The Teaching ELA Podcast

Life Lesson

Let’s get back to the ‘tis torture and not mercy quote. Romeo is governed by emotion. Guess who else is governed by emotions? Your students. And guess who else is governed by emotions? You and I! And what causes our emotions? Our thoughts. So what thoughts are we hearing over and over? I don’t know. I can’t read your mind. But it’s important to listen to the soundtracks playing in our brain and asking ourselves if they’re serving us. If they are, great. Keep playing it. If not, it’s time to change that soundtrack.

Are we governed by emotions in the classroom? There are days when we don’t feel like teaching. Note the term feel is about emotion. We can overcome those feelings with a well-prepared lesson. When we don’t have to drag a class through what we’re learning we’ll do much better, especially when it comes to a Shakespearean play.

Links

• Romeo and Juliet Unit Plan
• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/

Let’s get back to the quote. Romeo is governed by emotion. Guess who else is governed by emotions? Your students. And guess who else is governed by emotions? You and I! And what causes our emotions? Our thoughts. So what thoughts are we hearing over and over? I don’t know. I can’t read your mind. But it’s important to listen to the soundtracks playing in our brain and asking ourselves if they’re serving us. If they are, great. Keep playing it. If not, it’s time to change that soundtrack.

Links

• Romeo and Juliet Unit Plan
• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/

There’s like 8 examples of figurative language in these 3 lines. Examples include hyperbole, simile, metaphor, and personification. You could do a couple things with this once school starts again. And since it’s summer, who cares, right? But maybe you could bookmark this and come back to it or maybe you’re listening to this 4 months after I posted it: (1) Challenge students to write 3 lines of poetry that contains 5 examples of figurative language; (2) Make a chart. Duh! Like you didn’t know I was gonna do a chart did you?

If you want a bunch of already made Romeo and Juliet lesson plans then you’ve come to the right place. Actually, the show notes are the right place. Click on the link.

Life Lesson

Let’s get back to the quote. Romeo is governed by emotion. Guess who else is governed by emotions? Your students. And guess who else is governed by emotions? You and I! And what causes our emotions? Our thoughts. So what thoughts are we hearing over and over? I don’t know. I can’t read your mind. But it’s important to listen to the soundtracks playing in our brain and asking ourselves if they’re serving us. If they are, great. Keep playing it. If not, it’s time to change that soundtrack.

Links

• Romeo and Juliet Unit Plan
• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/

Mr. Shakespeare reminds us that teaching ELA is more than just hosting a book club. There is a place for reading for pleasure during SSR, for example, but the purpose of teaching ELA is to help students develop critical reading and thinking and writing skills. That’s why knowing the end at the beginning isn’t really a big deal. In fact, there’s a lot more to literature than knowing the plot.

In a Shakespeare play it’s what happens in between the beginning and the end that matter. Life is the same way. We all know how this ends. We die. It’s what happens before then where we find the true import of things. So what are you doing today–in the classroom or at the beach since it’s summer vacation–that will matter? 

Life Lesson

I’ve already touched upon the life lesson here that it’s what happens between the beginning and the end that really matters. We can also look at Romeo’s downfall as a series of bad luck combined with poor choices. Perhaps you can keep a running talley of Romeo’s poor choices and others’ poor choices that lead to his death (Spoiler alert).

Links

• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/
• Romeo and Juliet Blog Posts

The novel’s protagonist, Gene, has issues. His best friend has a limp, a permanent limp probably and Gene is the one who caused it. Don’t you hate it when in a fit of jealousy you cause your best friend to fall off a tree limb and he becomes permanently crippled?

At this point of the novel, Gene debuts as the assistant crew manager on the rowing team. He remarks on the occasion.

Quote: "I supposed that Quackenbush was studying me to see if he could detect a limp. But I knew that his flat black eyes would never detect my trouble" (77).

Analysis: Gene knows that Quackenbush likes to assert his authority over those whom he considers inferior, on account of his own inferiority. It was common for the assistant crew manager, Gene's position on the rowing team, to have some physical malady that prevented him from participating in a sport. Gene's true limp, however, existed metaphorically in his soul. By expressing his deficiency in this manner, Gene highlights his desire to be just like Finny, whose limp is real, and whose limp he caused.

Links

• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/