Open Forum

I'm looking for some help coming up with multicultural lessons plans, specifically geared toward ESL students.  I've got all kinds of stuff on Movement and Emotion, but am having some difficulty with differentiating as we get to character analysis, script analysis, and some of the more reading and writing intensive standards.  Any lesson plans or ideas would be VERY appreciated.

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JaNae Cottam
Park City UT
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Part of my LA10 curriculum requires students to memorize a monologue or a poem representing a character that is different from their culture. I've created a list of plays/authors that can show distinct cultures, and this may help! Good luck! 

Playwrights that show good cultural perspective (on recommendation of Ms. Nuttman and her theatre friends)

Anton Chekov from Russia (The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard, Three Sister, Uncle Vanya)

Athol Fugard from South Africa (Master Harold and the Boys)

August Wilson from Seattle (Fences, The Piano Lesson)(Check out August Wilson Monologue Competition held by the Seattle Rep)

Beckett from Ireland (Waiting for Godot)

Bertolt Brecht from Germany (Mother Courage and her Children)

Frank Wedekind from Germany (Spring Awakening… lots of adaptations) (WARNING- Mature content)

Greeks: (Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, Ovid)

Henrik Ibsen from Norway (A Dolls House, Hedda Gabbler)

Jean-Paul Sartre from France (No Exit)

Louis Nowra from Australia (The Golden Age)

Moliere from France (Tartuffe, the Misanthrope)

Wole Soyinka from Nigeria (Death and the King’s Horseman)

R.T. Robinson (The Cover of Life)

David Henry Hwang from America with Chinese Influence (M. Butterfly, Flower Drum Song, FOB)

Susan-Lori Parks from Kentucky (Topdog/Underdog)

Tomson Highway from Canada (The Rez Sisters)

Here’s a GoodReads list of the best non-US and non-British plays (you may notice some overlap):https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5748.Best_Non_American_and_Non_British_Plays

Other authors that present global perspective (choose a passage/short story/poem)

Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven)

Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns)

Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Franz Kafka (Metamorphosis)

Yann Martel (The Life of Pi)

Toni Morrison (Beloved, Sula, The Bluest Eye)

Vikas Swarup (Q and A)

Elie Weisel (Night)

Langston Hughes (Mule Bone, Montage of a Dream Deferred)

Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God)

Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Phenomenal Woman)

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Katy Nuttman
Theatre and English Instructor
Auburn WA
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