For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.How do you get kids into this?Here's how.
The Daily News
1 LOVELY times y'all!
2 If you are smiling during the rain and clouds, then you totally get it!
3 Ah, life's GOOD!
4 It's funny, but my day yesterday started out like seltzer in a lightning bolt.
5 Lousy analogy, I readily admit, but it worked in a "this-certainly-shouldn't work"
sorta way.
6 We have this STRANGE sched this week, having us doing two full days, already done, a minimum, and then a full day Thursday.
7 Hey, at least I have a job.
8 But MEANwhile...
9 My Bose sound system conked out on me early morning yesterday. I was going to show the students the first part of Romeo and Juliet, either version. I forgot my own DVD's at home, so I began begging other teachers for the films.
10 Fortunately, one teacher had everything, so I grabbed all of 'em and headed for the classroom.
11 One of my greatest pleasures as a teacher is the first time students see the opening scenes to R and J. This year's classes know NOTHING about the story, and very little about Shakespeare, so it makes it that much more fun for me.
12 My approach is that it ISN'T and probably shouldn't be categorized as "literature" simply because that defines it as a subject in school rather than as a show.
13 I prepare them with a list of thee's and thou's, and all the rest. They are grouped, the groups must name themselves, and then I have them write as many phrases that are places as they can in five minutes. "...in a park", "...on a cloud waiting to get into heaven", "...at McDonald's", etc. They must then drop characters into the place, and then sprinkle in a conflict.They then make skits using the list of thirty some-odd Shakespearean words, only in a modern day skit.
14 It works famously. The skits are always hilarious. One group had four students, and they were each a tub of ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. They started it out saying "Tis cold in here!" The response? "What dost thou expect? Thou art ice cream!" The language does the "immersion" thing, and before long, it is as natural as breathing.
15 Takes a few weeks, but by the time they have read the first half of the play, listened to low-budget CD's, and gone over the "script" and sharing ideas as to how we might stage it, they are more than ready for the films. I naturally prefer Zefferelli to Luhrmann, but both have clearly better actors than McDougal-Littell.
16 I do begin with the Moulin-Rouge director's first. It keeps the students from begging for it. It also establishes the Luhrmann version as the opening act. The reactions are ALWAYS incredible, and quite often I have not only succeeded in having them understand Shakespeare, but of "getting" it: the music of the language, the excitement, the fact that it is simply a play, and that they could enjoy these plays for the rest of their lives.
17 By the time I hear the immortal opening words Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona... I know that I have them.
18 Yesterday though, was a bust in the morning. I put the audio-out cable into my Bose, and the connection zapped out. For whatever reason, it made the voices almost inaudible, but BLASTED the music so loudly that the roof shot off the top of the P-building, soaring off into space like that spaceman in 2001.
19 I literally got tech-Zen about it, and the students became invisible to me while I focused on the challenge: to get the sound system back up and working as fast as possible.
20 Fortunately, I had an Altec back-up system, but it had also been having volume challenges last time I used it. I just prayed, and nothing seemed to work.
21 I finally routed the music through the LCD projector, which miraculously had an audio out, and looped it back to the Altecs. The sound was never more clear. But it took me midway into my second class before I had it going. I had them work on vocab, so nothing seemed horribly wrong, but I was on the verge of having a stroke, I swear to you.
22 By my third class, however, it all worked. I told them the story, and that I don't believe in bad days, just series' of things that sometimes go awry in succession.
23 I collect homework in those tubs you can buy at Wal-Mart, so I had collected the vocab from the other class and wedged the tub into a chair in front of the room, just so the stuff would be in front of me. I get to it and correct it early that way. So after I had placed the tub in the chair, I next put on the Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet. My class exploded in delight. They ABSOLUTELY had NO idea it would have explosions, helicopters, gangs, guns, and Leo in his Titanic prime! When the title came up, William Shakespeare's...Romeo and Juliet, they applauded!
24 I broke into a grand smile. Broke is the perfect word for it. It's been a bit of a rough year, and truly, it was a moment of almost emotional triumph, because they were hooked. They didn't want to leave, with half the class lingering, not wishing to go to their next class.
25 With a bit of a swagger, I used it to send a message. "See? I told you I don't believe in bad days..." and I sauntered over to the tub of homework, and grabbed it swiftly, hoping to pirhouette back across the room and sit at my desk.
26 The tub stuck in the chair, and wouldn't budge. I almost fell over, Chaplinesque. I stopped, looked up and caught the eye of one girl, who smiled, all ears and braces. She caught the whole thing. Ah, humility, H is thy middle name!
27 Sometimes it's the little things...
28 Have a great day everybody.
29 Enjoy the rain. It can be one of life's true pleasures.
30 Be aware of your umbrellas.
31 Umbrellas we misplace because they are not part of our daily routine.
32 Remember that.
33 Peace and rain. This was fun.
~H~
~H~
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