Lessons from Romeo and Juliet

I taught short excerpts from Romeo and Juliet yesterday as an accompaniment to Chapter 22 of The Hunger Games, in which Katniss and Peeta, two "star-cross'd" lovers, share their first real kiss. I knew teaching R&J would be a stretch since it's usually saved for high school, but a) I like stretching, b) I love Shakespeare *snorts* *pushes up glasses* *spends a Saturday night reorganizing bookshelf*, and c) curriculum rules are made to be broken. 

Here are some of the things we learned:

1) Assistant principals generally do not appreciate Shakespearean jokes.   One of my students, Paul, isn’t quite sure how to let Shakespeare go outside of class. I watched between classes today as he pointed at various students in the hall, demanding, “DOFF THY PANTS!” or “Do you thumb your nose at me, sir?!”  Upon observing laughter/fun, one of our administrators  threatened him with a detention.  As my student walked past me, he muttered, “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”  Even though it didn’t really make sense given the context, I found myself in the unfortunate circumstance of cackling like a crazed witch.

2) "They both prude." This was one response I got to my question, “How are Katniss and Juliet similar?” (It is kind of true.)

3) Paris > Romeo

We watched a few carefully selected clips from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, and one thing became clear to us all: if Juliet has a propensity for love at first sight, she definitely should have love-at-first-sighted Paris.

4) I can't pronounce "wherefore art thou" in under ten seconds.  Whefffer ott thou.  Whereforrat thou.  Wherefart thou. I tried to play it cool for my last class by just speaking very slowly when I got to that line, but I still got called out on it.

"Ok guys, so what stood out to you in that excerpt?"
"How long it took you to say line 5."
"Touche. Also, you just hurt my feelings.  I can't read good."
"I'm sorry, Miss."
"Gotcha. I win."

5) Middle school students can handle Romeo and Juliet.  My students were champs yesterday, way more champy than when I've done other difficult readings with them.  This doesn’t surprise me since Romeo and Juliet is kind of perfect for middle school. It's about hating your parents, the allure of forbidden love, the dangers of relying on your amygdalas, and how life-alteringly bad it is when your letter/text message doesn't get to the recipient.

6) Middle school students cannot handle stopping a video just before a kiss.  I thought I was going to have sharp objects thrown at me.  “AT LEAST PAUSE IT ON THEY LIPS TOUCHING!!!!!”

I think Shakespeare may have taught 7th grade at some point.

Love,

 Teach