Topic Should Students Keep Reading Romeo and Juliet

Topic: Should Students Keep Reading Romeo and Juliet? Group Members: Mrs. Hilliard

PRO Article Title & Author: “In Defense of Romeo and Juliet: It’s Not Childish, It’s *About* Childishness” by Noah Berlatsky Source of Publication: The Atlantic Monthly What it’s about in 140 characters: After recent criticism about play , a grown person revisits a high-school classic, Romeo and Juliet, and finds a lot of awesome in it Window Quote: [There] is some seriously saucy banter there. “Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer” has to be one of the archest lines in all of literature. I’m with Romeo. I’d fall in love with that.

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CON Article Title & Author: “Romeo and Juliet Is a Terrible Play, and David Leveaux Can’t Change That” by Alyssa Rosenberg Source of Publication: Slate. com What it’s about in 140 characters: A new production of R&J sparks a conversation about childish, empty characters Window Quote: “Romeo and Juliet” – a play about children – is full of terrible, deeply childish ideas about love. ”

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Ideas We Grew Ideas we considered throughout our studies: - Sooooooo many people remember studying R&J in high school. - Quality of literature does matter. - Literature that is provocative and ambiguous is most engaging for students. - R&J is such drama! Feuds, young love, secret arrangements, revenge, yes!

Where We Stand After considering more than one viewpoint, we now believe that… OF COURSE students should study and teachers should teach Romeo and Juliet in high school! You can hardly find a negative thing being said about it on the world wide web. The CON side is WEAK!