![Eighth Graders Bring Shakespeare Play to Life]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1621619915/bronxvilleschoolorg/ph0s4jefysq7ilxg9c44/052121_main.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1621619915/bronxvilleschoolorg/ph0s4jefysq7ilxg9c44/052121_main.jpg","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1621619915/bronxvilleschoolorg/ph0s4jefysq7ilxg9c44/052121_main.jpg","width":521}])
Bronxville Middle School eighth graders – who have been reading William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in their English language arts classes – are acting out scenes from the play to comprehend the meaning behind the author’s words.
During virtual workshops, the students worked with actors from the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, a nonprofit professional theater company, to build their understanding through the power of gesture, sound and space. As a culminating activity, the eighth graders will perform a speech from the play after having analyzed the language in a variety of activities.
“Using acting tools and strategies, artist educators are helping bring the words on the page to life and teaching students a variety of tools they can use when learning to act their speech,” English teacher Alyssa Dioguardi said.
Throughout the experience, the students have been doing a combination of reading, acting and watching the play. In class, they’ve have been focusing on comprehension and language analysis to grasp the language of the play.