Romeo and Juliet

On introducing the story in a meaningful way

How is the story, the setting and the main theme introduced in
this reader?

Evans, V. and Dooley, J. (2004) Romeo and Juliet. Express Publishing

 The proposal of the reader on
How would you introducing the story
work in the Is this proposal
classroom with meaningful?
what this reader
offers you?
Do You think teenagers
would be familiar with
“West Side Story”?

In your opinión, is it
important to introduce a
story? Or should we go Is this proposal enough to
directly to where it begins? prepare our students to feel
engaged with the story and
truly understand the main
themes of the story?
Introducing the story meaningfully

1 2 3

IMAGES WORDS ACTIONS

1. Images
What binaries do we find in our reality?

Pepsi vs Coca Cola

Gauchos vs Veganos

Gauchos vs Veganos
Messi vs Ronaldo
Romeo and Juliet is about
binaries. Two sides, two
worlds, two families that
hate each other….

Montagues Capulets
Veganos
Gauchos
Boca River

Macri Cristina
2. Words

Star-Crossed lovers
-When introducing a story to students, go to the original text and try to find
details that may be important to understand the story. The concept of “Star-
crossed lovers” is not included in the reader that we are using, let’s see why is
it so important to understand what it means.
 Adapted text
Two families, both equal in dignity,
In Verona, where we lay our scene,
From old fights come new fights,
Their unfortunate destiny makes them take their life (commit
suicide)
and with their death they bury their parents’ fight.
The story of how the love of these children ended
the Hatred of these two families
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
More details will be given so that you can comprehend.
Original text
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

2. Can you see any binaries (opposite set of words) in this introduction of the
story?
If you are still finding it hard, let’s watch the following video:
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
What do these couples
have in common?
 Star-Crossed
Coined by
In Shakespeare’s times, the When someone was born
society was very
superstitious. The Destiny lovers
William Shakespeare they would look at the sky
and write down the way the

be written on the stars.

Fate
of each person was said to
Love
stars looked like, in this way
they would try to predict
your destiny.

Fortune
Destiny

Free-will Superstition
If your configuration of stars crossed the configuration of stars of someone you loved,
that person was not meant for you, because the stars had power over your destiny.
 My own configuration of stars

Even today, you can find out the

position of the stars on the date
You can have
that you were born! yours by
clicking on this
website!

https://horoscopes.astro-
seek.com/birth-chart-
horoscope-online
3. Action

- The whole class Will receive a piece of paper with the name of “Messi” or “Ronaldo”. The students will be aware of
this information.
- As they receive the piece of paper, No one should reveal what their paper says.
- The next step is to ask them to stand up and form two teams, one of “Messis” and one of Ronaldos. But no one should
say out loud the word Messi or Ronaldo.
- Start walking freely around the classroom trying to find a rival or an ally in the other. Gestures can be used. The teacher
should add details so that they get involved with the story, for example, imagine that you hate each other, that someone
walking here has hurt your best friend, who would you trust?
- Encourage them to try to guess who is on their side and who isn’t. Then they should actually make two groups without
revealing their true identity. When the two groups are formed, we will discover everyone’s real identity and reflect upon
what lead them to have chosen the group they have.
- The objective of this activity is to allow students to empathize with the story and to be engaged with it.