Emotional Roller Coaster Timeline Lesson Plan

Name: Paul Delos Santos

Subject: English Language Arts Romeo and Juliet Emotional Timeline
Objective: Students will be able to analyze how complex characters develop
emotions throughout the course of a text and how this development advances the
plot.
Standards: RL 9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in
detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is
shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL 9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting
motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and
advance the plot or develop the theme.
RL9-10.5 Analyze how an authors choices concerning how to structure a text,
order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing,
flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
W9-10.1a Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or
opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships
among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
Materials: 1. Students will need their composition notebooks with their guided
notes from the previous day concerning emotions and summaries of each Act of
Romeo and Juliet and their copy of Romeo and Juliet. Teacher will provide students
who have forgotten their books with an in-classroom copy.
2. Teacher will provide a piece of poster paper, markers and extra copies of Romeo
and Juliet to students who have forgotten their copy. Teacher will also need access
to a computer to display an example created in Photoshop of an emotional roller
coaster and a DVD of the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet.
Total Lesson Time: 50 minutes
Introduction (5 minutes): 1. Students will answer their Bellringer (Do Now
activity) in their composition notebooks: Do you consider Romeo and Juliet to be a
coming-of-age story? Compare the story to other coming-of-age stories you have
read throughout the school year and explain if it is or isnt. Also, do emotions play a
role in defining a coming-of-age tale? Students will write their responses into their
composition notebooks. (2 minutes Formative assessment previous text and
coming-of-age story)
2. Students will discuss among their small groups, why or why not they believe
Romeo and Juliet is a coming-of-age story. (2 minutes)
3. Teacher will take a poll via a show of hands whether or not they believe the play
is a coming-of-age tale. (1 minute)

Daily Review (4 minutes): Students will begin discussing what makes up a

coming-of-age story and explain their reasoning why they believe Romeo and Juliet
is or is not a coming-of-age story in a large group discussion that will require
students to agree or disagree with the statements made by their classmates.
Review of Objective (1 minute): Students will be able to decide whether or not
Romeo and Juliet is a coming-of-age story and will use textual evidence based on a
characters emotional timeline to justify their opinion.
Concept and Skill Development (10 minutes): Teacher will begin explaining
that coming-of-age stories dont always end with the characters living at the end. A
character, no matter where in their timeline, can come of age. Romeo and Juliet can
be argued as a coming-of-age story because the main characters deal with adult
emotions and learn how to cope with them and make decisions based on how
theyre feeling. (2 minutes)
Teacher will ask students (check for understanding; formative assessment) to recall
the scene and cold call students to ask what happened in that scene. (2 minutes)
Teacher will pull up an example of an emotional timeline to show students the types
of emotions Mercutio dealt with in Act III, Scene 1 and explain the emotions he was
feeling with examples from the text that provide inference. (2 minutes)
Teacher will ask the large group (check for understanding; formative assessment),
Based on what youre seeing here in this chart, what can be said about Mercutio
and his emotions? (2 minutes)
Student will hand out pieces of poster paper and markers to create, while teacher
explains that in their small groups students will be creating an emotional timeline
similar to Mercutio, using Romeo as the character from Act I all the way to the end
of Act III. (2 minutes)
Guided/Independent/Group Practice (24 minutes):
Teacher will ask the students to discuss in their small groups plot points where
Romeo is involved. (2 minutes)
Teacher will call on an individual from each group to provide at least one plot point
and provide Act, Scene and Lines. (5 minutes)
Teacher will explain based on the plot points compiled by the class that the students
in their groups are required to plot Romeos emotions and find textual evidence to
support why they are charting his emotions there. (1 minute)
Students will begin working in their groups plotting the timeline with the plot points
compiled by the class. Teacher will circulate with each group to monitor progress
and understanding. (16 minutes)
If a group finishes early, teacher will visit the group and ask them to justify each
point on the timeline and ask for their reasoning for putting Romeos emotions at
that location on the timeline. (2 minutes per table if applicable)

Assessment: Group posters, homework and student participation will be used to

determine if students are able to understand the plot of Romeo and Juliet, can make
accurate inferences regarding the characters emotions from the text and support it
with textual evidence.
Homework: Students will create their own emotional timeline for Juliet and provide
textual evidence to justify their opinions on why Juliet is feeling that way. Students
will turn this in via their Google Drive accounts.
Closure (6 minutes): 1. Teacher and students will discuss Romeos emotions
throughout the first three acts of Romeo and Juliet. Students will justify their
opinions with evidence they used on their respective posters. (4 minutes; formative
assessment check for understanding)
2. Teacher will explain homework students will be doing the same for Juliet on their
own. Students will provide teacher with a thumbs up or thumbs down if they
understand their homework. (1 minute)
3. Students will turn in their Romeo emotional roller coaster group poster to teacher
to review. (1 minute)
Long-term Review: The class is reviewing how to back opinions with textual
evidence and that supporting opinions will be important when it comes time for
their embedded assessments at the end of the semester. They will be also reviewing
how characters over time can change throughout the course of a text and how it
contributes to the overall theme and message. Students will be turning in their
timelines through hardcopy or through their Google Drive accounts for grading.