Monologues in ELA

Dear MIMU, 

Have you ever thought about doing monologues with students using the theme of cultural diversity and Heritage Fairs?

Signed, 

Monologue Maven

Why yes, as a matter of fact, we have! Read what Myriam has to say about incorporating monologues into this theme!

MONOLOGUES

In looking at the General Learning Outcomes, it becomes very apparent that the theme of Heritage Fairs fits in very well with the English Language Arts curriculum.

The GLOs for K-10 are:

GLO 1: Explore thoughts, ideas,feelings, and experiences

GLO 2: Comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, literary, and media texts

GLO 3: Manage ideas and information

GLO 4: Enhance the clarity and artistry of communication

GLO 5: Celebrate and build community

ELA teachers could use the theme of heritage fairs as a spring board in any grade, really, as the curriculum is spiraled and students are building on prior skills each year.

HOW THE GLOs could be taught using Heritage Fairs as the theme

As I went through the GLOs and started brainstorming ideas of what we could do to incorporate the theme of Heritage Fairs and cultural diversity into the English curriculum, one idea kept popping up in each of the sections. That idea was of having the students write monologues. Students could write fictional monologues or one based on their own life or even one based on someone they know. I remember doing a monologue activity in grade 8 English, but it had to be written from the perspective of a character in Romeo and Juliet...BORING! I think cultural diversity is a much more appealing theme than Shakespeare for this type of activity. Below I have listed a number of activities teachers could do with this theme across all the GLOs, but you can see how monologues fits into every single category.

GLO 1:

1. Keep a journal about their experiences at the heritage fair and preparing for the event
2. Write a monologue from the perspective of a new Canadian
3. Interview a new Canadian and reflect on that interview
4. Have an author's chair where students could share their stories

GLO 2:

1. Invite a guest speaker into the class and have the students write a reflection on the experience
2. Read books about different cultures and different cultural experiences.
3. Have a pen pal from another part of the world
4. Present their monologues to the class

GLO 3:

1. Students will need to organize their ideas when writing their monologues.
2. Have students observe others giving monologues either on Youtube or even having them think about how the guest speakers presented their life stories. 

GLO 4:

1. Have peer buddies come and help the students with editing their monologues.
2. For older students, they can pass down what they have learned about editing their own work on to the younger students.

GLO 5:

1. Have an author's chair
2. Publish the monologues into a book and place it in the school library
3. Invite the guest speakers back into the classroom to listen to the stories the students created.

The great thing about this theme is that it can be adapted into any language. Whether you are teaching English, French, German, Ukrainian – one of the main goals is expressive language and these activities all have to do with building up students' competencies is self-expression.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR INCLUSION

For students who would get more meaning from a different medium, perhaps instead of writing a monologue, they could perform it or video tape it.