1. Love or Lust? As they walked in, students received a slip of paper with a quote from one of the first two scenes of Act II. Then, students wrote on their slip of paper who says the quote, to whom, a paraphrase, and whether the quote shows love or lust. Of course, we had to have a brief discussion about the differences between love and lust. Then, we divided up into groups to visually show how much lust and love each character (Romeo or Juliet) shows. We came to the conclusion that Juliet rarely shows lust and Romeo feels much lust, even though he also has a good deal of love to balance out the lustiness.
2. Dear Amy. We read a letter to the LA Times’ Amy about whether or not 14 is too young to be in love. Students wrote their own response to the writer in a letter/advice column format. This was collected for a small grade.
3. Oral Quiz. About 10 students answered oral questions as a review of the reading.
4. Balcony scene charades. In our final few minutes, we played charades with key lines from the balcony scene to emphasize Shakespeare’s use of similes and metaphors the loves use to describe each other and their love for one another.
HW: Read through the end of Act II for tomorrow. Be prepared for an oral quiz. You may use your Reading Guide on the Oral Quiz.
Here’s one version of R&J:
And here’s the crazy 1996 version that I am not too fond of (start at 6:15 for Act II scene iii):
ALEXA GARVOILLE 