How can I organize my understanding of Theme as it relates to Romeo and Juliet?

HELLO INTERNET.

Our final PLP Humanities 10 project of the semester was on Romeo and Juliet, which I was hoping you would pick up on based on the title of this blog post. However, if you’re dense like myself, I felt the need to point it out.

Why?

Because if I have learned anything from this project (and sight-reading music), reading between the lines absolutely sucks. 

Personally, when we read the texts in class, I was able to follow along with the context and meaning without much difficulty. However, the hard part came after when I actually had to think critically and paraphrase, summarize, and reflect on certain excerpts from the text. It felt like completing the Literacy 10 assessment except it was for every act of Romeo and Juliet. That was the true tragedy, in my opinion.

I really enjoyed the method we used to build knowledge during this project. We each got to voice a different character in class daily, as we read over various scenes. When I was a much younger child, I would always stutter or be very anxious when reading things aloud in class. However, I was really excited to be able to utilize this opportunity to build confidence in my speaking and reading skills. Although I definitely stuttered or stumbled upon a few words given the Elizabethan English, I had a lot more fun that I expected. Yaysies.

As we went through the playwright as a class, I kept track of my understanding through my Theme book; which was our first keystone.

 

I’m proud of my theme book because I didn’t stress myself out while making it and didn’t have to sacrifice my mental health for my school work while also achieving a level of work that I am satisfied with. If I didn’t make it clear enough in my theme book, I entirely believe the Friar was to blame for many of the consequences in Romeo and Juliet. I think I feel particularly strongly about that because on a personal level, I dislike it when I see adult figures consistently failing youth that they’re responsible for. Anyways, I should stop being a Negative Nelly™. Or am I just thinking I’m being negative because women are programmed in this heteronormative society to feel like they’re being dramatic when raising valid points?

Keystone 2 was a thing that existed until it did not. We were initially supposed to write a review for different adaptions of Romeo and Juliet for the second keystone, though Mr. Harris decided to veto it in favour of allowing us to have more time for our final product, as this was a very rushed project. Instead, we showed our understanding of various adaptions in our theme book; though I also took notes on one of the adaptions we watched together in class: Warm Bodies. We also watched Gnomeo & Juliet, which was a very nostalgic throwback to my childhood. After understanding the original source material, it was very interesting to myself personally viewing the differences and similarities to that film.

Here are my cool notes:

For our final product, we had to create a parody of Romeo and Juliet. I worked with Faith, Zach, and Cole. Our parody was about a character named Joe who went back in the past to tell his grandfather to invest in Amazon stock. During his trip in the past, he falls in love with a girl named Rose.

Personally, I’m not proud of what we ultimately put together; though I’m glad I didn’t stress myself out about it and that I was able to advocate for my needs in the group setting.

Additionally, I was able to make some pretty cool graphics for our film using my art skills. I’m very proud of those graphics.

So, how can I organize my understanding of Theme as it relates to Romeo and Juliet? In an individual level, I analyzed the text and made connections to various adaptions. With my peers, we collaborated to combine our understanding to our own original parody.

Now that I have finished my blog post like the totally responsible and cool PLP learner that I am, I’m off to rest in a tomb somewhere. Byebye. 👋