Journal #8

March 15, 2007

I was nervous for today—more nervous than I have been in previous lessons. This was probably partially because I wasn’t really sure how students would take to the idea I was proposing and partially just my own stress manifesting itself in the form of this task. In the English class today, we did recipe monologues. Because the students are reading Like Water for Chocolate now, I had them bring in recipes from home. I suggested that they bring in a favorite family recipe or something they eat at special occasions or during cultural celebrations—or just their favorite thing to make. My first anxiety was that they would forget to bring in recipes, an anxiety that was heightened when Ms. Hamilton informed me first period that only one student had brought in a recipe thus far. But sure enough, all but a few brought them in this morning, scribbled on scratch paper as good recipes should be. My request for them to bring in recipes clicked for them as they started to read the book. One student exclaimed, “Oh! Noowww I get it!” as I had them journal about why they chose to bring in this recipe and how it reflected their own cultural identity. Then came the real test: would they be willing to take some risks and act out the monologues with creativity? We got into three groups—one led by me, one by Ms. McRae, and one by Ms. Hamilton—and had discussions about characterization for each person’s monologue.

Immediately my group took to it. Shaqueal led the way with her hilarious monologue acting as her father cooking his homemade French fries. She used dynamics, as we had discussed earlier in the class, to convey emotions and attitude. She used body language and her presence is undying. She was a great example for the others to follow. Juan, who had brought in a torta recipe, decided he wanted to pretend that he works at “Taco King” so he did his monologue like he was taking someone’s order then telling the chef what to make. Nashale had some trouble deciding on a character. She wanted to play herself, but I asked her to be more specific. Was she trying to remember a recipe her mother had taught her? Was she teaching someone else the recipe? Was this the first time making the recipe or was she an expert? She finally decided to be making her homemade macaroni and cheese for the first time, and throughout her monologue she would call out to her mother for help. Reyna, who has an intense shyness in front of others, did not really know how or where to start her character. Her recipe was Chile Rellenos, and she said her grandma makes great ones, so she should act as her grandma. “But my grandma doesn’t speak English,” she said. So I told her she could translate it and do it in Spanish. She worked really hard on translating it, and though she still had trouble performing it, I was really proud of the effort she put in today because she generally does not want to participate. Nubia borrowed a recipe for spaghetti from a bunch that Ms. Hamilton had printed out. She decided that she was going to do the monologue as herself, as someone who pays very close attention to every detail and doesn’t want to miss a thing. She needs to refine and work on her projection and dynamics, but I think it is going to turn out very well next week. Floyd brought in a recipe for his mom’s carrot cake. He was also unsure about how to use a character in this monologue and he didn’t really want to play his mom. One of the other students suggested that he make it a rap, and he got to work right away, rearranging the ingredients to form rhymes and figuring out how he can rap about carrot cake.

Once we had gone through everyone in our group we got back together with the larger group so people could perform their monologues. Arnaldo went first and had very good stage direction. He was playing himself, teaching his little sister how to cook. Yuri came up with one of the most powerful monologues of the day: it was a recipe for Mexican flan, and the character she played was Nashale. Everyone knew exactly who she was playing by the third sentence she said, and her sense of humor and timing were impeccable. Ms. McRae suggested that she be more conscious of her movements across the stage and to make more deliberate decisions about her stage directions. I am really thankful that I am teaching alongside Ms. McRae because she reminds me that making suggestions and constructive criticism is why we are there. I am still so impressed by the students that I sometimes forget to be critical. But I’m working on it, and making a clear-cut criteria for the past few lessons has really helped with that. I’m extremely excited to keep working on these monologues for the culminating presentations!