Romeo and Juliet: Teaching Teenagers Then and Now

We’ll explore: 

• Paired texts that pop off the page. Use the Folger Method to put your students in conversation with Shakespeare, Clint Smith, Toni Morrison, and each other. They’ll make their own connections and discoveries about the texts and themselves. 

• Ways to incorporate Cutting the Text into your classroom. Your students will cut Shakespeare and learn a whole lot through the process. We’ll practice cutting some parenting from Lady and Lord Capulet and advice from Friar Lawrence. 

• Romeo and Juliet first as learners then as teachers. It’s a play that can put so much pressure on everyone. It’s so many people’s first foray into Shakespeare. We’ll work through how to focus on getting kids into the text and leaving the baggage aside. 

This session will be led by Amber Phelps, an English teacher at Baltimore City College in Baltimore, Maryland and Deborah Gascon, an English teacher at Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, South Carolina.

Afterwards, a recording of the session and any related resources will be available exclusively for Folger Teacher Members.