The last day before vacation presents challenges in a building teeming with teenagers. The writing exercise described below engaged students more than I had anticipated.
In an upper level literature elective, "The Drama of Math and Science," we had first read Inherit the Wind. As preparation for Marlowe's Faust, we read the morality play, Everyman.
To end the week, teams of students wrote a short scene in the manner of a morality play.
A scene from the Moral Play, “The Rocks of _____________”
After their ship has narrowly escaped shipwreck on the Rocks of ____________,
several shipmates discuss why they almost crashed their vessel and how they can avoid such danger in the future. (Fill in the blank with a noun that reflects the mindset(s) or behavior(s) that caused the ship to nearly shipwreck.)
Choosing two or three characters from the lists below (at least one from each list), write a page or two of the shipmates’ dialogue. Follow the formatting used by our text of Everyman.
LIST ONE
KINDNESS
HONESTY
BOUNDARIES
RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIP
CLEAR MIND
HEALTHY BODY
KIND SPEECH
DIVERSITY
COMMUNICATION
GENEROSITY
PATIENCE
LIST TWO
WASTEFULNESS
RUSHED JUDGMENT
HOARDING
ANGER
ILL WILL
BULLYING
GOSSIP
INTOXICATION
ABUSE
THIEVERY
DECEPTION
The title for this blog comes from a student, Leah, who gave this noun, "recklessness" to her group as they were working. I told her how much I liked the poetry of the resulting phrase, as well as how accurately she implemented the instructions. Congratulations and thank you, Leah.
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