Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Folger Shakespeare Library Edition)

Mowat, B. A., & Werstine, P. (Eds.). (2011). Folger Shakespeare Library: Romeo 
     and Juliet by William Shakespeare. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. 


Summary:  A longstanding grudge between two families has caused ongoing hostility in Verona, Italy.  The Montagues' son Romeo is out of sorts because he is in love with a woman who shares no interest in him.  His cousin Benvolio encourages him to go to a party to find another woman.  They crash the Capulet's family, the great enemy of the Montagues.  Capulet is hoping to marry his daughter Juliet off to County Paris.  While at the party, Romeo sets eyes on Juliet and falls in love at first sight.  The two decide to marry during a famous balcony scene later that evening.  But many unfortunate events caused by the families' feuding ultimately leads to their dual suicide.

Review:  This is by far my favorite edition to teach.  I probably taught with it 14 times with 9th grade students.  The format and the spacing is good for kids.  The notes provided on the left side of the page are accessible to students and the short summaries for each scene are easy to understand.  Folger also provides a lot of online support materials.

Suggestions for Teachers:  Use Folger's Shakespeare Set Free to help make teaching this text really interactive.  There are lots of activities from tableaus to blocking and rewriting scripts that make this by far a favorite unit for 9th graders who are sometimes craving reading a classic they've heard about over and over.  Do a side-by-side reading of Gareth Hinds' graphic novel and show clips from Zeferelli and Luhrmann's films.  Give them the plot in advance.  Even use key lines to act out the scene.  Create improvs of modern day scenarios to help engage  (I have written a bunch of these and can email!)  Look at modern Romeo and Juliet scenarios in the world as a connection to social studies.

Reading Level:

1. Quantitative: Lexile 720L, ATOS Book Level 8.6, Readability Grade Level 4.8, Flesh-Kincaid 3.3, RMM 7.7 *There seems to be some inconsistency in the quantitative assessment.  From my background of teaching Romeo and Juliet, I would lean towards 8th-9th grade reading level.
2. Qualitative:  Reading a play is a complex task on its own.  The reader is left to visualizing time and place and shifts in setting.  The organization here is very complex as there are subplots.  Language can be exceedingly complex but Folger does a great job of simplifying key lines and adding accessible summaries on the left hand side of the page.  There are multiple levels of meaning but a student doesn't need to understand all of them to get the gist of the play as a first pass.  Of course there are dated historical and some Biblical references, but with the support this edition provides, the knowledge demands are lessened.  The young, forbidden love theme and disagreement with parents will be easy to connect with most teens.

Content Areas: English (teaching Shakespeare), Social Studies

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.3
Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.5
Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.7
Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.9
Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new.

Relevant Links: There is so much out there just doing a quick search on google. But I love the Folger Shakespeare Library! Folger Digital Texts, Folger Shakespeare Library

Subject/Themes: love, forbidden love, parental pressure, Shakespeare, gangs, feuds, poetry, sonnet, play, drama

Awards: N/A

Series Information: Folger Shakespeare Library Series

The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet adapted and illustrated by Gareth Hinds

Hinds, G. (2013). The most excellent and lamentable tragedy of Romeo & Juliet: A play by William Shakespeare (G. Hinds, Illustrator). Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Summary: This is a faithful Romeo and Juliet story with actual lines from the play, excerpted here in this graphic novel adaptation. Two feuding families cause a series of catastrophes that cause two young lovers to commit suicide. Aside from a diverse cast of characters including an African American Romeo and a South Asian Juliet, this graphic novel is set in picturesque Verona, the lines are directly Shakespeare's and the costumes are true to the period aside from a few above-the-knee skirts.

Review: This is a beautiful adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Hinds' choice to make all the major characters people of color will make this timeless tale more relevant and accessible to the diverse youth who study this text in 9th grade. The pictures will also help students visualize Shakespeare's language. A great accompaniment to the play itself.

Suggestions for Teachers: Have students read the play scene by scene and then read the Hinds' adaptation after each scene. Have students compare the play to the graphic novel. Students can analyze whey Hinds chose to excerpt the parts he did. Have students analyze if the drawings represent the text. Who does a better job of staying true to the text? Hinds? Zeferelli? Consider Hinds' author's note at the end. Have students analyze the effect of the ethnicity of Hinds' characters. Should he have changed them? Why or why not?

Reading Level:

1. Quantitative: Lexile 700L, ATOS Book Level 5.6, Flesh-Kincaid 2.9, Readability Grade Level 4.8, RMM 12.8  *There seems to be some inconsistency in the quantitative assessment.  From my background of teaching Romeo and Juliet, I would lean towards 8th-9th grade reading level.  With graphics, this could be used as early as 6th grade.
2. Qualitative: This graphic novel version of Romeo & Juliet is very complex mainly because of the language. The text organization is clear and chronological. The use of graphics definitely assists in interpreting the text. The language is dense and complex and contains a lot of figurative language. There is vocabulary that is difficult although Hinds does a good job a simply defining key terms. Shakespearean language is exceedingly complex for middle schoolers and the sentence structure here will be difficult for one who is a novice with Shakespeare. There are multiple levels of meaning but the reader doesn't necessarily have to understand all the puns in order to fully grasp the plot. Hinds does an excellent job in providing schema of the time period and setting in his illustrations. For first time R & J readers, students will be able to access the theme of falling for the "wrong" person and societal pressures to do things you don't want to do.

Content Areas: English (teaching drama, Shakespeare)

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.3
Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.5
Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.7
Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.9
Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new.

Relevant links: New York Schools Teaching Guide, Shakespeare Navigators, Folger Shakespeare Library

Subjects/Themes: forbidden love, parental pressure, love at first sight, Shakespeare, gangs, feuds, grudges, poetry

Awards: Kirkus Best Teens Book 2013, starred review from The Horn Book, nominated for YALSA's Great Graphic Novel for Teens

Series Information: N/A

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Woodson, J. (2014). brown girl dreaming. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books. 

Summary:
Jacqueline Woodson's newest book is a memoir about her childhood during the 1960s and 70s written in verse.  Woodson begins with her early upbringing in Ohio, but most of her childhood includes long summers in South Carolina where her mother's parents lived and New York, where her mother moves as Jacqueline enters school.  Part of this memoir is a tribute to Woodson's long family history before her birth and the strength of her African American heritage.  Woodson's relationship with her grandmother, a strong Jehovah's Witness which later dictate her own religious practices are chronicled here.  This memoir is also a peek into the South during the early Civil Rights Movement, where Blacks are organizing as segregation is at its height.  Woodson is able to capture the essence of the time period through vivid sensory detail.

Review:
Woodson writes an evocative memoir in verse.  It is a tribute to family and how family shapes individuals.  It is also a bit of an exploration of her family tree.  A quick, beautiful read for those interested in Black history especially in the South during the late 1960's.

Suggestions for Teachers:
Students might have fun imitating sections of this book since it is written in verse.  Excerpts from this could be used at the beginning of the year for community building and units on memoirs or "Where I'm From" poems considering the work of Linda Christensen. There is also a lot in here on the power of reading and writing.  Those sections could be excerpted for the English classroom.  History teachers could use this as a primary text to go along with the textbook when studying Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights, the Black Panthers and also the effects of slavery and reconstruction.  Note: this is a quick read, but not a suspenseful one.  

Reading Level:

1. Quantitative: Lexile 1350L, ATOS Book Level 4.5, Flesh-Kincaid 9.7, RMM 7.5, Readability Grade Level, 10.0, Titlewave RL: 4.3
2. Qualitative:  The organization of brown girl dreaming is a little intricate.  There are time shifts back to before Jacqueline Woodson was born.  Since this memoir is written in verse, it has fairly complex language features including abstract ideas and figurative language.  At the same time, many of the sentence structures are very simple.  The vocabulary is mostly simple, but Woodson takes some liberties with language combining phrases into one word to sound more vernacular.   Woodson uses italics to indicate dialogue.  There is some vocabulary connected to a Southern context. Most of the knowledge demands are in the realm of what students know, but, students who have schema surrounding the Voting Rights Act, segregation, Civil Rights Movement, slavery and reconstruction and the Black Panther Party will have a stronger understanding of the text.  There are some Biblical references and knowledge surrounding Jehovah's Witnesses will be helpful.

Content Areas: English (teaching memoir, verse, sensory description, setting), History (1960s & 70's, Segregation, Voting Rights, Freedom Riders, Civil Rights, Black Panther Party)

Common Core State Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.5 Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6 Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

Relevant Links/Digital Content: Teaching Books

Subjects/themes: African American history, women, Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Segregation, reading identity, writing identity

Awards: N/A as of today

Series Information:  N/A