Teacher needs advice...

I teach middle school. Last year, I did a whole unit on fairy tales that included watching and talking about Into the Woods. Well, I approached my supervisor today (I "officially" am tenured now as of yesterday - YEAH!) to ask about getting scripts for next year, and she agreed it was a good idea. Now, I an getting a reputation in the school as the theater guy -- I took kids to a festival last year, I do trips each year to shows, I have the kids write and put on plays each year. My question is -- any other suggestions for plays appropriate for 7/8 grade that I can ask my supervisor to buy?

I would really prefer it if you answer this that you either A) teach middle school, B) have experience with kids that age, or C) you ARE in middle school, and if you had me as a teacher, what would you like to read?

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Well, I went to a performing arts school when I was in 7/8th grade, so you could say I had "hands on" experience with theatre lovers that age. My suggestion: WEST SIDE STORY. Junior High is around the time students learn about Romeo and Juliet, and I remember this show going over very well with the junior high students at our school.

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Updated On: 9/7/05 at 05:47 PM

I really enjoyed reading Doubt, but is the topic not appropriate?

Well, before I turned to singing and moved to Manhattan I was a middle school guidance counselor in the Albany, NY area - one of the English teachers turned portions of The Laramie Project into a lesson about bullying, honesty, etc. I don't know how liberal your school district is but that may be a possibility, maybe incorporating the counselor or psychologist into the lesson somehow to answer any questions, or maybe incoporate it into National Bullying Prevention Week which is sometime in the late winter/early spring.

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When I was in 7th Grade, we learned about the Salem Witch Trials. The required reading was "The Witch of Blackbird Pond." Which led into us reading "The Crucible," by Arthur Miller. Using the major themes of "The Crucible": rumors, lies, following the crowds, bullying weak people for personal gain, and standing up for what one believes in; she was able to address the problems that we were going through as pre-teens/teens: trying to be popular by following the crowd, spreading rumors about other people, etc...

Our class never forgot how powerful "The Crucible" was and we went on to produce it our senior year of High School.

In 9th grade we read A Raisin in the Sun and since your students are about that age did you consider that play? Most of my classmates really enjoyed it.

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what about brighton beach memoirs?