Film and Romeo and Juliet

Because Shakespeare is meant to be seen and not read, it is more than likely that ninth grade students will be watching the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, whether in class or at home. Being an owner of this film, I feel that it is an amazing representation of Shakespeare's tragic love story. I feel that English teachers should utilize this film in the classroom in order to assist in the reading of the play. This way a classic is being mixed with a multi-modal form of literature.

Because there is a new, more modern film version of the play, starring Leonardi DiCaprio as Romeo, I think that it would be interesting to show both films in the classroom. An assignment could be to have the students compare and contrast the films, stating which version they liked better. Showing the more modern version of the film shows the students how Shakespeare's plays are timeless and the themes embedded in the plays are still applicable in today's society. Though in the two films the language is exactly the same, the two films are quite different, and the students could elaborate on the differences. Overall, I think this would be an interesting assignment that incorporates multi-modal literature into the classroom and really gets the students thinking about Shakespeare and the timelessness of the themes in his plays.

Popular Young Adult Literature

Recently I finished the final book in the Twilight Series, Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. Seeing as it is quite a long text, I managed to finish it in two days because I could not put it down! Every page came with a new surprise, so I kept reading on to find out more. I will not give any of it away for those who have not read it yet, but it is definitely worth reading! Edward is my ideal man :) and it makes me happy that Bella has brown hair and brown eyes like me! :)

From reading the Twilight Series, I realize that it is important to keep up with the young adult literature my students may be reading. Maybe I could incorporate it into the classroom somehow by creating a writing assignment for the students to describe their favorite character or aspect of the novel. I know if I were in high school and my teacher assigned a project such as that, I would be totally pumped because the teacher took something I was interested in and made it an assignment for a grade. Not that the students would not be interested in the required readings for class, but it is always plus having the teacher take interest in something a student may be reading on the side.