Romeo & Juliet in the Classroom Today

When reevaluating this text after reading and studying Romeo and Juliet many times before I tried to look at it in a different light. This is the most popular Shakespearian play (in my opinion). It has so much history and popular culture behind it because it is referred to in our everyday lives. Even people that have never read it can still draw a connection to the main components of the tragedy. When looking at this play from a new light I wanted to approach it with a fresher take on how to teach this over used play to my students in a way that they can connect to it. I feel like Romeo and Juliet can be a lot to through on a student to read or to read as a class. Even when you have students read the different parts of the play I still feel like it does not resonate as much as it should.  My take on this play is that you have to break it down for students and make sure the students are connected to the text. So many times we just worry about getting through the text but don’t worry about how the students get through it. I think that by breaking down parts of this play and putting students into long term groups they can critically analyze the structure, themes, characters and much more if they are just given an area to focus and present on. I think this would benefit not only them but also the rest of the class because students are more interested in listening to their peers present on topics. Don’t get me wrong I think its important for all the students to have read through it at least once but as a post reading activity to have the students break into long term groups to analyze and present on their parts would benefit everyone.