English 8 Strategies students continued with the new writing focus, cause-and-effect writing. While I planned the lesson to last one day, it really needed two days to complete properly, so we’ll drop Tuesday’s planned lesson and move it to a later date. Today we focused on a new text, working to determine which type of cause-effect organization the writer used.

English I Honors students returned to our New York Times article about Shakespeare and why he’s still read today. (Hint: it’s not just that he’s one of the greatest writers in history. The question is what makes him one of the greatest.) (And imagine if he had a typewriter…)

Afterward, we built a bit of background knowledge with a brief video on Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, and the Elizabethan theater scene in general.

An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting Romeo and Juliet’s famous balcony scene, via Wikicommons

Finally, I provided students with a brief overview of the play and its characters, pointing out that most of the first play-goers would have know the story already as it was based on a much older Italian story.

Homework

• English I Honors: continue working on sonnet