Bawdy Bard

It is so easy and fun to hook students on Romeo and Juliet.

It's dirtier than Zane. I love reading through the Sampson and Gregory lines, and seeing the kids register at about 25% comprehension. And then I show them a little bit about how to decode the language, and give them license to get their minds in the gutter, and it turns into raunchiness that makes me a little bit uncomfortable but, hey, it's Shakespeare so it's got to be okay, right?

My favorite line letting the kids figure out: "'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-John." (Gregory is basically calling his bragging friend Sampson's member small, dry and shriveled up.)

I'm so excited about this unit that I wrote, with the huge help of Shakespeare Set Free.