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Lesson 7

We will write and revise multiparagraph expository responses that demonstrate our understanding of the themes found in Acts 1–3 of Romeo and Juliet and how they are developed.

Lesson Goals

Reading and Knowledge

  • Attend to Details: How well do I recognize and interpret language and sentence structures to deepen my understanding of how a theme from Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet is further developed in Acts 2 and 3?
  • Determining Meaning and Purpose: How well can I determine a theme and explain how it is developed during the course of multiple acts in Romeo and Juliet?
  • Summarize: How well do I express an accurate understanding of themes in literary texts?

Writing

  • Form Claims: How well do I develop and clearly communicate a meaningful and defensible claim about how a theme is developed during the course of multiple acts in Romeo and Juliet?
  • Use Conventions to Produce Clear Writing: How well do I apply correct and effective syntax, usage, mechanics, and spelling to communicate ideas and achieve intended purposes?
  • Organize Ideas: How well do I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, and evidence to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed claims about how a theme is developed in Romeo and Juliet?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon and Schuster, 2004

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

In preparation for planning our response to the Section Diagnostic, we will examine a model thesis statement.

Step 1

You will expand your Section 1 Diagnostic to demonstrate how your understanding of a theme in Romeo and Juliet has expanded or changed after reading additional scenes. Your Section 3 Diagnostic should reflect a more sophisticated understanding of a theme based on the new information you have gleaned from reading additional scenes.

For this Section Diagnostic, you will explain how a theme introduced in Act 1 is further developed in later scenes. Your response requires a specific structure:

  1. Thesis Statement (Overarching Claim)

    1. Supporting Claim 1 with supporting evidence

    2. Supporting Claim 2 with supporting evidence

    3. Supporting Claim 3 with supporting evidence

Step 2

Re-examine this model thesis statement from the Section 1 Diagnostic.

In Act 1, Scene 4 of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare develops the theme that the characters cannot escape their doomed fate by foreshadowing an ominous consequence of Romeo going to the Capulet party.

Now, examine this model thesis statement for the Section 3 Diagnostic:

Through the use of foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and a curse, Shakespeare develops a theme that the characters cannot escape their doomed fate in the play Romeo and Juliet.

With a partner, discuss the following questions:

  1. How are the two thesis statements similar?

  2. How are the two thesis statements different? What is the central claim in the second thesis statement?

  3. What are the supporting claims?

  4. What evidence from the text might support these claims?

Activity 2: Write

We will use the Organizing Evidence Tool to draft an outline of your multiparagraph response to the Section Diagnostic.

Take out your Organizing Evidence Tool. The Organizing Evidence Tool can be used to develop a plan for supporting a central claim, or thesis through a series of supporting claims, each of which has evidence to support it. Once you have formed a central claim, you can use this tool to develop a logical sequence of supporting claims. The tool provides spaces in which you can write down a series of supporting claims, then write down and explain supporting evidence, noting the source from which it comes.

Using the notes from your Text-Theme Note-Taking Tool and your Section 1 and 2 Diagnostics, complete an outline for your three-paragraph response to the written Section Diagnostic.

Be sure to include the following:

  • an overarching central claim that addresses all parts of the Section Diagnostic

  • three supporting claims that show how details in at least three scenes of the play support the central claim

  • textual evidence to support the supporting claims

  • accurate citations of the textual evidence

  • a connection between evidence and the supporting claims

Only the claims need to be stated in complete sentences. The evidence and analysis can take the form of notes. You will have the opportunity to craft them into complete sentences when you draft your response.

Activity 3: Discuss – Write

We will discuss our outline with a partner and use the feedback to revise our outline.

With a partner, read your Organizing Evidence Tool. Ask your partner the following questions:

  1. Does this central claim present an accurate interpretation of a theme?

  2. Does it address all parts of the Section Diagnostic?

  3. Does each supporting claim connect to the central claim?

  4. Does the outlined evidence support each supporting claim found in the thesis statement?

  5. Does each supporting claim use evidence from at least three different scenes in the play?

  6. Is the evidence properly cited?

Make revisions to your Organizing Evidence Tool based on your partner's responses.

Activity 4: Write

For homework, we will begin drafting our written responses to the Section Diagnostic.

Review your Vocabulary Journal. Identify a significant word or words that you would like to use in your response to the Section Diagnostic. Review your Mentor Sentence Journal. Select at least one technique that you plan to use when writing your response.

Begin drafting your written response to the Section Diagnostic. Complete your draft for homework. Remember, you can use the Model Claim from the Section 1 and 2 Diagnostics to structure your paragraphs.