Romeo and Juliet

Every year I teach at least one Shakespearean play.  My two favorites to teach are Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet.  For many reasons, we don’t read the original Shakespearean text.  We read a modern version of the text.  My favorite to use is the No Fear series.  I know that many people might disagree with reading a modern version of the text, but here are my reasons:

1. My students read at very low levels and reading a modern translation makes Shakespeare accessible to them.
2. If you were living in Shakespeare’s time, you would have understood what he was saying because it was the language you spoke.  So, this is making it so that my students are reading it in their own language.
3. The No Fear books have the original Shakespeare on one side and a modern version on another.  This makes it easy to refer back to the original in order to read the lines that are especially poetic.
4. No Fear has really good footnotes for the ‘plain English’ side.
5. The themes, characterization, and symbolism is what is really important when you read Shakespeare and you get that by reading a modern version.

Okay, I’ll step off the soap box.

Anyways . . .

My students LOVE Shakespeare!  Everyone told me my first year of teaching that my students would hate Shakespeare, but they were totally into it!  They loved all the drama and fighting and watching the plays.  I think they understand it because they have lived hard lives.

So, today we were reading the famous balcony scene and a male student wanted to read Juliet.  I let him.  After all, in Shakespeare’s day men played the female parts.

Click on the link below to take a listen.  It is hillarious.

Romeo and Juliet

I personally think he sounds like a Southern Mammy.