how has this internship provided inmates with well-designed weekly courses in Shakespeare/literature?

When first reading the description ‘well-designed,’ the first connotation that popped into my head was ‘structured.’ Given the nature of our class and the subject we taught throughout the semester, however, I do not know to what extent I could apply a word like ‘structured’ to the classes Gabby and I taught. To me, a structured class would be a strict class with lots of homework, difficult discussions and required participation, a class that involved lectures and note taking and given in the same format every week. This would be the result of my years spent as a college student. When I think, however, on the types of education our inmate students may have received in the past, and their lack of education while in prison, I have to remind myself that our classes, although simultaneously planned, with spontaneous elements, is one with a little ‘structure’ and was ‘well-designed’ to keep them involved, active, and for a moment, free to express themselves.

I think that one of the things about our class that either kept students interested or drove them away was the very unexpected nature of the course. When, on the first day, we told them we would be performing the play at the end of the semester, there was a lot of shock and negativity regarding it. Our inclusion of acting exercises during class were not always well received either.

• Week 3: We would interrupt them frequently to encourage more movement, more variation in voice and tone. We would ask them about the characters' feelings and how they could express that. They kept apologizing and saying, "we're not actors." Of course they're not, and of course I can't expect a stellar performance out of them. It was the lack of effort that was disheartening, more than anything else… We did some more exercises at the end of the class in order to help them loosen up and feel free to look like fools. I think we may have to start every class like that, just to get them into the right frame of mind.

What I felt was important, however, and what I feel Gabby and I achieved, was to test the comfort levels of our students and to have them participate in something that they would not have otherwise done.

• Week 5: This past Friday was much better than the last! Participation was great and entertaining, and the students were pretty active. Maybe I am looking back at the class through rose-tinted glasses, but I do believe it was a good class. We began with recapping all of the scenes from Acts 1 and 2, and we were able to read through Act 3 as well. I felt that the students were particularly animated this week and were more willing to ask questions than they sometimes have been in the past.

We did, however, meet resistance in certain areas, especially the “traditional” kind, such as homework.

• Week 4: I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that the only two of our students that had done their 'homework' and read Acts 2 and 3 of Merchant of Venice were Bruce and Mikey. Since we were gone for two weeks, I had hoped that they all would have gotten some more reading done.

Over time, however, I noticed that by implementing the same structure to the class, but allowing for slight variations, allowed the students to warm up to what we expected from them. By having a balance of reading and discussion with creativity and acting, I felt that the students were able to enjoy the class as well as learn and understand the text we discussed. This allowed for greater participation on their part.

• Week 5: The students were more willing to volunteer for scenes from Act 3, which was reassuring. This allows them to become more understanding of the play and its happenings, which is particularly reflected in their choice of what to include and exclude in the scenes they write.

I think that with Gabby’s help, she and I were able to create an environment where it was fun to discuss literature and develop an appreciation for Shakespeare. When Sherry Robertson visited our class one week, she commented on how relaxed and engaged our students were with us, and how they were obviously comfortable learning from Gabby and I and wanted to participate. It was moments like these, and the final performance, that makes me feel like the way Gabby and I designed the class was an ultimate success.

I learned later from Joe the reaction to our class’s final performance:

• Week 9: There was a very nice sequel to the performance about twenty minutes later in the Education office. Jeremy Smith was hugely enthusiastic in a speaker-phone conversation with the AZDOC education director and a couple administrators in the office. He praised the Shakespeare performance highly, saying that he noticed how much memorization work had gone on and that this was beyond anything he had seen in prison education.

Our students worked hard to achieve this praise, and it came highly unexpected. The end result was far greater than anything I had initially hoped for, and the work the students put into it was worthwhile, for both them and Gabby and I. Who would have known that the least ‘structured’ and unconventional class at Florence would have done so well?