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Rebekah McCloy

Dr. Ian Nolte

ENG 419

29 April 2020

Romeo and Juliet Lesson Plan Reflection

I developed my ideas for my Romeo and Juliet lesson plan by reflecting on how

Shakespeare’s work was taught when I was in high school and then trying to improve upon it by

adding in interesting, fun activities that still contain academic value. I felt that my Shakespeare

experiences in high school were lacking such activities, making it to where most students were

not interesting in the plays at all. It was almost as if some of the teachers were, to use Kelly

Gallagher’s term, committing “readicide.” When deciding upon interesting activities to use, I

pulled some ideas from Mary Ellen Dakin’s Reading Shakespeare with Young Adults as well as

the internet. I found great ideas and then adapted them to fit my purposes and my teaching style.

When it came to determining how I wanted to phrase my learning objectives, and ultimately

what I wanted them to stand for, I concluded that the main objective was that the students gain a

better understanding of Romeo and Juliet and the characters and plot points within it. The

objectives have students going about doing this through different means, such as reading the

play, analyzing it in small groups and class discussions, and working on various projects.

One of the state standards that I used multiple times throughout my lesson plan was,

ELA.9.18, which, in short, calls for students to comprehend dramas and other forms of literature

proficiently. Since this lesson plan is about one of the most famous dramas in existence, and the

goal is for students to become proficient in the drama, this is definitely a relevant state standard
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for the content being taught. My learning objective(s) for the lessons in which this state standard

is implemented does call for students gaining a better grasp of the play through class and group

discussions, as well as through freewrites. The objective and the standard are connected because

emphasize the desire for students’ comprehension to increase regarding the drama that is being

taught. I also used ELA.9.3 in my lesson plan. This state standard requires students to become

more familiar with the characters within the play, as well as the plot. The learning objective done

in conjunction with this has students analyzing the characters within Romeo and Juliet through

an activity so that they can better understand the play. This standard is used on multiple class

days, including the final day in the submitted lesson plan (not the final day in the unit) when

students are beginning work on their summative assessment. Additionally, I used ELA.9.1 in my

lesson plan. This standard was only use once in the lesson plan. It requires that students be able

to draw information and interpretations from the text. The learning objective used in conjunction

with this has students learning how to put those skills into action by having a debate on the play.

The ultimate goal in this objective is that students will, through that, be able to gain a higher

comprehension of Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet is an important drama to teach in classrooms today. Not only is it a

good introductory piece into William Shakespeare’s work, but it is also one of the most well-

known and celebrated dramas out there. I think it is important to expose students to literary

pieces that are so renowned, for it can lead on to a discussion as why those pieces have gained

the fame that they have over the years. Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet is a play about teenagers,

making it a play that the students can relate to in some way. Most students read this play when

they are about thirteen or fourteen, making them about the same age as fourteen year-old Juliet.

This can make the play and its’ themes more impactful.
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My lesson plan relates to the reading and research we have done on lesson design in that

it takes ideas from some of the sources we used. My summative assessment idea is an altered

version of one of the post-viewing activities that Dakin wrote about in one of her books.

Additionally, some of the activities that I chose to have my students do came from Dakin’s

Reading Shakespeare with Young Adults, such as the Biopoem and illustrated dictionary

activities. Throughout the writing of this lesson plan, I tried to be careful about not committing

“readicide.” We spent one of our earliest class sessions discussing this concept, and knowing that

teaching Shakespeare in the wrong manner could cause “readicide.” I want students to be able to

enjoy Shakespeare, not be turned off of reading because of how his work is taught.

Prior to teaching this set of lesson plans, I would rework the reading schedule. I feel like

the schedule that I have in place does not allow for enough discussion during the class periods.

Discussion is an extremely important aspect to any unit, particularly one that revolves around the

work of William Shakespeare. It keeps students from getting too confused about the plot and the

material and it allows students to better enjoy the literary work. In a revised set of lesson plans, I

would try to break the readings up better, so that there would be more time for group and class

discussions. I also think that prior to teaching this unit, I may want to revise the learning

objectives in the unit or add more on each day. I feel like the learning objectives are not quite

correct.