Week 7 Syllabus: May 6
BRING ON WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE! The iconic tragedy, Romeo & Juliet, features everything you would want in romantic-death-comedy: teenage romance, street-fighting with swords, out-of-control family parties and drunken exploits, a marriage, a court case, even illegal drug use and murder. And that doesn’t even include the dual suicide which ends the play! We will start but carefully reading—and orally performing, in the round—the prologue, the sonnet that opens the play and (spoiler!) tells you that Romeo and Juliet die at the end. You will also read act one, and listen to the audio performance while doing so.
TUESDAY, May 7
Take the above survey for New Trier’s administration, in class on Tuesday.
Starting class with our 20 minutes of SSR.
Collecting your two paragraphs about whether or not Odysseus is a hero worthy of our emulation. We want to review these BEFORE we do any peer editing.
Large group reading of Romeo & Juliet’s act 1 prologue.
Reviewing the expectations for Friday’s oral presentations on your independent reading.
HW: Prepare for your note card for your oral presentation. IT SHOULD ONLY CONTAIN PHRASES. If it has complete sentences, you will NOT be allowed to use it in class on Friday. Worried about that? Ask Ms. Tamvakis or I to check it before Friday. Our office is in C-211.
For class on Friday, read (and listen) to Act 1 of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. The audio is >40 minutes. But it WILL require you to concentrate, and you will NOT be able to complete it in one sitting.
WEDNESDAY, May 8
Bring a charged iPad to class today. You will be taking the STAR reading assessment for the last time (this school year).
Remember, your log in is your NT id number. Your password is your eight-digit birthdate (month/date/year).
HW: Finish preparing for your oral presentation on your independent reading, AND finish reading act one of Romeo & Juliet.
FRIDAY, May 9
Silent reading.
Close examination of problem: Romeo suffers from unrequited love (he loves Rosaline, and she ignores his advances). His friend Benvolio convinces him to go to the Capulet’s costume party, where Rosaline will be, but ostensibly so that Romeo can “check out other babes.” What happens? He meets and falls in love with Juliet. The NEW problem? She’s a Capulet, a family that Romeo’s family hates.
We will watch THREE different presentations of I.v, wherein Romeo and Juliet fall in love. We will closely read and study “the poem” that is their dialogue about sex and religion.
Time permitting, we will either act out this scene.
HW: Read and listen to act two. You should WATCH this Globe version of act one. It’s linked here.