Introduction

"What is love?" This is a question that has been asked for thousands of years, with every individual seeming to have his/her own unique definition. As we grow older, however, it seems that we undertake a different point-of-view about our feelings towards love. We hope to be more rational and critical in making important life decisions, and we try to pass these sudden "realizations" down to younger generations. Unfortunately, the advice and restrictions, bestowed upon us by our parents, are not always the best sounding solutions. For example, have you ever had a friend that your parents forbade you to hang out with? How about a curfew or place that your parents didn't want you to hang out at? In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the two main characters are forbidden to see each other because of a family rivalry, despite their belief that they are madly in love with each other. The decisions that these two teenagers make will have a devastating result on their parents, and it will be your responsibility to decide if the decisions made are out of "true love" or if the two are simply blinded by "puppy love".
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The Task

You and your your task force will need to identify the decisions that Romeo and Juliet make, and trace the results to either: logical decisions or irrational actions. It will be important for you to take an objective approach, and not make a judgment based on biased point-of-view. For example, don't say that a decision is "logical", just because you would do the same. You will need to provide factual support from the text to defend your answer. Your mission is persuade the jury (your classmates) to agree with your conclusion, based on the evidence presented by your task force of 2-3 students.
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The Process

1. Find 1-2 other students that you feel comfortable working with, and know that you'll be productive with.
2. Once you have formed your group, develop an initial hypothesis on what your group feels your outcome will be. Record your hypothesis, and reasoning, on a sheet of paper.*Remember all documentation is important to keep, because you never know when you'll be called upon to present it to the jury or, more importantly, the Judge (me)*
3. Once your task force has discussed possible conclusions and discussed possible motives of the two victims, it is time to start doing your research.
4. First, you must decide who will research material on the computer, in the text book, and in the library. Don't worry too much about it, because the roles will rotate each day.
5. Next, you must agree on what exactly you are looking for; you can't just start looking in the text book for random quotations. Have a focus and a plan!
6. Now that you are finding material, you must be sure to print pages, copy books, write quotes, et cetera. be sure to collect as much data as possible, with recorded sources for all of your information.
7. Regroup with your colleagues once you have a substantial amount of data, or if you haven't found any relevant data. Communication is the key to successful collaboration. Decide if you have enough information to convince the jury to agree with you. If you feel that you are lacking some key elements, decide what they are and how to acquire them.
8. Finally, gather all of your information and decide how you will present it to the class. It is important to impress the jury, because they will be hearing a number of similar cases throughout the period. For example, power point presentations, posters, videos, interviews with parents or other students concerning teen love, et cetera.
9. Below is a list of links that may be useful leads for you to follow in order to start your investigation. The links range from Shakespearean dictionaries to personal accounts of love vs. infatuation. Good luck!

Evaluation

My evaluation will be based on the accuracy of your groups interpretations, textual support, inductive reasoning, presentation to the class, and peer evaluations of your final product. Be prepared to defend your answer when questioned by fellow classmates, they'll be grading you too. You will be required to turn in a portfolio containing your final product. The portfolio should contain: your initial hypothesis, any documentation that was made during your research (copies, printouts, notes, or conversations), a closing statement stating your conclusion with appropriate material to support your conclusion, individual evaluation forms from each group member (include an overall assessment of the assignment, your group's effort as a whole, and each individual's effort on the assignment. Your names should not be on these papers, to ensure anonomisity), and group paper explaining what grade you feel you deserve and why. This portfolio will be combined with the evaluations of the jury, based on your final presentation; and a verdict from the judge, based on your final presentation. The assignment will be worth 150 pts.: 50 pts.-portfolio, 50 pts. -jury, and 50 pts.-judge. It is important for jury members to include a statement explaining why and how they came up with the decisions that they come up with for each task force...remember, those task forces will be grading you too.
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Conclusion
Once you have successfully completed the task at hand, you will have accomplished much more than just finishing an assignment. You will have started to set a foundation for an educational tool shed that you will have in your brain to excel through high school, college, and life. For example, you have logically come to a conclusion that has been based on concrete evidence that you located; you have worked collaboratively with your peers to solve a problem; you have compared and contrasted ideas and characters to help formulate your conclusion; you were challenged to persuade your classmates into agreeing with your point-of-view, based on evidence that you researched; and finally, you used three different sources of media to successfully acquire the relevant information for your task. All of these tools and techniques that you used will be better developed and more convenient for you to use as you get older and practice them when doing assignments for other classes. Similar to any hobby, sport, or video game, the more you practice...the more you improve!
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Credits & References
Picture taken from: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/9251/rj1968.html
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