One of the significant milestones for student writers is the ability to connect the dots. A big part of becoming educated is acquiring knowledge. In English Language Arts as with all the humanities, students engage in reading and learning from books. Shakespeare is the bedrock of storytelling. We believe a must for students to gain a richness of language alone. Our Operation Lexicon guides students into the vast array of words unique to Shakespeare’s work. This is a great unit to begin in summer before diving into his sonnets and plays larger work. 

 Here again, our student Kate, during the spring semester demonstrated that she is enlarging her fund of knowledge and understands how to connect dots. One of her projects included diving into the works of Shakespeare. She learned about his life and touched the surface of his work.

To begin, she did a close reading of  one of his well known sonnets, considering both its content and form. After creating the beautiful final project above to showcase the sonnet—a slowly copied work—she read a beautifully illustrated version of Romeo and Juliet. Now she was ready to dive into the world of Shakespeare’s play.

What is tremendous is the connections she made as she enlarged her fund of knowledge and connected the dots in her culminating essay.

Romeo and Juliet are Everywhere

Was any of it worth it? Shakespeare’s nearly 500-year-old play portrays two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who tragically fall in love despite the deep, destructive resentment between their families. The language tricks, film adaptations across different time periods, and devastating consequences make this play an important work of art.

Shakespeare uses language tricks to add ironic humor to this tragedy. Romeo’s fickle love, ended his love towards Rosaline enabling him to suddenly fall in love with Juliet, setting the tragedy into motion. After Benvolio insists Romeo abandon his obsessive crush on Rosaline, Romeo responds hyperbolically: “Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here’s much to do with hate but more with love. Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate!” (Folger lines 160-168a). It’s silly how Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline changed so quickly, turning into an obsession over Juliet. It’s wild that Romeo is compared to an attractive book holding a bad story, illustrating the complexity of what lies below the surface. Juliet compares Romeo to a beautifully bound book containing a dark heart after he kills Tybalt: “Was ever a book containing such vile matter so fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace” (Folger lines 83-85a). Juliet’s statement is both amusing and disturbing regarding her obsessive passion. Shakespeare’s use here of complicated and tricky word play is effective.

Franco Zefrelli, Baz Luhrmann, Rogers and Hammerstein, and even Michael Jackson have reshaped Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet,” for film. Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film brought the story of Romeo and Juliet to life for me with of the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio, the modern setting, and the ’90s styling. While Robert Ebert loved Franco Zefarelli’s 1968 film, “I believe Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet is the most exciting film of Shakespeare ever made,” I don’t agree. I found the film dull. The 1968 film was theater-like, traditional, and Romeo dies first! Nobody can criticize Leonard Bernstein’s music or Stephen Sandhein’s lyrics, which was created for the theater, toured worldwide, and later became the famous 1961 film. This clever adaptation is set in New York’s Upper West Side, where, like The Outsiders, gangs are feuding (the Sharks and the Jets). I found the connections of West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet, and The Outsiders interesting, especially where all three stories encountered complicated relationships, conflict, and overwhelming emotions. And then there is Michael Jackson’s 1982 music video, “Beat It,” yet another adaptation where hostility increases quickly between rivals. Here Michael Jackson steps in, advocating for peace, using music and choreography to communicate powerfully. I wonder how Shakespeare might view all these adaptations?

Let’s talk tragedy. To begin, the fact that the Montagues and Capulets keep their feud going on and on and on to a point in time that no one actually remembers how it started is foolish, destructive, and clear evidence of how pride definitely comes before a fall! It’s frustrating and isolating for Romeo and Juliet, who could not share the fact that they were actually married with their loved ones. In the end, it took the tragedy of death to bring the feud to an end and to bring these families to their senses. How can anyone not connect to Romeo’s and Juliet’s obsessive love for each other and their heartbreaking death? Family conflict, love, and unfortunate spontaneous decisions do not always end well. Tragedy is real and happens every single day. Beware of holding onto grudges!

From 1597 to 2026, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has informed and influenced millions upon millions of us humans, but the idea was inspired by an earlier work by an English poet, Robert Brooke, who was inspired by an Italian poet named Matteo Bandeblo. There is nothing new under the sun, but Shakespeare made this tragic tale his own inspired by artist who came before him. Retelling Shakespeare’s classic redefines the timeless tragedy for every new generation. I wonder who will come next.

Work Cited

Jackson, Michael. “Beat It.” 1983. YouTube, Michael Jackson – Beat It (Official 4K Video)

Romeo and Juliet, Directed by Baz Luhnmann, 1996.

Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet.” Folger Shakespeare Library, https//folger.edu/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-juliet/.

Shakespeare, William and Zwerger, Lisbeth. Romeo and Juliet. Michael Neugebauer Publishing, 1996.

West Side Story. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 1961.

~Kimberly

DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!

Summer Bingo!

The word essay has its roots in the old English  word “assay” tied to science in the 1400s. Think metallurgy. In the lab, scientists hypothesize and try ideas out.

As a writer, I am often saddened by what has become of the essay. Quoting “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins, I have to say, I agree:

Powerful (and lovely).

Am I right?

~Kimberly






DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!

Summer Bingo!

Over the course of five weeks, in the Level 4 Integrated Literature and Writing units, high school students are led on a journey through an exceptional work. Not only will they journey through, but they will document the journey, creating a weekly journal that explores, characters, themes, symbols, motifs, and vocabulary. The journal will also include a synopsis of the week’s reading and a weekly personal reflection. All of this, to prepare for the crafting of a culminating essay. 

Back in the 60s, fifteen-year-old S.E. Hinton—Susan Eloise—began writing The Outsiders. The book was published when she was 18 and has been in print ever since. Back in the 90s it was surprisingly ranked #38 on the American Library Association’s Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books. But in 2019, the BBC listed the book as one of the top hundred most influential.

Now I love it when an idiom is used in a fresh way. So it tickles me that Kate, a current 9th grade student working through Honors English, was able to incorporate one of my favorites into her essay—alive and kicking. This one was, once upon a time, a sales pitch used by fishermen. Think 1800s. Think nets filled with flopping fish pulled onto a pier to sell. This is an alive and kicking offering, for sure!  Fresh, indeed!

The idiom in Kate’s Thesis Statement was a teaching moment during the edit stage of the writing process. Kate first wrote: “The theme of loyalty, the symbolic switchblades, and the shrinking of differences to similarity keep this story relevant.” When she and her teacher were working through the editorial process, the idiom felt like a very natural improvement. This is REAL writing. This is the space where the mentor and the apprentice read and discuss and edit. All real writers learn through mentorship. Never is “imagination” or “originality” or “voice” the result of a consumable worksheet.  Authentic essays spring from the heart that is drawn into a process—brainstorm, draft, re-read, conference with a mentor, polish. And here, you will read the result of a student who engaged in such a process. 

Thank you, Kate, for reminding us that S.E. Hinton’s BIG idea is still alive and kicking!

The Gold Below the Surface

Have you ever been judged before someone really got to know you? In The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, the Socs and the Greasers are separated by wealth and reputation. The theme of loyalty, the symbolic switchblades, and the transforming of differences to similarity, keep this story alive and kicking.

For the Greasers to survive, they must rely on loyalty to one another. Every day, the streets are dangerous for the Greasers. S.E. Hinton uses the ongoing conflict between the Greasers and the Socs to demonstrate this danger, “Greasers can’t walk along too much, or they’ll get jumped” (2). The Greasers rely on each other for protection.  Being loyal means sometimes having to sacrifice. Johnny protects Ponyboy at the church fire, “We put it out before you got burned. That jacket saved you from a bad burning, maybe saved your life” (94). Johnny courageously sacrifices his life because of his loyalty to his friend Ponyboy. Johnny rescuing Ponyboy not only demonstrates the loyalty of a true friend, but the true devotion of the Greasers toward one another.

Switchblades are weapons that symbolize both violence and protection. The Greasers live in a tough environment. They rely on violent switchblades for power, “Ya kill’em with switchblades, too, ya, kid” (83). Daily life is filled with rivalry, where the switchblades represented hostility. Getting the news that Johnny will be dying, breaks Ponyboy. But Johnny’s last words stick with him forever like a switchblade to the heart, “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold…”(148). In the last seconds of his life, Johnny, protecting his friend, instructs Ponyboy how to live life. Receiving his last words of guidance, Ponyboy can move forward.

Despite all of the differences between the Greasers and the Socs, they are amazingly alike. After all, having differences doesn’t mean we humans aren’t similar. Despite the Greasers and the Socs differences, both groups are more alike than meets the eye, “It seems funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one” (1). Seeing the same sunset demonstrates similarity. Not knowing what Johnny’s future is going to look like, or if he even will have a future, is very scary. Worrying about what might happen to Johnny in the near future, Ponyboy comes face to face with mortality, “The blood was draining from my face and Darry put an arm across my shoulder and squeezed hard…even if he lived, he’d be crippled for the rest of his life” (102). All these thoughts are running through his mind. Sunsets and death lead readers into understanding that the Greasers and the Socs have much in common.

Throughout The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton, uses the simple theme of loyalty, symbols like switchblades and staying gold, and striking motifs of sunsets and death, to create a hauntingly realistic tale that is relevant here in the 21st century. Ultimately, judging someone before getting to know them creates walls that divide. Getting to know someone before judging enables us to discover someone as a whole, and this will always surprise the heart.

Works Cited

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. Viking Press, 1967.

~Kimberly

DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!

Summer Bingo!

Imagine you are smack dab in the middle of the Middle Ages. It’s fall. September of 1290 to be exact.

Your mother wants you to be lady-like.

Your father wants you to get married for money.

One of the exceptional skills our high school materials endeavor to instill in students, is the art of writing a true reflection.

Often teachers drill into their young writers to never, NEVER  E V E R, write personally from the first person POV. Each week we challenge students to do just that! Writing a reflection of what is read, allows the writer to solidify ideas and opinions about what is being read. This writing helps writers glean personally from the story action. 

As we are so close to summer break, I want to share some of the best reflection I’ve read this school year. Tied to our Level 4, Catherine Called Birdy, Integrated Reading and Writing unit, I am certain Catherine impressed Kate. And a little part of me believes that this fictional character would find Kate equally impressive.

To shift gears in a car, you need to press down on the clutch. To go from room to room, you walk through a doorway. To travel from floor to floor, you take the stairs.

To get from one place to another, you need a phase of transition. And writing is no different.

Transitions—between ideas, paragraphs, or even sentences—can be easy to overlook no matter what level the writer is working at. Although writers must use their judgement to determine what places need transitions, as a general rule, every topic sentence should contain a transition. And I’m not talking about “next” or “in addition;” these are transition training wheels. Let’s get less formulaic. 

Once students get to Levels 3 and 4, I expect to see a look back and a look forward in each topic sentence. The look back is the transition. It tells us where we came from, setting up readers to understand the relationship between the previous idea and our new idea. The look forward shows what we’re going to talk about next.

For example, in an essay on the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon, we might open a paragraph by writing, “Just as the A-level maths exam serves as a symbol of stability in Christopher’s shifting world, Christopher’s system of counting yellow and red cars every morning gives him another measure of control.” The first half of the sentence looks back at the previous paragraph, which must have been about the A-level maths exam creating stability. While the topic sentence doesn’t start with a classic “also” phrase, it has a strong transition. The sentence establishes the relationship between where we’ve been and where we’re going. It looks backwards and forwards.

As writers, we operate with the assumption that we have some pretty smart readers—but that doesn’t mean they’ll always make the same leaps in logic. We writers must make connections between ideas clear and explicit.

Transitions show how you got to where you are!

Remember: look back and look forward in each topic sentence and you will seamlessly HOOK your readers! They will thank you for it!

“What do we want?”

“No dropped quotes!”

“When do we want it?”

“Now!”

This is a frequent exchange I have with my students. As an essay teacher, dropped quotes are one of the banes of my existence. A dropped quote is when a writer plops a quote into a paragraph with no context, attribution tag, or analysis. “They look like this, and they confuse readers.” As writers, we can never assume that our readers will follow our same train of thought; we have to guide them through every leap in our logic. 

Here’s the anatomy of a well-integrated quotation:

Context, attribution tag, “Quotation,” analysis (author’s last name and page number).

Example: In The Westing Game, when Mrs. Wexler tours the potential new apartment, she thinks to herself, “Just wait until those so-called friends of hers with their classy houses see this place,” revealing her materialistic and shallow approach to life (Raskin 3). 

In this example, the writer leads the reader through quote interpretation. The reader understands where in the story the quote comes from and what purpose the quote serves in the argument, which is to show Mrs. Wexler’s materialism. 

We introduce this skill, and provide five scaffolded opportunities to practice and master this basic essential of MLA style  in Introduction to Composition: The Essay, Volume 3. So let’s make our reader’s job as intuitive as possible.

So please, “No dropped quotes!” 

~Claire S.