Does it seem like we have more homework questions than usual lately?

From the Fluther Guidelines:

Homework Questions
Feel free to ask for help on your subject, but simply posting your homework question verbatim and expecting an answer is rude! We’re not here to do your homework for you. Source

Personally, I either ignore them or give a hint, if I can think of one.

The most curious ones are about songs appropriate to acts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of that amazing “novel,” Romeo and Juliet.

The question remains the same but the flutterer changes.

Link again

I wonder if they all have (had) the same teacher. Or if their teachers took the same teaching courses at the same college or university. Thanks for the link @gailcalled

@Sunny2: If I were writing an exam on Romeo and Juliet,” this is certainly the first question I would ask. Wouldn’t you?

@Sunny2 The assignment is extremely common and surprisingly difficult. I’ve had such an assignment myself, for which I had to create a “soundtrack” for the play. There are websites and sources where teachers share ideas for lesson plans and assignments, so this assignment has likely spread that way.

I don’t mind helping students with their homework assignments as long as they have put in the effort themselves and are looking for advice on how to add more depth to their analysis and discussion. We have a very bright community so why wouldn’t they want to use our collective brain power. As @Pied_Pfeffer suggested, the best way to explain we won’t do the work for them without detering them completely is to point to the guidelines.

The best way to handle these kinds of questions is to flag them if they seem to be asking us to do the actual work. We’ll take it from there. Otherwise, if they just need help figuring out how to do the homework, or sources to look for, feel free to answer them.

@gailcalled I think I’d have them make a 3’ x by 5’ collage of the whole play from magazine cut outs and grade it for the artistic composition as well as the suitability of the pictures showing the plot. (NOT)

@sunny2: Or perhaps have them design some jewelry:

“It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear”

- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1.5

For the musicians, change this to rap;

“For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 5.3

For extra credit, buy suitable outfits from Old Navy or The Gap.

“See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
that I might touch that cheek!”

- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 2.2

@gailcalled I love it. And then there’s the pharmacist’s potion option.

^^“Support your local drug dealer. Write several print ads and TV spots in aid of this.”

@gailcalled Maybe we could write an updated version of Westside Story. It could take place in a classroom.

@Sunny2 I think that was already done. The Breakfast Club

@Pied_Pfeffer: How do you equate “The Breakfast Club” with any version of “Romeo and Juliet”?

TBC is just another retelling (albeit an excellent one) of people trapped 1) on a life boat 2) in a bar 3) on an island with a hurricane approaching or 4) in any limbo, anywhere.

Maybe the classroom isn’t the place for the new version of Romeo and Juliet. Too much like Welcome Back, Kotter.
But I do think we’re on to something. A new Up the Down Staircase with the plot revolving around different ‘exiting’ ‘new’ class assignments.

I haven’t read the other comments on this thread but I’ve actually been thinking there are a lot fewer homework questions here, for quite some time now, so it kind of surprises me when I see them still.