Karisti's+Blog+Lesson+Plan

Karisti Cormier
Grade and Class: English 8

Objectives and goals: During the unit of //Romeo and Juliet//, students will be doing a variety of shorter writings to explore their understanding of the play. The students will start most of this work in their Writing to Learn (WtL) notebooks. But, they will be expected to take pieces to the further drafting stage and finally publish them on their personal blogs.

During this unit students will: • Using their writing to learn skills to explore Romeo and Juliet • Utilize their blogging skills • Understand different purposes for writing • Respond to other student writing constructively

Procedures: Students will collect writing in their WtL notebooks during the unit. Most of the writing will be individual, but there will be some collaborative work done as well.

Pieces of writing that will be done: • Personal definition of a feud • Comparison/contrast of Act I Scene 1 from Franco Zeffirelli/Baz Luhrmann • Reflection of Globe Theater workshop day • Character interview • Quotation analysis • Debate stance – who is least responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death

Much of the work will be original pieces. But, there are a few entries that I will give them the freedom to respond to something they find on the internet that they can imbed.

Some examples of this might be: • Reduced Shakespeare Company performance of Romeo and Juliet on YouTube • A website link about the play • Artwork they have created or found that relates to the play

Students will also be expected to respond to other student blogs. Time will be given in class or a specific instruction will be given for a homework assignment. Time will be spent before blog rollout discussing appropriate commenting and what a constructive comment would look like.

Evaluation: Students will be evaluated on four things: • Content of posts (35%) – do they cover the particular tasks assigned • Writing (35%) – do the written posts adhere to the 6-traits of writing • Comments (15%) – have students responded constructively • Creativity and blogging skills (15%) – have students have used their blog to explore Romeo and Juliet to the best of their ability. Also, they are using the blogging skills we have discussed in class (embedding links, media, etc).