1. Warm-Up 1 What have we learned so far…
How is dramatic literature different than other genres?
What information must be inferred while reading it?
What strategies can you use to “decode” Shakespeare?

2. Warm-Up 2
Get out a sheet of paper that you will turn in at the end of class. At the top, answer this question: How do you feel about Shakespeare at this point – awesome or overrated? Explain.

3. Let’s read our best Scene 1 rewrite!
Warm-Up 3
What did you do over the break?
Did you think about Shakespeare or Romeo and Juliet at all? If so, when?
Come up with at least 1 way in which your activities related to Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, or dramatic literature.
Let’s read our best Scene 1 rewrite!

4. What’s so great about this guy anyway?
William Shakespeare
What’s so great about this guy anyway?

5. He didn’t invent the storyline
Based on poem by Arthur Brooke
The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet
based on older Italian stories
Changes:
Brooke’s moral = listen to your parents; Shakespeare = no moral; died b/c of fate
Cut from 9 months to 4 days
More character development
Added Mercutio & nurse
Lowered Juliet’s age from 18 to 13
Lesson 4

6. Before We Read
Complete Anticipation Guide
Do these topics matter?

7. Let’s Start with the Prologue
What is the setting?
What is the relationship b/t the 2 households?
What are “star-crossed lovers”?
What happens to the lovers?
What is the subject matter of this play?
What are they asking you to do in the last 2 lines?
Why begin with this?

8. In a nutshell Capulets & Montagues are enemies
Romeo is hopelessly in love with Rosaline.
Count Paris wants to marry Juliet.
Romeo goes to party to see Rosaline, meets Juliet, and instantly falls in love with her.
They discover they are enemies and decide to secretly wed.
After the wedding, Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin) kills Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio, so Romeo kills Tybalt. As a result, Romeo is exiled.
Meanwhile, Juliet’s dad arranges for her to marry Paris.
To prevent her marriage to Paris, Juliet fakes her death.
Romeo doesn’t get the message that it’s fake, so he thinks she’s really dead and kills himself.
When Juliet discovers him dead, she kills herself.
The parents find their dead children and decide to end their feud.

9. The Opening Scene Let’s read it together in modern text Let’s watch it
Brainstorm list of his audience members
How does it appeal to each of these groups?
In your opinion, does this scene make Shakespeare seem awesome or overrated?

10. Compare 2 Versions Now let’s watch version 2
To what types of audiences does this one appeal?
What changes were made in order to do so?
Does this version add to or take away from Shakespeare’s splendor?

11. Considering Audience
Rewrite the opening scene so that it appeals to an audience of your choice.
You must keep some of basics of the story – 2 groups hate each other, Romeo is in love
Everything else can change – add/delete characters, change words, setting, etc.
I will choose the best one for our class to read next session.
Min. 2 pages

12. Shakespeare Said It Better
Compare modern text w/ original text and find a line where Shakespeare said it better.
On your index card, write down both versions.
Post lesson, explain why it’s better.
Project on smart board & make notes on it?

13. Language Terms Figurative Language Sounds Word Play alliteration
simile
metaphor
personification
idiom
hyperbole
understatement
Sounds
alliteration
assonance
consonance
rhythm
Word Play
pun
double entendre

14. Sometimes words just sound/feel cool…
voluptuous
bamboozled
flabbergasted
babushka
cockatoo
pumpernickel

15. Sometimes the sound of a word matches its meaning…
umber (brown, neutral)
mellow (smooth, soft, easygoing)
sonorous (resonant)
obstreperous (noisy, unruly)
truculent (aggressively defiant)
vituperative (verbally abusive)
obdurate (stubborn)

16. The Base Stealer by Robert Francis
Poised between going on and back, pulled Both ways taut like a tightrope-walker, Fingertips pointing the opposites, Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball Or a kid skipping rope, come on, come on, Running a scattering of steps sidewise, How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases, Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird, He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him, Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate—now!

17. The Base Stealer by Robert Francis
Poised between going on and back, pulled Paused between going on and back, pulled Both ways taut like a tightrope-walker, Both ways stretched like a rubberband, Fingertips pointing the opposites, Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball Now springing tiptoe like a slinky Or a kid skipping rope, come on, come on,

18. The Base Stealer by Robert Francis
Running a scattering of steps sidewise, Running a bunch of steps to the side, How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases, How he wobbles, runs with tiny steps, itches, annoys, Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird, Insults them, floats like an balloon, He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him, He’s only playing, crowd him, crowd him, Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate—now! Gentle, gentle, gentle, gentle —now!

19. The Language of William Shakespeare

20. Terms to Know
blank verse
rhymed verse
couplet
prose

21. What Makes Shakespeare’s Plays Great?
Shakespeare’s plays have been popular worldwide for four hundred years because they
appeal to powerful and universal human emotions
contain striking images, memorable expressions, and compelling passages

22. The Language of Shakespeare’s Plays
Shakespeare uses both poetry and prose in his plays.
Elizabethan playwrights generally considered poetry to be elevated language.
Poetry is usually spoken by the main or high-ranking characters.
Elizabethan playwrights generally considered prose to be common language.
Prose is usually spoken by the supporting or low-ranking characters.

23. Shakespeare’s Use of Poetry
The poetry in Shakespeare’s plays consists of both blank verse and rhymed verse.
Shakespeare uses blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter—in nearly 70 percent of his dramatic dialogue.
Shakespeare uses rhymed verse in about 10 percent of his dramatic dialogue.
His rhymed verse often consists of couplets—two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

24. Shakespeare’s Use of Blank Verse
Blank verse sounds similar to human speech but is still considered elevated language.
The rhythm of blank verse emphasizes imagery and heightens the emotional impact of language.
Mercutio. True, I talk of dreams;
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;
Which is as thin of substance as the air, . . .
from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

25. Shakespeare’s Use of Rhymed Verse
Rhymed verse is often used to express matters of love and courtship.
Romeo.
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

26. Shakespeare’s Use of Rhymed Verse
Couplets may
punctuate a character’s exit
signal the end of a scene
Prince.
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. [Exuent omnes.]
from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

27. Shakespeare’s Use of Prose
Shakespeare uses prose in more than 20 percent of his dramatic dialogue. Prose is often used to express
lighthearted or casual sentiments
friendly exchanges
humor
Second Watchman.
If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on him?
Dogberry.
Truly, by your office you may The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company from Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

28. Close Read Read 4 times… decode: read & “translate”
actions: what do you imagine the actors are doing in these lines
tone: experiment w/ the different ways the actor might say these lines
look closely: what do you notice about the sound of the words, the figurative language, etc.

29. 1-13: 4 servants 14-38: Capulet & 2nd Capulet 39-51: Romeo & servant
53-62: Tybalt & Capulet
63-74a: Capulet & Tybalt
74b-86: Capulet & Tybalt
87-90: Tybalt
91-108: Romeo & Juliet
: Romeo & Nurse
: Capulet
126-end: Juliet & Nurse
*You will read/perform both parts, but only analyze the underlined character