Elizabeth A. Johnson
In order to build character, which is the ultimate goal of this unit, students will have the opportunity to improvise social situations. They will be put into situations where they get the opportunity to employ positive behavior and positive outcomes for others. The first of these will be real-world situations. Next, students will assess their reactions by defining and explaining their goals, motivations, obstacles, and actions. Then, before the Romeo and Juliet performances, students will define positive behavior for an audience, and then rate their own behavior during the performances. Next, students will rehearse and perform scenes from Romeo and Juliet. They will interpret and infer character voice and motivations before their performances. Finally, students will be given a week, or another definite amount of time, to keep a journal of goals, motivations, obstacles, and actions they make on a daily basis and evaluate those actions. A written response to these actions will be the final, summative assessment for the unit.
With literature as our gateway, we are looking at our effects on others. Shakespeare's characters represent the extremes of a society. For example, Tybalt is our modern day hotheaded young man with a score to settle. He does not care to hear the details; he just knows that something is not right. Being a character in a play, and having to get across his point in less than three hours, he does not pay attention to the minutiae of a scene, simply barging ahead with his plans. He is only stopped once, by his uncle, Capulet, at the ball. In this encounter, though, an elder supersedes him. Capulet is drunk, but his superior rank is paramount and stands in the way of Tybalt achieving his goals. With the difficult decision of choosing passion or choosing to follow family, Tybalt is faced with a decision every student has to make at some point. Students may be asked if Tybalt's death is the consequence of fate or choice or both. Students will scrutinize the literature after improvising real situations.
Looking at Romeo, his primary goal is to find and foster true love. His decision is to pursue the daughter of his enemy; his action is to marry her and then commit suicide to be with her. His motivation is true love, deep emotional love, rather than the carnal love of his best friend and foil, Mercutio. Romeo's main obstacle is the feud between the two family houses, with more specific conflicts like the attempt to make peace with Tybalt, avenging Mercutio's death, returning to Juliet despite banishment, and getting through Paris into Juliet's tomb. His single-minded pursuit of his love, even though it is guided by truth and purity, leaves death and devastation in its wake. Therefore, even the most well-intended people may perform actions that can lead to ruin and an overall failure. By deeply assessing a character in the play this way, students will then be able to take these skills of critical examination into their own lives. It will work because the unit focuses on skills of examining character.