romeo and juliet - the adapted version

At the Special School this term I have been exploring Romeo and Juliet with the Seniors.  It has been so fun doing some age appropriate material with these kids, and I have used google images of a young Leonardo de Caprio as some of my picture symbols.  It is especially exciting doing it with them, as some of the kids are using their communication devices (iPads with an app called Proloquo2go) to participate in the play and activities that I have.

I have written an adapted version of the play, cut out about 12 characters and simplified the language a lot.  I kept in about 10 lines of the original Shakespeare and 6 main characters.  We have acted out the play, and done language activities around it (because I am such a speechie we have to make sentences and learn new vocabulary!).  I have done character bingo (with lovely pictures from the Baz Luhrman film), opposites (life/death, love/hate, Montegue/Capulet etc), sentences with different tenses, rhymes, match the quote to the character and an interactive quiz on the whiteboard.  We also have a dance party each session - because Romeo met Juliet at the Capulets party.  I have had to put One Direction and Katy Perry on my iPad.

And the kids are getting it.  They are getting the big themes of love, and lost love, and jealousy, and death.  I have put the expectation to them that they will engage with this text, and they have risen to the challenge. They are talking about it and recognising themselves in characters.  They are excited about learning.  The teachers are really amazed and supportive.  We divide into teams of Montegues and Capulets and taunt each other across the classroom.  We have made banners for Montegues and Capulets, and disguises for when we creep into the party.

I am so excited about this that I am going to start adapting some more of the senior texts for the students that I work with.  Macbeth maybe.....

Sometimes my job is pretty fun.