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Romeo and Juliet: Insight Into Ourselves: A 9-12, Language Arts Project
Students use Romeo and Juliet to look at personal responsibility, an individual's freedom of choice, and the effect of one’s actions on others. You may want to print this page as you view the entire Romeo and Juliet Unit Plan.

Student-Centered
The project is made relevant to students’ lives with the Essential Question: How does literature help us better understand ourselves? Students read and analyze Romeo and Juliet, research and compare themes and issues within the play to modern life, develop solutions to these issues, and create products to share their work with a chosen audience. Students make many choices and complete many tasks, including an action plan for individualized accountability.

Alignment with Standards
Literary analysis is often part of the Year 9 Language Arts standards. The unit involves key language arts topics such as character analysis, literary devices, research, and writing.

Important Questions
The Essential Question and Unit Questions lead to interesting discussions that have relevance beyond the classroom. The Essential Question, How does literature help us better understand ourselves? helps students think broadly about the role of literature and connects the unit content to their own lives. Unit Questions such as, What are the themes and issues in Romeo and Juliet that are relevant to today?, prompt students to think about relevant facts and information that lead to the higher-level questions. Students revisit the Essential Question periodically throughout the unit in discussions and reflections. This not only gives the students opportunities to think about the content at higher levels but gives the teacher information on the students’ understanding of the content and ways in which they can direct and redirect their teaching.

Multiple and Ongoing Assessments
Assessment is ongoing throughout the unit. Typical assessments are used, such as quizzes and a final test on plot development, literary devices, characters, and so forth. The action plan document helps to spot-check progress throughout the unit. The project rubric evaluates the culminating project, with adjustments to the group score based on individual effort and contribution.

Authentic Work
The students make real-world connections through the Essential Question, which asks them to consider how literature can help them to better understand themselves. They investigate age-old problems that are still pertinent in modern- day life. Students choose a particular social offense (issue) and research the current needs and resources of the community and determine a course of action. They write and create oral presentations and supplementary products with a particular audience in mind.

Demonstrations of Learning
Students deliver a presentation and create supplementary products such as a brochure, a multimedia presentation, or a Web site. Their products show an understanding of the conflicts in Romeo and Juliet and their analogy to modern- day social issues. The products are intrinsically engaging and authentic to the task.

Technology-Enhanced Learning
Students prioritize social offenses and evaluate criteria to make decisions with the Visual Ranking Tool. Students use technology to create their supplemental product to go with their presentations. Teams choose to create a brochure, a multimedia presentation, or a Web site depending on the needs of their audience. Students conduct research online to investigate the current needs and resources of the community and to gather background information about Shakespeare, his time, and Elizabethan theater.

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