Pairing Romeo and Juliet with modern music and literature.
1. I have students watch the opening 5 minutes of Shakespeare Uncovered by PBS: “The Romeo and Juliet” episode. The episode’s beginnings help to frame our discussion of what makes Romeo and Juliet widely taught and widely appropriate to modern audiences.
2. Write the question on the board: What makes Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet relevant and applicable to teenagers today?
3. Listen to the Taylor Swift Song “Romeo and Juliet,” and the Dire Straits song “Romeo and Juliet”
- Give students copies of the lyrics and have them mark up the music (close read) as they listen.
- Underline lines that contrast the characterization of Romeo and Juliet or the themes from the play.
- Circle words that are often associated with the play.
- Put a question mark next to lines that you think could be connected and you want to come back to and think more about.
- Put a box around the line that BEST connects to the play.
- Have students debrief in pairs about the songs we listened to.
- What was different and what was similar about the music and the literature?
- What did you like and what didn’t you like about the musician’s interpretations?
4. Students will read an excerpt from The Fault in Our Stars when Hazel and Augustus meet for the first time.
- Students will read the interaction between the two main characters Augustus and Hazel and identify the tone, the type of language used and the message the characters create using language and tone.
- Students will compare those devices to Shakespeare’s use of language and tone in the balcony scene between Romeo and Juliet.
5. Go back to the original question – how can the study of these modern texts help us better understand Shakespeare’s work and the timelessness of his characters and topics?