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Learning Objectives 

Students will: 

• Apply techniques that translate the inner workings of the human mind into artistic expression.
• Collaborate to research, gather, create, and present information 
• Edit and revise writing. 
• Analyze how historical and cultural contexts shape themes and forms in art expression.
• Recognize the widespread impact of philosophical and psychological theory in transforming themes and forms of art genres.
• View drama as a vehicle of social conscience.
• Use a non-linear memory structure to write an original play.

Standards Alignment

National Core Arts StandardsNational Core Arts Standards

Common Core State StandardsCommon Core State Standards

Recommended Student Materials

Editable Documents: Before sharing these resources with students, you must first save them to your Google account by opening them, and selecting “Make a copy” from the File menu. Check out Sharing Tips or Instructional Benefits when implementing Google Docs and Google Slides with students.

Teacher Background

Teachers should know that plays by Tennessee Williams contain adult content. Teachers should review the conflicts, themes, and events in The Glass Menagerie prior to teaching the lesson. Obtain copies of the play, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, and have specific knowledge about the plot, characters, themes, historical background, and literary analysis of the play. See the entry for more information.

Student Prerequisites 

Students should be familiar with the elements of a story, the writing process, and symbolism as a literary device. 

Accessibility Notes

Modify handouts, text, and utilize assistive technologies as needed. Allow extra time for task completion.

Engage

1. Ask students to close their eyes and recall a memory of one of the following: A happy event, traumatic event, “panoramic” account of a particular summer, return to a favorite place of one’s childhood, weekend afternoon spent with family members, an intense conversation with a parent, encounter of meeting someone you knew in the past. 

2. Ask students, with their eyes still closed, to scan for a specific memory. Use the questions to facilitate their thinking. 

3. Ask students now to open their eyes and record, in free-style writing, specific details from the memory they recalled. Encourage students to share some of their memories and points of analysis of their scans. Ask students: Did any immediate thoughts or outside sounds from the present environment intrude on your train of thought? How were the past and present simultaneously operating in your consciousness during the memory? Note: You may wish to contrive a distraction during the exercise, such as dropping a book, to interrupt the stream of the students’ memory.

4. Arrange students in small collaborative groups and ask each group to initiate an open-ended about the processes of the mind. Have the students share their ideas in a large group discussion.

Build

1. Give students background information on the use of memory in American drama and on the playwright, Tennessee Williams. Tell the students that post-World War II many American playwrights began to tap into the power of memory as a narrative device. Influenced by the forces that were shaping American society, especially the psychoanalytic concepts of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, these playwrights used the concept of memory to fuel non-linear plots and intense character development.

2. Share with students that The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is one of the seminal pieces of American theatre. Have students read for more details on his life and work.

3. Divide students into play reading groups for an oral reading of The Glass Menagerie. Delegate one member of the group to be the Director. The Director will assign roles for the oral reading of the play and realign the assignments to have different voices project the characterizations.

4. Have students examine Williams’s stage set description. Discuss and clarify the meaning of “linear” and “non-linear.” Encourage students to differentiate the “non-real” and “actual” properties of the set as described by Williams in his Scene I set description.

Apply

1. Have students respond to one of the following . Provide students with feedback on their essays and allow time for peer editing. 

2. Conduct a follow-up discussion on the way Williams used memory as a narrative and dramatic device. Compare students’ responses about their own memories to the way Williams uses Tom’s memory in the play.

3. Divide students into pairs to write original scripts. Ask each student to return to the memory they recalled from the beginning of the lesson to develop original scripts. Ask students to emulate a script that demonstrates Williams’s non-linear memory structure in a play. Students can use the for support when writing their scripts. 

4. Ask students to select one or more of the scripts to be dramatized for the class. Assign groups to act out each script and evaluate the performances with the . 

Reflect

1. Assess students with a quick write. Ask students to respond to the following questions: How did your use of memory in your play differ from those you saw performed? In what ways was it similar? Were you surprised about the way you remembered the events you included in your play?  If so, how? How has writing the play affected the way you feel about the memory you used to write it?

Extend

1. 1. Distribute the . Have the students research the forces that contributed to changes in the American economic, political, sociological, philosophical and cultural landscapes in the last half of the 19th and in the 20th century. 

    

   2. Divide students into collaborative groups and have them select a topic from the list. Encourage students to draw from past work in history, literature, art, science, music classes, etc. to build an overview of the time period. Also, encourage students to divide their topic into subtopics, and have each member of the group research and analyze one of the segments. Have students present their findings to the class.

    

   3. As a culminating experience, show students video clips of a performance of The Glass Menagerie.