1. Romeo and Juliet: A Teaching Guide
Presented by
Your Name
Your Class
Practice:
Acquiring Information
Organizing the gathered information
Transforming information into a useful product: a composition.

2. Goals and Objectives Standards:
Gain research skills, specific to the World Wide Web.
Employ strategies to analyze plot in literature (Activity 1)
Employ strategies to analyze character in literature (Activity 2)
Practice higher-level thinking skills by synthesizing materials (Activity 3)
Standards:
Reading 3.4: “Determine character traits…”
Writing 2.2: Write responses to literature
Grammar and Mechanics of Writing 1.3: “Demonstrate an understanding of Proper English usage and control of grammar, …”

3. Activity 1 – One Day Materials Needed:
A). Class set of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
B). Access to the World Wide Web
Description of Lesson: Students write an Act-by-Act plot description of Shakespeare’s drama. This activity requires students to demonstrate his/her knowledge of the play by reciting (writing) the significant events of the play in chronological order.

4. Activity 2 - One Day Description of Lesson: Statement of Opinion
Students examine & write about specific major characters in Romeo and Juliet. This activity required students to label one character in terms of his/her behavior (characterization).
The student chooses a label, then writes a composition using the label in the thesis statement. Tybalt is the most hostile character in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

5. How Students Were Graded
Students’ compositions should:
begin with a strong thesis statement which names the character, the play, the author, and states your opinion of the character using one of the labels listed above;
provide details of the character's actions to support your thesis statement
include examples in your supporting details;
include a strong closing sentence stating how your details support your thesis statement;
follow the standard conventions of English regarding spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

6. Graphic Organizer: Compositions

7. Activity Three: Synthesize
Students will synthesize data on character and plot into a unified composition.
Product: Cause and Effect Relationship
A unified essay dealing with how one major character influences plot .
Requires students to discuss how chosen character in Activity 2 influences the plot described in Activity 1

8. Conclusion: Activity 1 – Plot Summary
Great review for final test! Students were able to discern, through questions, what is the most important elements of a particular Act (Summarizing)
Activity 2 – Statement of Opinion
Since there was more than one possible “right” answer, this was a great writing assignment because it made the students “prove” their chosen description was correct based on facts and details from the play itself. Computers allow more one on one time with individuals.
Activity 3 – Informational / Explanatory
Gave students practice with articulating a clear cause and effect relationship between characters and plot. After reading these compositions, this is where re-teaching needs to take place. Possibly, I will need to model and show other examples of work that clearly shows a correlation. Also, because grammar & spell checkers are readily available, student work is held to a higher standard

9. Research:
“Responding to Free Response Examination Questions: Computer versus Pen and Paper.”
British Journal of Educational Technology 33 no March 2002
Written by Robert MacCann, Benjamin Eastment, and Samantha Pickering
“For of the five questions, there were no significant differences between the pen and paper response marks and the computer response marks when presented in their original formats. [However], when the pen and paper responses were word processed, markers tended to award higher marks.”

10. Research
“When Pens are Passe: Students Reflect on Written Composition.”
Written by Judy Parr, Journal of Research on Computing in Education.
“Preference for word processing was related to the ease and speed with which work could be produced.”
“…speed aided generation and recording of ideas.”

11. Research
Title: Almost an Invincible Repugnance?: Word Processors and Pupil Writers
Written By: Michael Peacock
Source: Educational Review, Nov. 97, Vol 49, Issue 3, Page 283 (7 pages total)
“It is suggested that one of the more far-reaching influences emerging from increased use of word processors by pupils may be a shift in the connotations of ‘writing’.”

12. Students’ Responses to Assignment (via survey)
“I prefer to use a computer over pen and paper,”
“I’m glad I’m not computer illiterate!”
“I like to use a computer because…it makes me have more confidence in myself, especially with editing,”
“I feel that I could do just about anything using a computer,”