The+Epic+Romeo+and+Juliet+Project

Romeo and Juliet has been part of the curriculum in my district for many years. After some conversations with teachers in Iowa, I thought it would be a great idea to create a movie version of the play produced by our students. This project is the culmination of a year's worth of tech integration and would require the students to work independently to create the final project.

I created a project wiki, The Epic Romeo and Juliet Wiki, to organize all of the different aspects of the project. The project wiki contains the complete assignment packet that I saved on Slide Share and posted on the wiki for all of the students to see.

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The project had every student working on different parts of the project, but they all had to update personal blogs. Every blog can be accessed on the class wiki. The goal of the blog was to have students writing about their experiences and sharing their thoughts as they worked on their specific job.

By integrating technology, students were able to access and share information with each other very quickly. This project allowed all students to dive into Shakespeare in a way that they never would have been able to do in traditional settings. Each student wrote a final essay that they posted on their blog expressing the importance of projects like this one versus the traditional lessons used to teach Romeo and Juliet.

Click the picture to be taken to the 5 different Acts of the movie.



Students watched the completed movie during a joint premiere on a Saturday. Students met in their auditoriums and had a Skype session before watching the movie. It was a great way to end a wonderful project that showed the importance of integrating technology into traditional lessons.

Here is a running diary I kept during the project. I wrote on my personal blog, The Nerdy Teacher, as a way to get feedback from other teachers.