Romeo and Juliet planning, 3rd period.

Today we start The Odyssey. Yahoo! I wonder though, how well will this epic tale go over. Honestly, I don't think they're going to see all the action and adventure. They're going to get tripped up on the funky language and format and not be able to get past that. But we'll see. Sometimes they surprise me, and that's the fun part of teaching. At least, that's one fun part about teaching so far.

My CT started with a slideshow lecture, while they took notes on what she said was important. She used the incentive of "you can use your literature journals and anything you have in them on quizzes" to encourage them to copy down the notes. I like this idea, and am probably going to use it when I start Romeo and Juliet. Yeah, lecture days suck, and my CT even said that today was going to be a lot of her talking. Some days you just have to lecture, and that's ok. I'd rather have one solid day of frontloading Shakespeare, then move on the fun stuff, than have them stumble through Romeo and Juliet without any contextual knowledge of Shakespeare and the times he lived in.

I'm also going to start talking to them about what they want to get out of reading Romeo and Juliet. I've asked some already, and they've made suggestions like watching the movie Gnomeo and Juliet (which I was going to show pieces of anyway) as well as a repeat or variation of the statues lesson we did with F. 451 last semester. I want to make sure we do some things that will interest them; they're more likely to retain pieces of what we talk about that way.

So, aside from that stuff, what else could I do for an intro in to Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare? Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
 :)