English I TEKS ask us to:
Understand how dramatic conventions like monologues, soliloquies, and dramatic irony enhance dramatic text.
But we can't STOP there.
Next, we must make inferences and conclusions about how these dramatic conventions enhance the dramatic text.
But what does that mean?
Here's the monologues in the play.
Our "job" here is to teach kids how to comprehend and analyze the dramatic conventions for themselves. This means that we need to model how one accomplishes that. In most classrooms that I have observed, teachers have students play the roles of the characters and the class reads the play aloud. As the play is read, teachers stop the reading to ask questions about what is going on - comprehension. And I have never seen that instruction help kids understand how to apply that knowledge to reading another play. Theoretically, teaching someone to read R and J should empower them to read any Shakespearean text. Sure, some of the questions on the quiz will ask kids to demonstrate comprehension of the text. Some quizzes also might ask kids to analyze the impact of the monologue. But at that point, it's all about RECALL! We still don't know if kids can read and analyze a play by themselves. What a waste of time.
That approach only makes sense as a first step. Here's the first monologue in the play. I need to pause and understand what is going on here, don't you? It's important for kids to understand that Juliet is overthinking things and questioning herself - like we all do when we fall in love. It's important for kids to understand the insecurity that is part of the human condition. It's important that kids recognize the situational irony that Romeo can hear what Juliet is saying.
But our TEK does not ask us to paraphrase the text to prove that we can translate Shakespearean poetry into modern day language. Our TEK does not ask us to even interpret Juliet's speech in terms of the human condition, situational irony, or realize the connection to our own experiences of insecurity in love. Which is important too. We just can't stop there. Which is what I think most lessons and approaches do.
Our TEK asks us to examine why Shakespeare chose to have Juliet speak in a monologue to advance his message in the whole play. Our TEK asks us to analyze purpose, author's message, and craft in advancing the plot by using a monologue to do so.
This kind of analysis asks us to examine something more than just tracking the plot. We first begin by thinking of the audience...just like Shakespeare did. He had to think about the audience's experience...how he was going to take them by the hand to lead them through to the surprise he had planned for them in the end.
Why did Shakespeare think that the audience needed to hear what Juliet was thinking? Most young women don't go to their windows and speak aloud to the night air. They ruminate and roll their thoughts around in their heads until they are half crazy. Shakespeare needed the audience to know Juliet's thought processes and frame of mind. In plays, playwrights use the tool of a monologue to get that job done. (In other genres, the narrator - usually first person or omniscient - explain character sentiments, plans, reactions, ideas, etc.) This monologue is how Shakespeare helped the audience prepare for what was coming next.
Here are some other ways to ask questions about the use of monologue:
Why did Shakespeare choose to have it said in a monologue?
What was the purpose of the monologue in the scope of the plot? Character development?
How does the monologue connect to the whole theme, purpose, or message of the play?
Why was it said that way - as a monologue? How would the theme, purpose, plot, character development, purpose have changed if the speech were an aside or a soliloquy?
What text evidence helps us know the answers to these questions?
Our job is not to help students understand the plot of Romeo and Juliet. It's much, much more.
If we are to teach students to critically analyze and actually teach what our curriculum dictates, lessons will not have some kids reading the text aloud while the rest of the class pretends to listen and waits for the teacher to stop and ask questions so that the rest of the class can then know what's going on. That's the equivalent of leading a bull by the nose. Students are not mindless cattle incapable of leading themselves.
Instead, the lesson would look like this:
1. The teacher would read the monologue aloud and show how he uses the text and research to figure out what the character is actually saying. (I don't think we are teaching how do do this either. We just ask questions to lead kids by the nose through the text. We have to actually teach people how to figure this stuff out. You can't just ask leading questions. People don't know what they don't know. You have to show them where to go to figure it out. You have to show them what to look for: No Fear Shakespeare for modern language translations "mayst think my havior light", looking up proper nouns: "They say Jove laughs", and obscure cultural references "I should have been more strange", etc.)
2. The teacher would then conduct a think aloud to show how he uses the dramatic choices made by Shakespeare to help make deeper interpretations and connections about the play and enhancements to the text overall.
3. Next, the whole class would need to examine another monologue to practice the skills the teacher demonstrated in the read aloud and the think aloud. A Shared Reading technique is useful for a whole group discussion. The teacher helps pose the questions, while the students work through the answers. (This could be done with another Shakespearean monologue in R and J, another Shakespearean play, or even another whole class text.) The teacher would go back to read aloud/think aloud as necessary to describe the correct text references and thinking protocols.
4. Following the gradual release model, students would then be ready to practice the cognitive analysis skills in small groups. The next monologue in R and J is also by Juliet. Students could then be divided in to small groups to read the monologue, build comprehension, and practice analyzing it's use in the play. The teacher could then have small groups meet with other small groups or bring the class back together for a whole class debrief.
5. The teacher then might conduct a comparative discussion about these three monologues. Were they all used similarly? How were they different? What impact does each have in the development of the plot? Why does Juliet have more monologues than any other character?
6. The next monologues in the play are completed by Friar Lawrence, Mercutio, the Nurse, and Romeo. Since this concept - of truly teaching this TEK past basic comprehension - I would recommend further group work. Each group could take on a different monologue and present the findings to the whole class. During their presentations, the rest of the class would be using a listening guide or note-taking analysis form to evaluate the strength of the interpretations. A whole class debrief of the presentation and evaluations by the audience would come next. Note- the class is taking on the analysis and evaluation of the group's interpretations, not the teacher.
7. Students would then be ready to apply this skill independently in another Shakespearean play or another contemporary/cultural play. (Remember that our TEKS ask us to examine plays from ALL time periods and cultures. Not just the English Cannon for WASPS.) The http://stageagent.com/ website that I have been using has recommendations for other plays that actors could use as audition pieces that might reveal some good choices for students to analyze independently. I wrote about some other common choices in a previous post if you need other sources.
8. Now we are ready to connect the skill to writing. Students could enter a piece of their own writing or a narrative text and compose an original monologue, adding a reflection piece about why they chose to adapt that text into a monologue and how it advanced or changed the plot, character development, or message of the text.
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