Essential Question:
How does Shakespeare employ literary/dramatic techniques within his work to convey meaning and reveal themes within Romeo and Juliet?
Day 1-2 – PLAN 1
Day 3 – SEED 1
Day 4 – SEED 2
Day 5 – SEED 3
Day 6-12 – PLAN 2
Day 13-15 – PLAN 3
Day 16-17 – PLAN 4
Day 18 – SEED 4
Day 19 – SEED 5
Day 20-21 – SEED 6
Day 22-25 – SEED 7
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Unit Overview
CCSS Standards for this Unit
Monitoring Templates
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Lesson seeds are ideas that can be used to build a lesson aligned to the CCSS. Lesson seeds are not meant to be all-inclusive, nor are they substitutes for instruction. When developing lessons from these seeds, teachers must consider the needs of all learners. It is also important to build checkpoints into the lessons where appropriate formative assessment will inform a teachers instructional pacing and delivery.
Within the Forbidden Love unit, the anchor text, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , is used in conjunction with Pyramus and Thisbe, Ovid’s Metamorphosis, and Sonnet 153. Students will analyze how the author’s choice of language, characterization, allusion, and theatrical conventions work in unison to reveal the theme of forbidden love. Such analysis of rich text will enhance the student’s understanding of basic concepts, but also increases the rigor of course work within the 9th grade level. The main theme of Forbidden Love is woven throughout the texts used within this unit. Each lesson or seed draws on literary elements that help to reveal this theme. For example, through the study of characterization, students learn how the author crafts his/her characters, how they develop, how they interact with other characters, and how the character advances the plot or develops theme. Within the first week, students are introduced to William Shakespeare and his language through Sonnet 153. Pyramus and Thisbe prefaces leading students to the theme of forbidden love. Students will be introduced to Romeo and Juliet by way of analyzing the prologue within Act I scene 1. Likewise, they are introduced to dramatic techniques employed by Shakespeare such as analysis of the sonnet between Romeo and Juliet . An in-depth analysis of characterization is offered in Act II. Students analyze how Shakespeare crafts his characters, listing and explaining foils, as well as composing an essay that shows how Romeo and Juliet develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop themes. Within Act III, students identify and analyze the effects of mythological allusions. Finally, in Act IV of Romeo and Juliet , students will complete a close analytical reading, which will focus on hamartia, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing. For Act V, students act out scenes, and complete a close analytical reading of characterization and tone/mood. The culminating activity for this unit entails composing a narrative based on characters in Romeo and Juliet . Various options are available for ELL and special needs students, as well as enrichment students.
TEXT MODELS FOR LESSONS AND LESSON SEEDS
Interdisciplinary Connections Additional Resources
