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Lesson 2

We will prepare to write and begin developing our written response to the Culminating Task. We will start by reviewing model paragraphs and examining possible structures for the Culminating Task. We will complete an outline of our Culminating Task using the Culminating Task Planning Guide.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I identify task expectations and develop a plan appropriate for accomplishing the established outcomes?

  • Can I develop and use an effective and efficient process to maintain workflow?

  • Can I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed narratives, explanations, and arguments?

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 – Write

We will determine the focus of our writing through brainstorming. This will help us prepare to write the Culminating Task.

Read the Culminating Task prompt and gather notes and tools that will help you respond.

Review and organize your notes and tools.

Complete the Determining Your Focus section of your Culminating Task Planning Guide.

You should build on your thinking from the previous Section Diagnostics to demonstrate how your understanding of a theme in Romeo and Juliet has expanded or changed after reading and viewing additional scenes. Your Culminating Task should reflect a more sophisticated understanding and analysis.

Activity 2: Write

We will examine sample essay structures to assist us with organizing our claims and evidence.

Reread this model thesis statement from the Section 3 Diagnostic:

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

Now, examine a possible way to structure your literary analysis.

  • introduction

  • analysis of how the theme is developed in the play using three pieces of textual evidence

  • analysis of how the theme is enhanced or diminished in the Zeffirelli film using three details from the film

  • analysis of how the theme is enhanced or diminished in the Luhrmann film using three details from the film

  • conclusion

Complete the Develop Your Thesis section of your Culminating Task Planning Guide. You will develop a central claim or thesis for your essay and a sequence of supporting claims.

Activity 3: Write

For homework, we will gather and organize evidence from the play Romeo and Juliet and the two film adaptations to prepare to write the Culminating Task.

Use your notes, tools, and previous Section Diagnostics to complete the Identify and Organize Supporting Evidence section of your Culminating Task Planning Guide. You might find that you need to return to the play to find different, additional, or stronger textual evidence to support your claims.

Complete this section for homework.