliet?”
I will then give the students time to answer and hope that one person knows. If not, I will tell them and then continue on the Slideshow which will then move on to a very short biography on Shakespeare including when and where he was born. (I am assuming for some of them this is the first Shakespeare text they have ever worked with).
Example of Shakespeare Background:
Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. He wrote his first plays around 1592. He is one of the most famous poets in the world and his legacy continues to live on through plays and modern day adaptations in films.
Then, I will play a series of slides which will have the video clips/commercials of popular more recent movies. These commercials will be of recent films that have plots based on the literary work of Shakespeare. After the video, the next slide will name the title of Shakespeare plotline that inspired the film. The commercials will play in this order: She’s the Man (Twelfth Night), 10 Things I Hate About you (The Taming of the Shrew), and West Side Story (Romeo & Juliet).
More Shakespeare background:
The next transition slide will focus on:
-A)Why are we studying Shakespeare? B)What can we gain from reading Shakespeare?
Some other slides explaining Shakespeare will go into detail about Shakespeare’s influence on the English language as a whole. Shakespeare invented over 1700 words into our current English language. I will show slides of some of these words that Shakespeare invented for our language. Examples include radiance, dislocate, elbow, and lonely.
Shakespeare utilizes language to explore many themes in his literary techniques. In this text, we will look at the larger theme of Discrimination and all of the different versions of discrimination.
Throughout the reading of the text, I will stop the students and have ask them discussion questions. Since this is the first scene, most of my discussion questions will focus on asking students to reflect on the content of Shakespeare’s life.
I will provide a Model by answering the first few questions with my students after a group discussion. My word document will be project from my computer onto the projection screen for everyone to see.
The independent practice will serve as these students answering the questions on their own. Some of these questions will also be directed for the students to discuss as in a table group and then write down their response on their document.
This activity is guided practice because students will be guided based on my questions that I am asking to the entire class.
At the end of this slideshow, students will answer a question at the end of the slideshow. This will serve as a personal reflection as well as
At the very end of class and final question on their worksheet, I will ask the class as a whole and select to provide their own definition of Discrimination. I will then ask them to explain if they think their acts of discrimination were rationale or not. This final answer will also serve as a Quick-Write activity, where we are more focused on their actual opinion.
For some students, this may be their first time interacting with a Shakespeare text. After they submit their Google Slides, I will be able to grade and assess the students at how well they understand the ideas of Shakespeare. If the students lack making connections or fail to answer questions in dept, I will spend more time in the following class periods.
My lesson is the very first one and sets up most of the Introductory Information. Therefore, providing background information of Shakespeare and explaining to the students why we are reading Shakespeare and discovering that he is responsible for contributing over 1700 words to our English language.
My lesson is also providing an initial definition and deeper analysis of Discrimination. It is important for the students to fully understand the definition and examples of discrimination, so they can be on the lookout for it in the future. Overall, I am trying to accomplish the students having a deeper background on our Unit Theme of Discrimination and to excite the students (just a little bit) about reading Shakespeare and learning about his relevance to our society today.