This week's flown by!
Our last few classes at New Brunswick High have focused on Shakespeare's verse. This is about as academic as we get. It's easy to forget that most high school students don't find scanning lines of iambic pentameter nearly as thrilling as we do now.
Though we spent several hours in front of the dry erase board this week, we started this unit by asking the students to find their pulses. One of my favorite things is watching somebody who "hates Shakespeare" realize for the first time that the rhythm of Shakespeare's verse is the rhythm of a human heartbeat. This simple discovery tends to open people up to hearing a lot more of themselves in the plays.
In Perth Amboy we're gearing up for our final week. The performance has been scheduled. The space has been booked. The script will be finished tonight. These students have worked hard on developing complex characters, and John, Ashley, Josh and I have really tried to make sure that the words they'll be speaking are their own. We have three more sessions with them to put it all together into a show. Details will be posted about the performance soon.
-Jen
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