the mockingBirD monologUes Carol Mahida, Upper School English Teacher
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” ~To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite novels. I love
complaining stopped and slowly everyone was coming on board. The questions about why are we doing this were replaced by, “Can I have props on stage with me while I perform?” As the performance day
began to get closer, I teamed up with Stacy Donovan to help me teach the novel so much because I want Atticus Finch as a father, the writing the boys how to perform a monologue, and combat any nervousness is beautiful, I gain something new each time I read it, and Atticus’ and anxiety about performing head on. message of empathy to his children is timeless. When I was in graduate school, I remember a professor telling us to be cautious about teach-
On performance day, the boys were dressed up as characters from the
ing the novels that we personally love as readers and writers. Doing
novel. One by one students stood in front of the class to perform their
novels that we’ve studied, that we’ve bought in hardcover (and in sev-
cheered enthusiastically after each performance. I was moved by the
so, she said, can be heartbreaking when our students “don’t like” the eral different editions), that we’ve named our animals after, and that we got tattooed.
When I decided to teach To Kill a Mockingbird two years ago to my first seventh grade class, I definitely heard my professor cautioning
me. What if the language is too difficult? Will I have to read most of the story aloud for them to understand what’s going on? Do the stu-
dents know anything about the post-Civil War American South? How is this story relatable to boys growing up in New York in the 21st century? Reflecting back on my first year teaching this novel, there were
definitely many more cons than there were pros, but I wanted to at least try.
monologue. (Many had their monologue memorized!) The class
monologues because they eloquently and beautifully captured
Mayella’s loneliness, Tom’s desire to be free, and Atticus’ sense of duty
and accountability. I remember saying to myself, “They get it!” My 12-
13 year old students understood the major themes that ran throughout
the novel. As a teacher trying this for the first time and not knowing
what to expect, my heart swelled for those who I knew struggled
throughout the process. Why? Because I saw students transform in
front of me. They shook off their nerves, “climbed into someone else’s
skin,” walked around a bit, and gave an amazing monologue in front of 20 of their classmates and teachers.
The Mockingbird Monologues emphasized the need to be empathetic
to others, to stand up for what they believe in, and to put themselves I knew starting this new unit that I wanted the boys to ultimately write out there. and perform an original monologue from the perspective of a character in the novel. Students would have to go back to the text to find a moment where they would want their monologue to be placed and
using their knowledge of the novel, time period, and character would then infer what their person would say. When I announced the
Mockingbird Monologue assignment in class, some students went
pale, hands flew up in the air, and some boys shook their heads “no”
and proclaimed that they weren’t going to do it. But we pushed on. I
knew I was asking a lot of my students. I was an incredibly shy student in middle school and even the idea of performing in front of my classmates would make me want to vomit. Heck! Speaking at Curriculum Night always is nerve-racking. But again, I wanted to at least try.
We started by listing all of the characters, students picked their top three, and then I picked their final character. I was surprised that
many of the students didn’t pick the obvious- Atticus Finch, Scout, or
Jem. And I was also surprised that after a day or so, the grumbling and
Henry Liu ’14 performs his Mayella Ewell Monologue
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