Romeo and Juliet Mini Lesson

Good old Romeo and Juliet. I personally do not like this play. This is not quite my taste. I am very curious to see how the mini lesson is done on this play. However, this play is required for most ninth graders and I could very possibly teach this play in a future classroom someday. What I would do to make this play a little easier on students is to first introduce William Shakespeare. I think it's important for students to know that he wrote mostly comedies which means that Romeo and Juliet was a little bit different for him. Shakespeare has many more comedies than dramatic plays. I think to do this play, I would have students draw some scenes out from the book. I would give my students certain scenes to work with and draw out as a group. I feel like if 9th graders create a visual of what's going on in this play, they will more likely remember the scene and understand the difficult language. I think another interesting idea would be to ask the essay question: 'Who's fault is it?' I think there are so many different responses I would get to this question which would make Romeo and Juliet more enjoyable for myself. I think if students had this in mind from the first page, they could possibly enjoy this text more. I think the obvious choices are it's either Romeo's fault that they both died or it's Juliet's fault. Students would also need to consider Friar Laurence and the mother and father as well as any other characters they think. This would be written in an argumentative type style as to why their choice is correct. I think students would have a little bit of fun with this and it would be enjoyable to grade. I also think another teaching idea is to rewrite scenes of the play in texting language. I think 9th graders would enjoy being able to make texts out of Romeo and Juliet. This way, students would be tricked into analyzing the play only in a semi fun way. I think there's a lot that goes into Romeo and Juliet. I feel like this can be one of the trickiest plays to teach because there is so much hate out there. I think in a way, teachers can embrace the student hate and almost agree with them. I guarantee at least one student is going to think that these two young-ins are stupid. As a teacher, I would agree with them. Yes, they're stupid, why do you think William Shakespeare wrote them this way? Was this on purpose? Or was he actually trying to convince everyone that they were madly in love? I think by embracing the hate that this play gets, teaching it will become much easier.