Classroom Activities
The four or five week curriculum unit will be used in my 11 th-grade AP English Language course at the end of the first semester (December) or at the beginning of the second semester (January).
Week One
The first week will be dedicated to reading the play in class, each day with different students reading the different parts. This is an important part of the unit. Plays were meant to be performed. The cadence of words spoken aloud change vastly the rhythm and level emotion of those same words when we simply "hear" them in our heads.
Week Two
The second week will be dedicated to class discussion and Socratic seminars to allow students to explore more deeply the dynamics of Medea and Jason's relationship, what might have driven Medea to act as she did, and to begin to solidify their own ideas and opinions about Medea's guilt or innocence. They will also discuss modern cases in which women were tried for the murders of their children.
Weeks Three and Four
The third and fourth weeks will be dedicated to assigning parts, to writing their life stories, and to trial preparation. Students will be provided library time to research so that they may incorporate aspects of ancient Greek culture into and write their "autobiographies." Attorneys for each side will receive copies of the witness autobiographies, but only I will receive juror life stories. Just like "real" attorneys, it is their job to elicit through the voir dire process the information they will need to construct their opening and closing statements.
Week Five
The last two days will be dedicated to the trial and to jury deliberations. The trial itself will be held in the library, with separate tables for the defense and for the prosecution facing the table for the judge. To the immediate right of the judge will be a chair (or chairs for the Chorus) for witnesses. In a separate section farther to the judge's right will be chairs for jurors. Behind the attorney tables will be the gallery, chairs for spectators and witnesses waiting to be called. If time permits after the trial, students will be paired and assigned to give a closing statement in front of a panel of judges, arguing for Medea's conviction or acquittal.
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