Shakespeare vs Eminem...Who is/was the better rapper?
“Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” Or, in today’s terms, “Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my Snapchat, so Snapchat me maybe?”
Shakespeare. This one name makes most people cringe. Admit it, you just snarled and remembered your own experience with this guy, whether it be in the awkward middle school years, the confusing high school years, or if you’re lucky enough, the dog days of college.
As a member of society at the almost ripe age of 25, I will admit, I barely remember learning about Bill Shakespeare in the awkward and confusing years of school. The only memory I have is of my freshman English teacher, Farnsy as we called her, fast forwarding through the old version of Romeo and Juliet during the part every high schooler giggles at. Also, I remember watching different classmates act out the fighting scenes with cut-in-half pool noodles. However, at the seasoned aged I am, his words are forever tattooed on me. So, it begs the question: is Shakespeare just that boring, or was I not as cognitively aware of how this crazy, old man changed and molded the English language in what it is today? Billy Boy created so many cliches, jokes, and puns, oh the puns!
As a lover and adamant speaker of puns, I wanted to take the love of the language and to help the kids who absolutely despise reading Shakespeare to somewhat enjoy the two months of their lives it takes to get through the unit.
This unit started out with printing off character sheets, discussion sheets, Shakespearean pick-up lines, maps, and...well let me just apologize for killing some trees. I wanted the kids to get the full experience of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but also be able to understand the story, puns and all. One way this was accomplished was by using No Fear Shakespeare, which takes Shakespeare in all his glory and modernizes it. However, I also found an edition that shows the original Shakespeare text next to the modernized version allowing the students to not lose out on the beautimous language. I had previously used No Fear Shakespeare Macbeth with my sophomore class, and they loved it...or tolerated it enough to comprehend the plot, so I went for it with Romeo and Juliet.
All in all, the freshman were able to fully understand the plot of two teenagers falling in love at first sight, getting married the day after they met, hiding their marriage, deciding to run away, faking their deaths, really dying, all happening in six days all because of...a family feud.
Next, after reading the play, we moved on to the final project (because projects are more creative and fun than tests). Also, I am a full believer in hands on projects. It allows the students to change the monotony of class and expand the horizons of creativity and comprehension. The projects I set forth to the students were of a very unique variety. The projects had ranged from writing an original poem about anything R & J related, reading an article about the teenage brain and write a reflection on it, drawing a scene, building a model of the globe theater or Renaissance castle, creating a collage of Shakespearean quotes, creating a wedding scene, acting out a scene, composing a song or rap and performing, and baking/cooking food in relation to the Renaissance or Romeo and Juliet. These are literally just a few of the many projects set forth.
The students the past two years have gone above and beyond. On the first day of presentations (it took two days because of all the projects), we had a food day where all students who brought food for their hour shared what they made with the whole class. I left that day at least 10lbs heavier than when I stepped foot into the room at the beginning of the day. Good thing it was bulking season...I mean winter. For real, students brought in anything from spaghetti to homemade bread to beef stew, to pies, to sparkling grape juice, to more homemade bread, to a four-tiered wedding cake. Also, students brought in over 15 different Globe Theater models, one even made out of wood and sat 2.5 feet wide and one only 2 inches wide (they were instructed as long as it fit through the doorway and had a paragraph history/explanation, I would accept it) Also that day, we were graced with the musical stylings of up and coming rap artists who battled their way to bragging rights. That’s right; there is a video for you to enjoy :).
All in all, at the end of the day, I did a mega teacher dance, something in between Footloose and Single Ladies and the Pillsbury Doughboy waddle, with many mental high fives...okay, they were real ones...to myself. This day, which can cause even eyebrow hairs to turn white, went off without a hitch! In college, our motto was to, “Do something different!” For all the years it was drilled into our heads, it paid off. Overall, the kids were intrigued on creating and doing something different in the classroom, and many of these projects were able to get their parents involved as well, double whammy!
Comments
Post a Comment