Background Information

    Before beginning this iAdventure, the students should be well into reading the play, Romeo and Juliet.  Although some resources are provided for students to research the play, it is assumed that the students have a good enough understanding of the central themes to contemplate the character's motivations for their actions.  This iAdventure allows students the opportunity to answer the "what if" questions about the before and after of Romeo and Juliet.

    After completing this iAdventure, students will be required to produce a short story that is not only a creative piece of writing, but also an accurate historical representation of the time period they chose.  The links provided on these pages are just a beginning.  There is a lot more interesting information provided elsewhere. Students will present their story to the class, defending their choices.   As an extra credit option, students can create Reader's Theater versions of their stories and videotape them to watch with the movie at the end of the unit.

    Before beginning this iAdventure, students should be aware of a few additional items--like audience and purpose.  Their audience is Donny Daphne, a professional movie director; and their purpose is binary--to win the Prequel Sequel Extravaganza and to learn about Romeo and Juliet and a new time period.
 
 

Curriculum Standards
(This activity will meet the requirements of many different curriculums--this is just one idea.)

Analyze character development and motivation in a work of fiction.
    A. Interpret the changes of a character throughout a story.
            (How do the supporting characters from Romeo and Juliet get to be the way they are?)
    B. Predict outcomes and anticipate consequences.
            (What happened before and after the story?)

Standards

CA 1--Writing standard English, including grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling and capitalization.
CA 2--Evaluating drama.
CA 3--Reading and evaluating nonfiction information on websites.
CA 4--Writing formally (in a short story) and informally (on research sheets).
CA 6--Participating in informal discusssions of issues and ideas (with partner.)
CA 7--Identifying and evaluating relationships between language and culture (students adjust language to fit the
            culture they choose.)
G1.2--Conduct research to answer questions and evaluate ideas.
G1.4--Use technological tools to locate, select and organize information.
G1.5--Comprehend and evaluate written works.
G1.7--Evaluate accuracy of information and reliability of resources.
G1.8--Organize information into useful forms (notes).
G1.9--Identify, analyze and compare the institutions and traditions of past societies.
G2.1--Plan and make written presentations for a specific purpose.
G2.2--Review and revise communications (based on Student Rubric)
G2.3--Exchange information and ideas while recognizing the perspective of a partner.
G2.4--Present perceptions and ideas regarding the humanities (literature).
G4.1--Explain reasoning and identify information used to support decisions..
 

Resources Needed

Specifically, students should have access to:
1.  A computer with internet access.
2.  The three research organization pages (can be accessed by clicking on the links below.)
        Page 1--Romeo and Juliet research
        Page 2--Setting research
        Page 3--Writing research
3.  The rubric to assess their work on the short story.
4.  The rubric to assess their presentation.
4.  The student short story rubric (allows them to analyze their story)
        (This is a great worksheet I found on teachervision.com.  Click here to get this worksheet.)
5.  Paper, pencils and computer for writing and publishing the story.
6.  Copies of Romeo and Juliet.

Assessment

This activity has many opportunities for assessment.

• There are three research worksheets within this document.
•  Research page #2 could easily be used to generate short compare/contrast essays.
• The students will write short stories as the final product of this iAdventure.
• The students will assess their own writing by completing the short story rubric.
• For extra credit, students can turn their story into a script and videotape their performance.
• The presentation of the product to class.

Creating Conclusions and Student Products

Please note that the rubric for this culminating activity contains a section to evaluate the student's actual characters and the way in which they use the characters from the play.  It also evaluates the student's setting and the way the student uses the research they gathered in creating it.  Evaluating the same element twice puts an additional emphasis on this area, so make sure to instruct students in these areas thoroughly.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Mr. Stan Smith, instructor of EDCI 4314 and the entire class for their help and collaboration.
 

For more information on iAdventures, visit the iAdventure Home Page.