What’s Inside
Article — Playwriting and Lesson Planning
Funny Stories — The Cry Fest
Developing Better Thinkers Through Writing
Poetry
Playwriting and Lesson Planning
All teachers are playwrights and the principal actors in their own plays. Our plays are dramas of comedy, tragedy, suspense, and mystery. We keep our audience waiting and anticipating the ensuing lines. At the end of each day, we sit down, drained, as we plot and plan the next day’s scenes. We know what we want the audience to divine and how we will reveal the play’s message. We know that each scene must be acted out precisely, or the play will be found lacking. Playwriting is a tremendous responsibility and a substantial amount of work goes into it, but it is a fulfilling occupation, so we keep creating new plays or rewriting our old ones every year.
We know that our plays are part of a much larger play that has been going on since the creation of the universe. The plays we write are highly significant because the master playwright intends to reach every human being whom He has created with the knowledge of His love, His forgiveness, and His offer of eternal life. He has given us a unique position to share the knowledge of Himself through the study of the world He created. He guides us as we write the plays He would use to reveal Himself to those whom He loves.
As playwrights and lead actors, we create plots full of knowledge, fascination, mystery, and wonder while delivering our lines with flair. We think our plays out to the very end. Like in any good play, we often create scenes that end in suspense, because we want our audiences to wrestle with deep mysteries. Consequently, we do not rush to relieve the tension, because we know that in the struggle to understand the mysteries, important and necessary lessons will be learned. Some of the acts in the play are more interesting than others, because some acts serve as bridges between the exciting parts of the play, but all are integral to revealing the play’s overarching message.
How do we playwrights create such plays? Successful playwrights always know the ending of the story before they begin writing. Every line, every scene, even the parts of the play that rely on tension and suspense, are written with the end in mind. Working backwards, so to speak, is the only way to keep the focus on the play’s message.
Once the playwright has the plot and subplots worked out, he/she must determine the structure of the play. The structure is designed to lead the audience through the crucial developments in the play that will eventually reveal its message. Each scene requires careful consideration and special props as the playwright encourages the audience to consider questions about the play’s themes and purpose. Regular intermissions allow the audience to mingle and talk about the play.
Every good play has lovely sets that are not only inviting, but also laid out well so that the audience can enjoy the play and participate during intermissions as they work to unravel the deep meaning of the play itself. As the playwright and principal actor, making grand gestures draws the audience in and excites their imagination so that they want to stay until the very end.
In much the same way that a play is well-written, good lesson plans for a yearlong class follow a similar the structure.
Create and interesting plot.
Know what your end purposes are for the class. Create the plans for the class with a mind to achieving the objectives. Constantly ask yourself if the lessons, assignments, exams, etc. you are preparing are leading the students towards the objectives. Make it interesting by highlighting the exciting parts and quickly reviewing the boring parts.
A teacher must have, or develop, enthusiasm for the subject, because the students will feed off his/her attitude. If you feel stuck with a class that you do not really like, then do more research. Talk to other teachers who find the subject fascinating and find out why. Let their excitement energize you😊
Add appropriate subplots.
Prepare time for questions and discussions that serve two purposes: 1.) Teach the students why the Lord created the subject they are studying and what that subject reveals about His character, and 2.) Why the subject is important, why it matters, why we study it, especially compared to other subjects.
Decide the structure of the play and lay it out correctly.
Do not waste time – yours or your students’. Curriculum books are guides only, not laws to be obeyed. Prepare lessons so that each part serves the purpose of learning, wondering, and comprehending the subject, the Lord, and how the purpose of the subject fits in the context of a classical education.
Decide how you want the set to look.
Create an inviting classroom environment that engenders discussion, wondering, thinking, and learning.
Know your audience.
Do not teach at or below your students’ level. Teach at a high, challenging level and maintain high expectations, while helping those who are behind until they catch up.
Make your characters’ gestures grand.
Be bold in your selections of curricular material. Choose the best books, the best primary source readings, the best experiments, the best problems, the best music, art, and dramas to study, along with the best languages. Share your wonder and love, kindness and firmness in marked ways. Make sure your students know the boundaries and feel loved as well. Lead boldly by teaching the lessons that need to be taught about the world and life, and then lead humbly, by walking in the midst of your class as you encourage your students to complete the course set out for them.
At the end of the day, teachers are playwrights and actors. We create worlds of wonder and we get to suspend reality for a short while, for ourselves and for our students, as we delve into our subjects which really are stories of discovery. What an amazing job!
Funny Stories
Another 7th grade class, similar to the one I wrote about in the last newsletter, came into class one day after having been in science class. When I greeted them at the door, I noticed a couple of students seemed a bit weepy. I asked them if they were alright and they assured me that they were fine. My desk was in the back of the room, so my students were faced away from me. While I was taking roll, I heard a student up front telling his friend to stop crying. I told the student that he needed to be careful with his words, because some people got emotional about some things while others did not, and we needed to respect that. He humbly agreed. I added, for some reason, I guess to show commiseration with the crying student, that it was OK to cry when something moved us. I then headed to the front of the room and started class.
I did not want to embarrass any of the students who seemed to have gotten weepy from the time they came into class until I finished taking roll, so I ignored their faces and went on with my plan for the class. It was the last day before Thanksgiving break and we had no exam, so I asked the class to write down things they were grateful for and prepare to share at least one thing with the class.
As they began writing, I noticed one student near me whose tears were literally dropping onto her paper in quick descent. I thought, “WOW, she really is grateful!” I went over to her and gave her a hug and asked if she was OK. She said that she was, and that the class had seen a sad video during science class that made her especially grateful for her family.
When I stood up, I saw several more students crying in a similar fashion. I decided that I would go over to each one and comfort them like I had comforted the first student. None of the seemed to mind a hug from their teacher and they actually seemed to appreciate it. When I finished hugging those students, I looked up and saw even more crying. I comforted them as well and after comforting about fifteen students around the room, it seemed safe to get on with class. When I asked the students to share the things they were grateful for, the student who had asked his friend to stop crying, said that one of the things he was grateful for was his friend who was a very caring person and he was glad they were friends. His words were moving and I was afraid that the entire class might start crying uncontrollably as a couple already were, so I looked around for any students who had not been crying and I asked them to share something from their lists. They did and their calm demeanor seemed to help the rest of the class regain their composure. I asked again for volunteers, and the first student I had comforted started reciting her list, but in the middle of speaking, she broke down into full fledged sobbing and she could not speak. Someone explained that in science class, they had watched a video about babies who were born with birth defects and it had made them all upset. In fact, the science teacher was so upset by the video that he left the classroom until it was finished! After the explanation, almost the entire class broke down weeping. Some cried almost uncontrollably. Only about three students out of twenty-seven were not crying.
As I contemplated what to do, something amazing happened. As the students wept, they began comforting each other by putting their arms around each other. Amazingly, no one talked. I noticed all around the room that as one student began to feel better, the student who had been comforting them broke down, so they reversed roles with one another as crier and comforter. As some students got up to get kleenex, they met other students in between the desks and hugged and comforted each other quietly. No words were spoke for about thirty minutes.
As the time drew near for the class to end, I felt compelled to warn them, because they still had one more class to attend and no one outside our class would understand why they were crying. Some of them began drying their tears, but most stayed sitting with their arms around each other in various stages of crying and being comforted.
When the bell rang, they walked out comforted and feeling cared for and unashamed of their tears. I had to tell the students who did not cry that it was OK that they did not cry, because they sat there as bewildered as I was. I did not see the class for a week, but when they came back, they thanked me for the class and said they felt bonded to each other and to me. I felt the same way.
I figured that after about 15-20 minutes, the crying was not about deformed children any longer, but it had likely turned into a release of young teenage angst:) It was quite an experience seeing twelve and thirteen year olds being so vulnerable with each other and with me and responding to each other in kindness and love so quietly. The thing that surprised me the most was that the students who were generally more jokers were the ones expressing the most feelings. We later called that class “The Cry Fest,” not knowing a better name, but knowing that the name we chose did not accurately depict the events that occurred that day. The rest of the year, we all felt close to one another and had a great time.
Developing Better Thinkers Through Writing
“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.”
“The Ladder of St. Augustine” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
What does this stanza mean?
Does the meaning go against the grain of our current culture or does it encapsulate the current culture’s mindset?
What does the Bible say regarding men toiling to reach great heights?
“The Ladder of St. Augustine”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!
All common things, each day’s events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
The low desire, the base design,
That makes another’s virtues less;
The revel of the ruddy wine,
And all occasions of excess;
The longing for ignoble things;
The strife for triumph more than truth;
The hardening of the heart, that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth;
All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds,
That have their root in thoughts of ill;
Whatever hinders or impedes
The action of the nobler will;—
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.
We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.
The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.
The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise.
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
Standing on what too long we bore
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern—unseen before—
A path to higher destinies.
Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
To something nobler we attain.