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Model Secondary School for the Deaf
and
Shakespeare Theatre
Present
(Students' Performance )
MSSD Freshmen students in Judith Giannotti's 4th and
5th period English class performed at the Shakespeare Theatre on December
3rd, 2005.
It was an incredible experience for my 4th and 5th periods English
class to participate in a project called Text
Alive!, a curriculum-enhancement program produced by the Shakespare
Theatre. Along with 12 classes from public schools in DC and Maryland,
we were accepted into the project after applying in late summer. This
is the first time MSSD has participated and ours were the only deaf
students in the program.
Every morning the class read the play. Additionally,
Niki Jacobsen, a teacher-artist from the Shakespeare theatre worked
with the students in our auditorium backstage. She taught them not
only methods of preparing to perform. She taught them about how
Shakespeare used language and devoted one workshop to the
subject of iambic pentameter, followed up by a homework assignment. Her visual
presentation made this rhythmic structure of Shakespeare's verse easy
to understand as the students clapped their hands, tapped their
feet, made small faces and big faces, small bodies and little bodies
to represent stressed and unstressed syllables.
Reading classes were challenging for the students,
yet they were stimulated by the plot and its complexities. Every
day called upon their retelling skills as we reviewed where we left
off the day before. Taking on the roles of the characters kept
their attention and interest. They were less inclined to be held
up by single words when they were delivering a dramatic line and more
intent upon expressing the meaning of the passage. Their vocabularies
grew daily. After a few encounters with words such as "doth", "thou", "dost" "thy" "art" (for "are"),
they were signing the modern version of the verb or pronoun without
hestitation.
For all its difficulty the students worked their hardest
to analyze the passages, recall previous events, and follow the meaning
of the story. And they succeeded! Perhaps the knowledge
that they would take part in a performance of the play added to
their motivation. Every day I worked with them, the students
made me proud and on December 3rd, they made us all PROUD!
Written by Judith Giannotti
Performers and Teacher: (front row left to right),
Hema Saylor, Judith Giannotti, (teacher), Camille Mitchell, (back
row left to right), Brent Benoit, Desmond Kerkulah, Matthew Pollock,
Matthew Scott, Xian Huang, Cierra Cotton, and Edward Corporal
See
students' perspectives of performing on stage. |
