Romeo and Juliet

Lesson 17
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ELA

Unit 11

9th Grade

Lesson 17 of 23

Objective


Explain how Myers draws on and transforms ideas from Romeo and Juliet to develop the themes, characters, and/or conflict of Street Love.

Readings and Materials


  • Excerpt: Street Love by Walter Dean Myers  — pp. 112–116

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Target Task


Multiple Choice

Damien’s mother says on p. 113, “But nevertheless/I confess/the biggest mess is when we Let our emotions/notions/devotions to causes change us/rearrange our lives in strange ways.” Her statement is most similar to which of the following cautions from Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet?

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Writing Prompt

How does Myers’s use of poetry, rather than prose, impact his story? Explain.

In both Street Love and Romeo and Juliet, the authors tell the story of young lovers caught between the desire to be together and family and group loyalties that are pulling them apart. How does Walter Dean Myers, the author of Street Love, draw on and transforms elements of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the excerpt read today?

Key Questions


  • How does Myers show the reader that Damien’s parents do not approve of his relationship with Junice?
  • What impact does this disapproval have on Damien?
  • What evidence do you see in this brief chapter that Myers is explicitly drawing on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? (e.g., the poetic cadence rather than prose, the forbidden nature of the love, certain phrases: “If my mother calls it evil, then I embrace the sin,” the disappointment of parents, the strength of the young teenage love, etc.)
  • Why might Myers decide to make references to Romeo and Juliet? In what ways does a knowledge of the story of Romeo and Juliet impact the reader’s experience of Street Love?
  • In what ways does Myers draw on the setting, conflicts, themes and/or characters of Romeo and Juliet in order to develop his own work, Street Love?
  • In what ways does he transform the setting, conflicts, themes and or characters of Romeo and Juliet in order to develop his own work, Street Love?
  • What do these similarities and differences between the texts tell us about teenage love?
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Lesson 16

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Lesson 18

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