After the final performance, the students will write a short essay in their native language, “L’ultimo sforzo” (“The Last Effort”) in which they will express their reflections and observations about the course. This way the students will have the opportunity to rethink about their theatrical experience explaining the reasons that prompted them to choose this course. The students will also evaluate how the course contributed to their language learning. Furthermore, this final composition will enable the teacher to identify, through the students’ comments, the strengths and weaknesses of the course; he/she can also approve of suggestions for a future programming of the course.
This final essay is not intended to be a literary analysis but as a students’ personal reflection composed in theatrical form according the below model:
1) Prologue:
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2) First Act:
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3) Second Act:
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4) Epilogue:
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Each entry defines the vary steps of the course. The prologue is the moment when the students began to think of taking the course: the students will explain the motivations, which prompted them to choose this course and their expectations. The first act coincides with the first readings of the play: the students will describe the difficulties faced in reading and interpreting the play and in the analysis of the characters. They will also indicate how the Vocabulary’s assignment contributed to the language learning and the memorization, and how the composition of the Journal prompted class discussion and clarified questions and issues elicited by the play. The second act corresponds to the intense phase of the rehearsals until the final performance: the students will comment on the process of the memorization, the interpretation of their roles and the logistics of the setting. Finally, in the epilogue, the students will think on the entire experience, on how the course contributed to their language learning and on what they got from the course itself.
The students will send this final composition to the teacher before the final grade because it is part of the evaluation of the participation.