Doing one monologue was not enough exposure to solo acting, so after Spoon River the students needed to work on something modern. I purchased a class set of modern monologues, with an even number of selections for boys and girls. Meriwether Publishing has many great ones to choose from. Two words of caution, however, in selecting a monologue collection: 1. Be sure to read every piece in the collection. You do not want them to be too serious -- remember that students love angst! 2. Do not give the students’ parents room to complain. I have found some monologue books that my liberal community would have had trouble with. You just have to be able to justify any piece in whatever book you choose. Since I’ve already covered my Spoon River character analysis in detail, below I’ve provided brief descriptions of each day of the new assignment with links to my Spoon River blogs so that you may refer to them for more assistance. This way, I don’t sound like a broken record typing the same information again. Day One: As these were modern day situations, not much time was spent on a discussion of the pieces. See February 19 blog. Day Two: Everyone had made their selections and written their paraphrase. They started the memorization process and began working in their Monologue Analysis Work Sheet. See February 19 and March 3 blogs. Day Three: The students read their piece as well as their paraphrase. The rest of class time was spent working on memorization. See March 3 blog. Day Four: This was the memorization day — remember the exercises from March 3. I then selected half of the list of tasks and people (combining the two for a one day assignment). I made sure that the students did not get the same activities. See March 3 and March 19 blogs. Day Five: Everyone presented their piece with a task or as a person. Again do not forget the exercises. Day Six: Today they presented their piece as one of the three things they answered in their analysis work sheet—color, object, animal--and turned in the analysis. See March 19 blog. Day Seven: Today we did the final presentation with costumes and props. | 
