Dramatic Literature is a co-taught class utilizing Anna Alden from the Drama Department and Paul Ronci from Language Arts. Students will engage in the source materials in authentic and meaningful ways, reading the plays from a literary perspective, and achieving a higher level of understanding through rehearsing and ultimately performing specific scenes at our exhibition night at the end of the trimester. The theme of the course is race; more specifically, how race is socially constructed and what impact race has on individuals, identity, communities, and beyond. Students will unpack historical perspectives of race and racism, look at how people are conditioned to see others, and recognize ambiguities in how we deal with racism today. Students will have to synthesize information from a variety of sources, including plays, non-fiction, paintings and poems to inform their writing and thinking. Students are required to engage in in-depth, scholarly discussions which often address uncomfortable issues. In addition to a willingness to read and/or perform in front of an audience, students should be prepared to write extensively in informal reaction papers and formal essays. Students will design and participate in a significant team project where they will synthesize ideas from class and communicate their findings to an audience at our exhibition night.
“Everyone is shaped by innumerable influences such as ethnicity, religion, class, race, age, profession, the geographical regions they and their relatives have lived in, and many other group identities – all mingled with individual personality and predilection.” (Deborah Tannen, preface to “You Just Don’t Understand” (Morrow, 1990), 16 Quoted in Holocaust & Human Behavior, pg. 1)
Individuals can impact societies and even bring about change by reacting to the existing structure in accordance with their beliefs and ideals.
Individual rights and responsibilities vary depending on the type of governance and the social and economic conditions of a society.
Individuals and groups within society use their agency to impact the political, economic, and social systems of their community, nation, and region of the world.
How is identity formed?
What is race?
How do individuals and groups use their agency to impact politics, economics, and social systems?
Honors students will present a "scriptless Reader's Theatre" at the exhibition night. Assignments are leveled in terms of requirements (length and complexity). Students earning Honors Distinction will have completed the course work with additional expectations. Students must complete the Honor’s level requirements and maintain a grade of 85% or higher.
Essential Questions:
How are we conditioned to see “others?”
Major Concepts:
People are conditioned by myriad influences to see “others” as different, separate, and dangerous. These perceptions have an impact on all aspects of cultural identity.
Major Content:
Defining race, prejudice, and stereotypes; applying ideas of thin-slicing, adaptive unconscious, implicit bias, priming, and conditioning
Unit Assessments:
Scenario: using key ideas presented in Blink to analyze the play “Night Vision”
Major Texts:
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
“Night Vision” by Dominique Morisseau