Success ... Sort of

I am approaching the final days of Romeo and Juliet. In the beginning, the students were so exicited to read the play, because you know, EVERYONE reads Romeo and Juliet. But they soon grew tired of all the drama. Then at the beginning of the week, I announced that we would begin working on our final project: rewriting a scene from the play using a modern setting and modern dialogue; the students had to choose character and dialogue that a modern audience could relate to. Now, I had deep reservations. Throughout the unit, students did "authentic assignments" - writing an advice column for Romeo, creating a myspce character profile. With each assingment, I had to explain WHY we were doing it. I think part of this had to with the fact that I am a new teacher and I need to work on how I go about establishing a purpose for my students. But I also think part of it might have been that I think students are reluctant to take any assignment seriously without the words "essay" or "test" in them. It becomes an excuse. But to my great suprise, once I explained to the students that the final project was rewriting a scene and NOT an essay, they seemed to get a bit more exicited. Perhaps the trick is to be sneaky - or remind student that the alternative is something that might be a little bit boring. Make them believe that the authentic assessment is less work - or at least because they have to be creative (and I also let them work in pairs) it doesn't feel like work.