Latin students in one of my classes wrote, produced and performed a play in Latin. It was a smashing success and I think other teachers can make something like this happen too.

(For an idea of what is working in my classes and how the relationships with students are formed and practical ways language is acquired that formed the basis of this play project, look here.)

CHOICE AND VOICE

The idea of Choice and Voice is something I’m intrigued by. More and more I’m letting students decide what they want to talk about, what they want to study, and how they want to be assessed. I guide them, of course, but I’m listening to them more. I’m asking more questions. I’m trying to understand as much as I’m trying to get them to understand me and my content. And they’re learning more because of it.

This approach sprang to life when I asked students how they were going to “show what they know” after reading an embedded reading I had written for them in Latin. We had been doing some reader’s theater with it, and a student suggested they take the next step: Write a play. If some of them were hoping that doing a play would be easier than writing a report they miscalculated. They wrote and rewrote the play at least five times. They included all of their classmates. They made the costumes, the props and the sets. They rehearsed and discussed online for hours outside of class. They worked through lunch. They performed the play four times, the last one to a classical charter school before more than 300 Latin students. I’ve never had students work so hard or so enthusiastically—or get so much out of a unit.

Students were engaged in developing the play because they were doing what they had decided to do. I kept them engaged by asking questions which helped them discover things about themselves and their work.

And most of it was accomplished with Socratic teaching—guiding them with questions to get them to consider aspects of the play they hadn’t thought of and to be sure to cater to each other’s strengths. Well, that and a bit of coaching their acting.

GUIDING WITH SOCRATIC QUESTIONS

I helped them to discover the weaknesses of their writing and acting not by lecturing, demanding or upbraiding them, but by asking questions, which according to Socrates is the only way to get students to really learn. Here are a few examples:

  • How are you going to involve all of your classmates in developing this project?
  • How are the roles in the play catering to the strengths of each student in the class?
  • How could you make the acting enhance the lines to make the meaning clear?
  • How does this scene connect to the previous one?
  • How can you help the audience understand the deeper meaning behind and below the lines?
  • What do you think are the weaker parts of the play?
  • How could you make them stronger?
  • What other versions of the material for this play have you read that could enhance it?
  • How could you make some of the characters more human, more relatable?
  • Are you using simple and high frequency Latin vocabulary so that the audience will understand as much as possible?
  • Can the meaning be portrayed with acting and dialogue alone?
  • What parts can best be described with narration?
  • Will the audience in a big theater be able to hear you?

STUDENT REFLECTIONS

The process of coaching the students as they developed different versions of the play was fulfilling. Watching them work together and come together as a team was heartwarming. Seeing them perform the final version of the play before a big audience was gratifying. But perhaps the most pleasing part of the project was reading the essays they wrote afterwards. They showed deep reflection, honesty, and awareness that I was not expecting.

I asked students to write up their thoughts about the process of creating, refining and performing the play in the form of essays. Here are a few snippets of their thoughts divided into categories.

On Learning Latin

“The amount of Latin I was able to learn just by memorizing my lines was amazing.”

On Writing and Rewriting

(Students had a lot to say here):

“One of the biggest things I learned during the writing of Minotaurus, was that the first draft is bad, and you need to rewrite it multiple times. We rewrote the script four or five times. Another thing about writing I learned was to continue adding lines and parts until it is perfect. And I still think it could have been better, because “Rewriting is good writing”. The last thing I learned about writing is how hard it is to write in another language, and I think I learned a lot of Latin.”

”The play was only possible because the whole Latin class took time to put work into it. Once we got over the first hiccups of playwriting, each person’s thoughts and ideas were able to be added to the script. When it came to working together, being able to communicate with everyone was crucial. It was important to hear everyone’s input and consider their wants and needs.”

“The process of writing the Latin play was long and sometimes boring. Having to constantly make revisions and changes slowed the process down. However, these revisions and changes to dialogue were the most important step in writing the play. Without them, our play would have sounded bad and would not have made much sense. The revisions ironed out our play so we could give the best that we could when it came to performing it.”

“We worked on proofreading and adding parts and such to drafts. We made a lot of different copies! It just goes to show how your first draft is almost never enough and how much work you have to put in to come up with something so successful. Our final copy Magister Hedstrom read and fixed the errors we had and such. Before we went to perform it in front of the classical school, we performed it in front of our school again. And this time it was better. We had more acting, and we had costumes! Everyone loved it! We got a lot of compliments! I was on the side helping people get ready to go onstage for their turn.”

“Rewriting is also a vital part of the process, as it allows for improvement and advancement. Modifications can help explain story points, improve character development, and improve the overall flow of the play. When we acted out the first play looking back on the script compared to the one we had just used there were major differences, the first script was a bit confusing, and the story just wasn’t that strong.  In the final draft everything was much clearer, the actors’ lines made sense, and overall, the writing was much stronger than the first script.”

On the Creative Process

“We had many brainstorming sessions, rehearsals, and feedback sessions. We added our own creative ideas into the play and made it come to life. We loved seeing our characters grow and develop throughout the play development process. We had character development workshops and rehearsals where we discovered new layers of complexity and depth within our characters. We were able to bring the characters to life in a way that was real and relatable to the audience.”

“Another benefit of this play was taking the idea of doing a play and turning it into an actual performance. Learning to rely merely on yourself and your classmates and not on your teacher was a beneficial thing to discover. Learning how much we as students rely on teachers was eye-opening and helped me understand how grateful we as students should be toward our teachers because Mr. Hedstrom let us design the script and props. It gave me a sense of how much work goes into turning an idea into something substantial.”

On Enjoying the Process

“When we first started to write the play, I was more focused on making sure that the lines followed the story. However, later I realized that we should have fun and that not everything is needed to follow the story directly. Which helped me direct it more towards the audience level and made it a more enjoyable project. Many of our ideas were not very realistic, which made the play exciting and original.”

“The ideas coming from the group helped develop a sense of partnership. I think that this made me realize that partnership relies on trusting each other and stepping up to take the lead in things. One very important thing that this play made me realize was that if you step outside of your comfort zone you learn things about yourself and your peers. This play also helped me to be more creative and to encourage others to do their best.”

On Cooperation

“Developing the whole play taught me some valuable lessons about working with people, staying strong even when the going gets tough, and how stories can change everything. It made me realize how important it is to be open and honest, to keep writing and rewriting until it’s right. I’m grateful we went through the troubles to create and perform it.”

“Cooperation is essential in a play, as it involves working with others to bring a story to life. Actors, directors, stagehands, and other crew members must work together to create a cohesive production. In this case, the actors were: me (Annie), Isaiah, Peter, Chloe, Christian, and Rowan. The director was Maggie, the costume designer was Jasmine, and the most important person was Magister Hedstrom. I also think that communication and compromise are important for success.”

On The Performance

“The final performance was the result of hard work, script writing, and collaboration. When I stepped onto the stage, I felt pumped and excited, knowing that this was the moment we had been working towards. As the lights dimmed and the audience got quiet, I felt proud and grateful for the chance to share our creation with others. The audience’s energy and enthusiasm fueled our performance, making every scene better. As the story unfolded, the audience got emotionally invested in the characters. The laughter and applause that echoed through the theater showed how our storytelling sparked genuine emotion in the audience.”

On What They Learned

“I think that one of the most important things that I learned was that in the end, the little mistakes don’t matter when you have created something that others can benefit from. In the end, the students in the audience were encouraged in their learning. They also saw others who enjoyed the learning as well. It was very encouraging to perform the play in front of an audience of Latin students.”

“I learned a lot from this play! When we first started I did not really understand the story, I did not really know what was happening. As we kept on practicing and reading through, I was able to fully grasp it. I learned a lot of vocabulary from this play. I learned the pronunciation of words too. I think it was better for me to not have a Latin part this year, because I had not really been familiar with Latin before like my fellow classmates. Sitting back and hearing them speak in Latin really improved my own Latin. From hearing my classmates say their parts over and over, I was able to learn some of them by heart.”

“It took a lot of work to get our play to be so good! Working together is important, we got a lot of great ideas from listening to each other; and we were able to incorporate it into our play. I really enjoyed the experience I had in the play. I think I bonded more with my classmates because of this project. I think our play was excellent, teamwork played a great amount in the success of our play!”

On Serving the Audience

“The audience was interactive and showed excitement over the play. At that point, I realized that we were not only helping develop our education as well as others. I think that this also encouraged me to look at my school with more excitement and attention.” (This was gratifying to read. During the performance she switched from thinking of the glory and attention she could receive to focusing on the good she could do for others.)

The quality of work that the students put into the play set a high standard for future classes. I’m excited to see what students will come up with!

Here is the link to watch the play. If that doesn’t work, copy and paste this in your browser:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zgnq88iKJdQLK70y8b8F17h8Prfuojax/view?ts=65e60b95

In rehearsal the play took 16 minutes. Due to the excitement of performing before a big crowd, the actors talked faster and acted a bit less, making the play shorter.