Integrating the August Wilson Monolgoue Competitioninto your class

Best Practices, Strategies, and Advice for Making the Competition a Meaningful Learning Experience

Kimberly Frazier-Booth

English Teacher at Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers

Strategies for Success:

  1. Put it on the syllabus. The sooner you get kids amped, the better. It also gives you time to allay the fears of students who “DON’T want to do it.”
  1. Show, don’t tell! Show your students the trailer for the documentary,The Start of Dreams(bit.ly/1FcUlJm). Seeing the students on video will help the students in your class get excited, especially when they recognize some of the celebrities who have lent their names to the project.
  1. Connect the dots! At my school, we have been lucky enough to have two students travel to the national competition in New York City. Someone from Boston goes every year. Talk about what happens there and the once-in-a-lifetime nature of going. The money is a bit of an incentive, but I never make it center. In 2014, an incredible and unpredictable series of events occurred that ended with Boston’s third place studenttaking first place at the national competition. It is a story of inspiration regardless of whether it was someone from your school. Also, the winners’ workshop put on by the Huntington is a great opportunity for your winner and alternate. Regardless of where and how they place, every student goes on to something wonderful.
  1. Make it count.
  • Part I: Make it relevant to the content. Some years that means reading one of the plays (at the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, Fences is in the 10th grade curriculum, but I also have my juniors readThe Piano Lesson, too).
  • I talk with my students about the importance of oral presentations, so therefore that component of the program receives a grade — the final monologue is counted equivalent to a papers and projects grade in class. If a student competes in the school-wide competition, they receive extra credit on top of the in-class grade they earned. This is to accommodate students who falter by being in a public context, but also to reward students for taking a risk. Some years this means my school competition includes shaky monologues from students who do it for the credit, but typically the potential public embarrassment of doing a poor job minimizes this.
  • Part II: Make it “nice.” The competition itself is a big deal at our school. The Huntington has been supportive of helping us find outside judges and we have created a tradition of the last year’s winner coming back and sharing his or her monologue. We serve some light snacks for the student competitors and the audience, and create prize packages for our top three students that include gift cards donated by a local business. Our competition looks like a miniature version of the Boston regional finals. Parents and families are invited and it has become a school social event.
  1. Extend opportunities. Each year, my colleague Adam Carpenter includes August Wilson Monologue Competitionparticipants (not necessarily the winners) in a school-wide spoken-word performance. This also helps students who did not come to the competition become more familiar with it and so the excitement for the program is building earlier.
  1. Stick with it. Not every year has the same success. However, if you are committed to the program, the tide will eventually change… and it may change again. If you find value in the program, then nurture it. I am as proud of the shy students who present in class as the vocal ones who win the competitions. The latter I could predict would find success. It is the former that benefit most from the program, taking on challenges they might not have otherwise.

Warren Pemsler

English Teacher at McKinley South End Academy

  1. Each year I chose a play that is compelling to read with the class. So far, my students have read Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and The Piano Lesson.
  1. I focus my lessons on characterization and internal/external conflict. By focusing on the character's motivations and the forces that propel them from both outside and within, we can concentrate on the meaning behind the words. This prepares the students to work on their monologues.
  1. After the class is done reading, I give out the monologues from that play.This is ideal because the context of the monologue is well understood from their reading.I have the students read over all of the monologuesto see if one or another jumps out at them. If no monologue jumps out, I let the student choose one from the compendium,and we discuss it privately.
  1. In supporting my students’ acting work, I try to focus my coaching on:

1) Volume/Projection (how loudly or softly they read the different moments of the monologue, while still being able to be heard)

2) Speed of delivery being altered to fit the emotion of each moment

3) Pauses – identifying the moments that need to be savored

4) Physicality

  1. We share in class and students give each other feedback. I always model the process of giving constructive criticism to ensure that the critique is appropriate, respectful, and useful to the student performing.

Nnabugwu Chuks Ekwelum, Jr.

Humanities Teacher at Codman Academy Charter Public School

The entire class reads one play by August Wilson (referred to below as our “common text.”) Students then select a second play by Wilson from three options to read for literature circles.

Trimester 1 –People’s History in the US & Theatre (Unit Breakdown)

  • Two guiding questions:
  1. How can the way(s) history is presented influence one’s thinking about the past and the present?
  2. How does the treatment of African-Americans in early US history shape the attitudes and identities of August Wilson’s theatrical characters?

Day 1 of School

  • Mini lesson on the life and work of August Wilson (eg- family background, influences on his work, etc.).

Day 2 of School

  • Mini lesson on how to specifically annotate drama/fiction (ie- setting, character personalities, etc.), following a brief discussion on different literary genres.
  • Mini lesson on the decade in which our common textis set(for example, when our common text wasThe Piano Lesson,we discussed the 1930s, The Great Depression, Herbert Hoover's response to US financial crisis, etc.).
  • Read-a-loud of our common text; done everyday/every other day in class, as a whole class, until we finish (about 2.5-3 weeks).

End of Week 1 of School

  • Assessment (Reading Comprehension & Analysis)

Middle - End of Week 2 of School

  • Assessment (Reading Comprehension & Analysis)

Week 3 of School

  • Literature Circle Selections/Literature Circles. Students are given a preview of three other August Wilson plays that they must rank and choose from. Students begin reading with their literature circle groups the following day after groups have been finalized (about 2.5 - 3 weeks).

Week 2 of Literature Circles

  • Selection of August Wilson Monologue Competitionmonologues. Students read through the compendium-approved monologues from the common text we read, as well as from their specific literature circle texts. They must select their top three monologue preferences, rank them, and analyze them to explain why they are interested in that monologue. Students receive one out of their three chosen monologues within a week.

Weeks Leading Up to August Wilson Monologue Competition

  • In-Class Practice & Prep. Students work on voice modulation, pacing, and specific choices (in movement and facial expressions) while being critiqued by peers every other day in class.

Revised 2015