9.1.3 lesson 18 - engageny

NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum D R A F T Grade 9 • Module 1 • Unit 3 • Lesson 18

File: 9.1.3 Lesson 18 Date: 8/31/13 Classroom Use: Starting 9/2013

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9.1.3 Lesson 18

Introduction

In this lesson, students will draw upon the close reading skills that they have developed over the course of Module 1 as they work carefully through the short excerpt Act 5.3, lines 139–170. In this passage, Juliet wakes up to find Romeo lying dead next to her in the Capulet tomb. Juliet then kills herself with Romeo’s dagger.

Students will analyze word choice, figurative language, and the structure of events to explore Juliet’s final act. As the culminating excerpt of Unit 3, this passage functions as the final point of comparison for an analysis of Juliet’s character development across the five acts of Shakespeare’s play.

Activities involve reading aloud, group reflection, and discussion work with a set of text-dependent questions to guide students in their exploration of the lesson’s focusing question: Who or what is responsible for Juliet’s death? For homework, students will continue to read their Accountable Independent Reading texts.

Standards

Assessed Standard(s)

RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

RL.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Addressed Standard(s)

SL.9-10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on each others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.







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Assessment

Assessment(s)

Brief written response to Round Robin Discussion question: Who or what do you think is responsible for Juliet’s death? Why? Use evidence from the text to support your response.

High Performance Response(s)

Sample student response: I think bad luck or fate is responsible for Juliet’s death. Romeo doesn’t realize that Juliet is faking her death, and so he kills himself. Juliet never could have predicted this when she agreed to the friar’s plan. Then, Juliet wakes up only minutes too late to prevent Romeo from taking his own life. Friar Laurence says that a “greater power” is responsible for these events. I think this greater power is fate, and fate is ultimately what is responsible for Juliet’s death.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary to provide directly (will not include extended instruction)

alack (interj.) – an expression of sorrow

sepulchre (n.) – a burial chamber

lamentable (adj.) – regrettable

contagion (n.) – a contagious (communicable by contact) disease

thwarted (v.) – defeated the hopes or aspirations of

churl (n.) – a stingy person

sheath (n.) – a case for a knife

Vocabulary to teach (may include direct word work and/or text-dependent questions)

discoloured (adj.) – being altered or changed in color, especially for the worse

chance (n.) – something that happens unpredictably without discernible human intention or observable cause

masterless (adj.) – having no lord or master

restorative (adj.) – having the power to restore (to bring something back, or return something to its former condition)







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Lesson Agenda/Overview

Student-Facing Agenda % of the Lesson

Standards: RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.4, SL.9-10.1

Text: Romeo and Juliet, Act 5.3, lines 139–170

Introduction of Lesson Agenda

Homework Accountability

Text-Dependent Questions and Activities

Round Robin Discussion and Brief Written Responses

Closing

5%

5%

60%

25%

5%

Materials

• None.







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Learning Sequence

Percentage of Lesson

Teacher Actions Student Actions Instructional Notes (extensions, supports, common misunderstandings)

5% Introduction of Lesson Agenda

Begin by reviewing the agenda and sharing the standards for this lesson: RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.4, SL.9-10.1.

Explain that today’s excerpt will be explored in five chunks. There will be a series of text-dependent questions for each chunk. Questions will be explored as a group and then discussed with the class.

Introduce this lesson’s focusing question: Who or what is responsible for Juliet’s death?

Students look at the agenda.

5% Homework Accountability

Lead a brief full class discussion asking students to share their responses to the previous lesson’s homework: Reread the Prologue and respond to the following question: What can you infer about the way Romeo and Juliet will end? Use

Student responses to the homework may vary, but may include the following: a prediction of the death of Juliet (“children’s end”) or the end of the feud (“bury their parents’ strife”).







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evidence from the Prologue and the understanding you have built from this lesson’s close reading.

60% Text-Dependent Questions and Activities

Read Act 5.3, lines 139–170, aloud, or play an audio recording.

Students follow along, reading silently.

Have students form small, heterogeneous groups according to established protocols. Direct student groups to read aloud lines 140–146.

Display the following TDQs only. Allow time for students to discuss in their groups before sharing with class.

1. What familiar word do you see in discoloured? How does the prefix dis- change the meaning of this word?

Student responses may include the following: 1. Students identify the familiar words color or colored in discoloured. The prefix dis- changes the word colored so that it has a negative connotation (i.e., something has been colored wrongly or badly).

Additional scaffolding questions for lines 140–146:

How does Friar Laurence describe the swords in lines 142–143? Underline the adjectives in your text. Students underline the adjectives masterless, gory, and discoloured.

How does Friar Laurence describe the hour? What does he mean? Friar Laurence describes the hour as unkind. Students infer that the Friar describes the hour this way because Romeo and Paris have died very recently (likely within the last hour).

2. Why are the swords discoloured? Why are they masterless?

2. The swords are “discoloured” because they are stained with the red blood of Romeo and Paris, as is evidenced by the stage directions before line 140 “Friar stoops and looks on the blood and weapons.” They are “masterless” because their previous owners, Romeo and Paris, are







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both dead.

3. Review the definition of lamentable provided to you. As a group, develop a definition of chance. Now reread lines 145–146. What is Friar Laurence implying about recent events in this statement?

3. Students review the definition of lamentable (adj.) – regrettable. Possible student definitions of chance may include the following: “something that happens unpredictably; luck; or something that is accidental or coincidental.” After unpacking these two words, students make the connection that Friar Laurence is implying that recent tragic events were unpredictable or coincidental, without discernable human intention or observable cause.

4. According to Friar Laurence, who/what is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Paris?

Circulate and support group discussions as needed.

Lead a class discussion of lines 140–146, calling on groups to offer their answers.

4. According to Friar Laurence, the deaths of Romeo and Paris are due to “lamentable chance” (line 146). Fate, fortune, or bad luck is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Paris.

Direct student groups to read aloud lines 148–150.

5. What is Juliet unaware of that both the audience and Friar Laurence know? What effect does this create?

Lead a class discussion of lines 148–150,

5. At this point in the text, Juliet is unaware that Romeo is dead, she asks the friar “Where is my Romeo” (line 150). This creates the added effect of suspense in how the audience experiences this tragedy.

Circulate around the room and support group discussions as needed. Extension questions for lines 148–150:

How does Juliet refer to Romeo in these lines? Underline the







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calling on groups to offer their answers.

part of the text that tells you. Students underline my lord (line 148) and my Romeo (line 150).

What might this tell you about how Juliet understands her relationship to Romeo? Juliet understands herself as simultaneously possessing Romeo (as indicated by the possessive my, used twice) and as his subject or his inferior (he is her lord).


6. According to Friar Laurence, who/what is to blame for the tragic events that have transpired? What is Friar Laurence suggesting about the power of individual choice in this situation?

Circle and support discussion groups as needed.

Lead class discussion of lines 151–159.

6. Friar Laurence says that a “greater power” (line 153) is the cause of these events. Friar Laurence is suggesting that individual choice doesn’t stand a chance against a greater power when it comes to how events play out. He explains that despite the individual decisions that he, Juliet, and Romeo made, this tragic event still came to pass because something else was more powerful than all three of them.


How does Friar Laurence describe the scene in front of him? Friar Laurence describes the scene as a “nest of death,” a “contagion,” and “unnatural” (lines 151–152).

What option is Friar Laurence offering to Juliet? Friar Laurence is offering Juliet the option to join a nunnery.

Direct student groups to read aloud lines 7. Juliet refuses to accept Friar Laurence’s help and depart with him. She says, “I will

It will probably be necessary here to discuss what a nunnery is (a







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160–167.

7. How does Juliet respond to Friar Laurence’s counsel? What does she see as a better alternative? Why? Hint: What do you know about Juliet that might make a nunnery a fate worse than death?

not away.” Juliet thinks that poisoning herself is a better alternative. Students' answers will vary. Some might suggest that Juliet’s passionate nature (as evidenced most clearly by Juliet’s soliloquy in Act 4) would make this a difficult transition. Others might point to the fact that she married Romeo against her parents’ wishes as evidence that a life of obedience would be difficult and even miserable for her. Others might point to Juliet’s affluent background—her family throws big parties—as a reason why a more spartan lifestyle would be uncomfortable. Still others might say that, for Juliet, any life without Romeo is not a life worth living.

convent) and what a nun is required to renounce (she must take the three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience).

Additional scaffolding:

If Juliet accepts Friar Laurence’s offer, what sort of a future does she have to look forward to? If Juliet accepts this offer, she has a quiet lifetime of prayer and abstinence to look forward to – no more passionate love affairs.

8. Why does Juliet describe the poison as a “restorative”? What does she think it will restore?

8. Juliet describes the poison as a restorative because she thinks that it has the power to bring Romeo back to her, if only in death, and so return their relationship to what it previously was.

Additional scaffolding:

What familiar word do you see in restorative? What does this word mean? Students identify the familiar word restore within restorative. The word restore means “to return something to its former condition.”

If students struggle to define restore, ask them scaffolding







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questions to guide their thought process: What are people doing when they restore old cars? They are making old cars work like new cars again.

So what does it mean to restore something? It means “to return something to the way it used to be.”

9. What does Juliet realize in line 167? How does this compound the tragedy of the scene?

Circulate around the room and support group discussions as needed.

Lead a class discussion of lines 160–167.

9. In line 167, Juliet realizes that Romeo has died very recently because his lips have not yet grown cold, she exclaims “Thy lips are warm!” (line 167). This compounds the tragedy of the scene because if Juliet had woken only minutes earlier, she might have been able to stop Romeo from drinking the poison.


10. Whose dagger kills Juliet? What might this symbolize?

Allow students time to discuss in their groups. Circle the room and support group discussions as needed.

Lead a class discussion of lines 168–170.

10. Romeo’s dagger kills Juliet. Student responses concerning the possible symbolic weight of this scenario will vary widely. Some students might say that Romeo’s dagger might symbolize that Juliet has chosen to die for Romeo—he is the reason for her death. Others might suggest that the fact that a Montague dagger killed yet another Capulet symbolizes that the Montague–Capulet family feud is ultimately


Why does Juliet kill herself with the dagger? Juliet kills herself with the dagger because the Page and Watchmen have just walked in, and the poison has not yet taken effect. Students might also respond that there wasn’t







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responsible for this tragedy. Still others might suggest that Romeo’s dagger is symbolic of the tragic consequences of Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden love.

enough poison left on Romeo’s lips to kill Juliet, so she had to use the dagger instead.

How does Juliet describe the dagger? Why might she choose this word? Juliet describes the dagger as “happy” (line 169) because she thinks it will reunite her with Romeo, or perhaps because it will end her suffering.

How is Juliet’s death by dagger different than Romeo’s death by poison? Apart from the obvious (i.e., Juliet’s death is most likely bloodier and slower than Romeo’s), Juliet’s death by dagger is more of an impulsive decision than Romeo’s death by poison. Romeo went out and bought the poison, which demonstrates that his decision was premeditated. Juliet, on the other hand, has awoken from a deep sleep to find her husband dead beside her. Her death by dagger is a decision made quickly and in the heat of the moment.







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25% Round Robin Discussion and Brief Written Responses

Inform students that they will conclude their exploration of Act 5.3 with a Round Robin discussion of the lesson’s focusing question: Who or what is responsible for Juliet’s death?

Directions for Round Robin: Instruct students to arrange themselves into two concentric circles. Each circle should contain the same number of students, creating pairs between the two circles. Student pairs should be facing each other.

The Round Robin begins with each student in the inner circle discussing their answer to the following prompt for 1 minute: Who or what do you think is responsible for Juliet’s death? Why?

Each student’s counterpart on the outer circle first listens and then responds with his or her own answer to the focusing question for 1 minute.

Then, at your direction, students in the outer circle rotate to the right one spot and repeat the protocols established with a new partner. This Round Robin will include

Example 1 minute Round Robin responses:

Student 1 from inner circle (1 min): I think Juliet is responsible for her own death because she is the one who decided to take Romeo’s dagger and stab herself. She could have decided to go with Friar Laurence, but she didn’t.

Student 2 from outer circle (1 min): I think Romeo is responsible for Juliet’s death because she only kills herself so that she can be with him. If Romeo had only realized that Juliet wasn’t dead before he took the poison, he would be alive and so would Juliet.

Round Robin rationale: The purpose of this exercise is for students to practice how to make a claim and support it with evidence. This exercise also has the added benefit of brainstorming and oral processing.







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three rotations.

Circulate and observe student discussions and assess comprehension.

Once three rotations have been completed, direct students to briefly record their response to the Round Robin discussion question, using evidence from the text to support their response. Collect these written responses to assess for comprehension as students exit the class.

5% Closing

For homework, instruct students to continue their Accountable Independent Reading through the lens of their focus standard and prepare for a 3-5 minute discussion of their text based on that standard.

Students continue to read their Accountable Independent Reading text for homework.

Homework

Students should continue to read their Accountable Independent Reading through the lens of their focus standard and prepare for a 3-5 minute discussion of their text based on that standard.


9.1.3 lesson 18 - engageny

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