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Romeo and Juliet: The Theme of Love in Literature and the Arts

The unit will use literature and music to connect with perennial themes so dear to adolescents and to the rest of us: love, sacrifice, and the creation of art based on that. The activities above have multifold purpose:

The students will be involved in every aspect of this project. Their feelings and reactions will be central in this approach. We will present literary works, rhetoric and style, and art appreciation units; we will use the knowledge to respond to the specific tasks of the English state exam. The students' production will count heavily in performance assessment and in the continuous development of this teaching unit.

Overview of Activities

I. Discussion about love
Readings: Students' stories published in the school magazine.

II. What do poetry, music, and the visual arts say about love?
Readings: Plato (Symposium), Shakespeare (Sonnets), Dickinson, F. G. Lorca and other Spanish language poets; classical and modern music; visual art.

III. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Readings: the play, the movies (Zefirelli, Di Caprio, and Shakespeare in Love)

IV. Orpheus and Eurydice

V. West Side Story
Readings: the script of the musical.

VI. Regents Assignments