UBD - Introducing Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Part 1: Enduring Understandings, Instruction, and Assessment
- Students will understand the relevance of classic literature.
- Students will understand William Shakespeare's influence on the English Language.
- Students will understand the story elements of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Self-Assessment:
I began the lesson by giving students a Self-Assessment that we used to track students' progress on achieving each of our 3 Enduring Understandings. We set 4 Milestones throughout the unit. Almost all of the students self-assessed themselves at the beginning stages of achieving these goals. Interestingly, some students rated themselves higher on the 1st Enduring Understanding. These students were the students who enjoy reading and typically came from my pool of advanced learners.
Teacher Prep:
After students completed the Self-Assessment, I introduced the concept of using Context Clues to understand Shakespeare's English. To do this, I worked with Vanessa (because we teach the same class) to create a unique way to show students how we use context clues in a variety of ways. We found a wildlife video about Alligators (because Shakespeare invented the word). We took a 1 minute excerpt, transcribed it, and removed some key nouns and verbs. We chose nouns and verbs, because those are the most common parts of speech that students struggle with when reading Shakespeare. We replaced these words with artificial words, and created an organizer for students to use.
Context Clues Practice:
Students were given several minutes to work independently and try to use the surrounding text, and title of their excerpt, to find the meanings of the artificial words. I didn't know how students would take this kind of high-level work, but they LOVED it. They were so quiet and it was fun to hear the slight gasps when students had an idea. You could literally hear the lightbulbs turning on around the room. After a few minutes of independent work, I let them work with a partner. As I walked around the room and observed their work, it was amazing to see just how similarly many of them were thinking. Some groups had the same words but they didn't discuss them beforehand, so they were truly using context clues. I began verbalizing the different strategies I was seeing students use, and my favorite was when students encountered the sentence describing the size of an alligator's brain.
An alligator's brain is the size of a walnut, but since we replaced "walnut" with an artificial word, they needed to figure it out. So many students realized the sentence was describing the brain, and they used their past experiences to remember that animal brains are typically very small, so students were writing words like "pea", "nut", and "grape." I really thought that was amazing.
The next step was to play the video excerpt, but I turned the sound off and read our transcription over the video. Students were so excited to have the visual aid, that I heard more gasps and "oh yeah!" and "I knew it!" as students used visual context clues to support their ideas. THIS IS EXACTLY HOW YOU EXPERIENCE SHAKESPEARE. You read it and watch it, because it's a play. Sometimes the visual aspect makes more sense than the written, so it just. works.
Once the video was done, we discussed ideas and then I revealed the answers. Students were engaged the entire time and even said they had a lot of fun doing this kind of puzzle.
Shakespeare Handout:
I wrote a handout that explained the 3 main reasons people struggle to understand Shakespeare's English. As we read through the handout, we annotated certain areas (which is another skill students need when reading Romeo and Juliet). By the end of it, students gained more knowledge around Shakespare's influence on the English Language. Additionally, I would drop tidbits of knowledge about the setting of Romeo and Juliet, so students were able to begin addressing Enduring Understanding 3.
Romeo and Juliet Excerpt & Context Clues:
To act as a formative assessment regarding students' understanding of Context Clues, I took the "Bite Your Thumb at Me" scene from Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet and asked students to translate the meaning of each line. We followed the same procedure as in the beginning of class with the alligator excerpt, where students worked independently, then with a partner, then with the video. Then class was over and some students stayed seated into passing time because they wanted to finish their work. That was a first!
Part 2: Strengths of the Lesson
I packed a TON of information in to this class period, and because of that we followed a brisk pace. I actually think this pace was good because students became wrapped up in the activities and never had time to stop and think negatively about it (which some of them love to do).
Another strength this lesson had was the amount of reading instruction and background knowledge it contained. It made my students feel ownership over the material, it helped them feel confident in their abilities, and it made me feel like an all star.
Part 3: Constructive Criticism
I feel like there wasn't enough time to do everything with full fidelity. The alligator excerpt was perfect. We took the time for that. I found myself rushing a little through the Shakespeare Handout, and I feel I could add more flair to that conversation. Shakespeare is like a wizard, so it'd be fun to explore more of that magic. Finally, the Act 1 excerpt was really rushed, which is probably a reason why so many students stayed behind to finish it. Considering the structure of the whole unit, I had to teach Romeo and Juliet in about 8 days, so I wanted to get through the Anticipatory Set in just one of those days. Next year, I will try to set aside more time for the unit.
I began the lesson by giving students a Self-Assessment that we used to track students' progress on achieving each of our 3 Enduring Understandings. We set 4 Milestones throughout the unit. Almost all of the students self-assessed themselves at the beginning stages of achieving these goals. Interestingly, some students rated themselves higher on the 1st Enduring Understanding. These students were the students who enjoy reading and typically came from my pool of advanced learners.
Teacher Prep:
After students completed the Self-Assessment, I introduced the concept of using Context Clues to understand Shakespeare's English. To do this, I worked with Vanessa (because we teach the same class) to create a unique way to show students how we use context clues in a variety of ways. We found a wildlife video about Alligators (because Shakespeare invented the word). We took a 1 minute excerpt, transcribed it, and removed some key nouns and verbs. We chose nouns and verbs, because those are the most common parts of speech that students struggle with when reading Shakespeare. We replaced these words with artificial words, and created an organizer for students to use.
Context Clues Practice:
Students were given several minutes to work independently and try to use the surrounding text, and title of their excerpt, to find the meanings of the artificial words. I didn't know how students would take this kind of high-level work, but they LOVED it. They were so quiet and it was fun to hear the slight gasps when students had an idea. You could literally hear the lightbulbs turning on around the room. After a few minutes of independent work, I let them work with a partner. As I walked around the room and observed their work, it was amazing to see just how similarly many of them were thinking. Some groups had the same words but they didn't discuss them beforehand, so they were truly using context clues. I began verbalizing the different strategies I was seeing students use, and my favorite was when students encountered the sentence describing the size of an alligator's brain.
An alligator's brain is the size of a walnut, but since we replaced "walnut" with an artificial word, they needed to figure it out. So many students realized the sentence was describing the brain, and they used their past experiences to remember that animal brains are typically very small, so students were writing words like "pea", "nut", and "grape." I really thought that was amazing.
The next step was to play the video excerpt, but I turned the sound off and read our transcription over the video. Students were so excited to have the visual aid, that I heard more gasps and "oh yeah!" and "I knew it!" as students used visual context clues to support their ideas. THIS IS EXACTLY HOW YOU EXPERIENCE SHAKESPEARE. You read it and watch it, because it's a play. Sometimes the visual aspect makes more sense than the written, so it just. works.
Once the video was done, we discussed ideas and then I revealed the answers. Students were engaged the entire time and even said they had a lot of fun doing this kind of puzzle.
Shakespeare Handout:
I wrote a handout that explained the 3 main reasons people struggle to understand Shakespeare's English. As we read through the handout, we annotated certain areas (which is another skill students need when reading Romeo and Juliet). By the end of it, students gained more knowledge around Shakespare's influence on the English Language. Additionally, I would drop tidbits of knowledge about the setting of Romeo and Juliet, so students were able to begin addressing Enduring Understanding 3.
Romeo and Juliet Excerpt & Context Clues:
To act as a formative assessment regarding students' understanding of Context Clues, I took the "Bite Your Thumb at Me" scene from Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet and asked students to translate the meaning of each line. We followed the same procedure as in the beginning of class with the alligator excerpt, where students worked independently, then with a partner, then with the video. Then class was over and some students stayed seated into passing time because they wanted to finish their work. That was a first!
Part 2: Strengths of the Lesson
I packed a TON of information in to this class period, and because of that we followed a brisk pace. I actually think this pace was good because students became wrapped up in the activities and never had time to stop and think negatively about it (which some of them love to do).
Another strength this lesson had was the amount of reading instruction and background knowledge it contained. It made my students feel ownership over the material, it helped them feel confident in their abilities, and it made me feel like an all star.
Part 3: Constructive Criticism
I feel like there wasn't enough time to do everything with full fidelity. The alligator excerpt was perfect. We took the time for that. I found myself rushing a little through the Shakespeare Handout, and I feel I could add more flair to that conversation. Shakespeare is like a wizard, so it'd be fun to explore more of that magic. Finally, the Act 1 excerpt was really rushed, which is probably a reason why so many students stayed behind to finish it. Considering the structure of the whole unit, I had to teach Romeo and Juliet in about 8 days, so I wanted to get through the Anticipatory Set in just one of those days. Next year, I will try to set aside more time for the unit.
It is always difficult to gauge how long new activities will take, and who wants to rush through something that seems to really capture the minds of our students? This is one of the easier things that can be tweaked for next time. The hardest part is to find an activity that fully engage students, which appears to have been accomplished by Vanessa and yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhen a great lesson comes together, there is not a lot of downtime for students yet they remain engaged all period. I think this is a great design! How do you know when to move students onto the next steps? Is it self-paced, or do they follow with the group?
ReplyDeleteI loved feeling those lightbulbs go off as well and the moment students realized as you said "THIS IS EXACTLY HOW YOU EXPERIENCE SHAKESPEARE"! The energy was intoxicating, but the time we took to go through the planning process is a hot commodity that we still wanted more of. If you could work regularly with other teachers in the department or cross subject on specific lessons such as this one, how much time do you think you'd need weekly?
ReplyDelete