As the nights grow longer and the leaves fall from the trees, I feel the yearly call of all things creepy and macabre.  It’s witch season!  But if you’ve spent any time on this blog, you probably already know that few things bother me as much as a cutesy gimmick—especially when it’s being used to teach the government-sanctioned execution of innocent people. Still, I love learning about the dark times of the distant past—especially when it can teach us a

I love teaching Shakespeare’s over-the-top tale of two teens who get caught up in a death-obsessed, violence-soaked world.  Romeo and Juliet is the first Shakespeare play for many students because it feels so relatable.   But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to teach. The language is hard for students.  The story is old.  Then there’s the barrier of knowing it’s Shakespeare— and we know how difficult that guy is.  Add to all this the pressure of not just getting through

Act 3 is where Romeo and Juliet really starts to speed up—the body count starts to build, the cycle of violence seems unending, and Juliet moves towards the only solution she (thinks) she has to solve her problems. This is also the point in the play where students should be invested enough in the characters and interested enough in the ideas that they don’t need gimmicks to relate or be engaged—and where your role as a teacher shifts from trying

When you think of Shakespeare’s classic play, you might not think it has much to do with the iPhone-wielding students in your class, but I’ve found that students connect more than you’d expect to the young Dane and the struggles he faces. There are so many great questions to tackle: What happens to us when we die? Do the ends justify the means? Why do we put things off, especially when it matters most?    Still, this play is not

Act 2 of Romeo and Juliet contains what is arguably the most iconic scene in English literature. And yet, simply telling students that this moment matters doesn’t actually make them care about what they’re reading. This is also the point in the unit when students should be gaining confidence and independence with the text.  And yet, shaking your beloved underlined copy of the book at them and saying, “you should get this by now!” isn’t exactly a winning strategy. The

Quizzes on Romeo and Juliet are one of those things I know I need to give—but I also kind of dread.  I want to know if my students are understanding the play, to see if I need to change things up, to get some grades in my grade books, and yeah, to be honest, I want to catch that kid in the back of the room who said he was paying attention when I’m pretty sure he was not.  

Romeo and Juliet can be a great play to teach because so many of the essential questions are still relevant today. What does it mean to be “cool,” and why is coolness often related to a transgression of the rules? Is violence ever justified? What are some of the misconceptions about gangs and people who belong to gangs? But that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy to get students to think about those questions on a deeper level. If your

Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet is often students’ first experience with a Shakespeare play, and so it can be a make-it-or-break-it situation for many.  Students will be deciding whether Shakespeare is something they can handle—and maybe even enjoy—or something they’ll need to just get through. There’s so much that they’ll love about this classic play, but it’s not always easy to convey those elements to a group of 21st-century teens. The trick is not to simplify things, but to