Description:
Students create original monologues to show what characters are thinking and feeling during or after a scene. This activity can be used with novels, short stories, or plays.

Preparation:
Select scenes from text. For each scene generate writing prompts a characters in the scene might answer. For instance, using the children’s book Symphony of Whales by Steve Schuch and Peter Sylvada we asked the questions, “1. What does this voice of Narna sound like and what do you imagine her saying to you? 2. Describe how it feels to see over a thousand white whales all around you. 3. Write the lyrics for a song to sing for the whales to let them know help is on the way.”

Procedure:
Divide students in the class into four or five groups. Ask each group to answer one of the questions from the character’s perspective, in first person. Before they begin the activity, model the activity. Certain qualities help monologues to be effective including: use active words, ask questions, speak in first person, have a beginning, middle, and end. Give students about 20 minutes in class to develop the monologues. Ask students at the end of class to share their drafts.
Continue to work on and revise monologues. When the monologues are ready, adapt the scenes from the text (see adapting the text activity), and insert the monologues into various points in the scene. The final performance will then be a combination of scenes from the actual text combined with student-generated monologues. A great student performance will move fluidly back and forth between the two.

Reflection:
What are the qualities of an effective monologue? What are the best ways to combine the monologues with adapted scenes? What do you learn about the characters by creating the monologues? What do you need to know about a character in order to create a monologue true to that character?

Note: This activity was developed in Jennifer Cicerone and Michael Baron’s class at Roger Williams Middle School, Providence, RI, studying the short story version of Aida.