🎙️ Season 2 Episode 2 - How We Romeo and Juliet

One of THE most popular, and right of passage texts for 9th grade students. How do we take this tragic “love story” and make it engaging and accessible to our students?

In this episode, we dive into our favorite ways to bring Romeo and Juliet to LIFE in our classrooms, with ESSENTIALS for setting up the text, keeping engagement high through each act, and summative assessments that MEAN MORE to our students than another literary analysis essay (and how to shift your approach if THIS is the assessment your curriculum requires).

✨ What you’ll hear inside:

Our FAVORITE ways to “set the stage"
Strategies for in-class reading/performance days to keep the flow from becoming monotonous, and to prevent drool on the desks
“Red Flag” language for kick-starting essential questions conversations and debates
How to incorporate that required “Literary Analysis” WITHOUT a full 5-paragraph essay
Summative assessments that encourage students to see how the influence of Romeo and Juliet lives EVERYWHERE!

Rapid Fire Recs: (For use throughout the unit)

No Fear Shakespeare
My Shakespeare
Folger Digital Texts
1996 movie version with Leo DiCaprio
1968 Franco Zeffirelli movie version with Zac Efron dupe
Gnomeo and Juliet (Hannah's fave!)
"On the Sidewalk Bleeding" - short story by Evan Hunter
High School Musical - movie available on Hulu/Disney Plus

Rapid Fire Recs: (R + J Romance Vibes)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene (also a movie)
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks (also a movie)
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (also a movie)
West Side Story (musical)
Outer Banks - show available on Netflix (focus on the relationship between John B. Routledge and Sarah Cameron)
Never Have I Ever - show available on Netflix (focus on the relationship between Devi Vishwakumar and Paxton Hall-Yoshida)
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Warm Bodies (Ana's fave!) - movie available on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
Gilmore Girls - show available on Netflix (focus on Rory's relationship with Jess Mariano)
Pride by Ibi Zoboi

If you loved this episode and hanging out with us, make sure to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. This helps more teachers find us and join the conversation and the revolution.

👉 Stay connected with us:

Ana's socials: @simply.ana.p

Hannah's socials: @teachengagingela

You can also visit our websites for extra resources + PDs:

Hannah → www.teachengagingela.com

Ana → www.simplyanap.com

💌 Got an idea, question, or a text you want us to tackle? Slide into our DMs or send us a message because we might just feature it in an upcoming episode!