Blog #3: Websites for Student Use #2 (Theater)

1) This site is called "The Tongue Twister Database" and is wonderful because vocal exercises are a necessity in any theater classroom as warm ups, but can be difficult to find. Independently, the students can use the website to choose tongue twisters that will help them master using "the tip of the tongue, the lips, and the teeth". Tongue twisters are a great way to work on the annunciation for students that are not native English speakers and students that may be in speech therapy. I think the best way to use this in a class would be to pick one at the beginning of the week (i.e. "A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.") and have the students practice it at home. We will use this same tongue twister for a whole week so that the students have time to learn it and can eventually store it in a mental catalog of tongue twisters to use when independently working on their diction.

2) This site is called "Charles and Mary Lamb Tales from Shakespeare" and would work very well for middle school Theater and English classrooms. I love that the plays of Shakespeare of been condensed into narratives that would take a class no more than a class period to read as a group. Most students are not introduced to Shakespeare until high school, but the majority of his plays have significant, universal themes (i.e. "ambition" in MACBETH and "man vs. society" in ROMEO AND JULIET) that should be discussed in middle school classrooms. If I wanted the students to perform select scenes from THE TEMPEST, we would read the tale from the website first so that the most important themes and symbols are understood. This website would be just as effective as the "No Fear Shakespeare" series as a companion piece to Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies.

There is also a link to the Librivox recordings of each tale for students that would prefer to be read to; this is an excellent alternative for special needs students. Because the Lambs' writing blends modern English with Shakespeare's language, it can be easier for a young reader to hear it read to them; this goes along well with the idea that teachers modeling how something should be read aids student reading comprehension.