Ahern: Students sew their way through Shakespeare

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From left to right: Eighth Grade Students of Christ the King Catholic School, Grace McKee, Erin Grant, Brendan Kelly and Dan Santino work on their costumes as they study Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.” | Supplied Photo

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Updated: March 1, 2012 8:07AM

Something tricky is going on at Christ the King Catholic School in the Beverly community of Chicago.

Shhh, don’t tell the eighth-grade students, but the fun they are having as they prepare to study Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is actually teaching them quite a bit. They are not only learning about the bard, but they are picking up lessons in math, communication, budgeting, research, cooperation, sewing and hey, even Frank Sinatra is thrown in, just for good measure.

How does all this learning take place? Well for starters, it takes place when the students get together every day and work to create Elizabethan costumes. Eighth-grade teacher Vicki Rocus has the students making costumes from Shakespeare’s time so they can ultimately compete against one another in “Project Runway: 1590 Bridal Edition” for the most accurate and creative depiction of costumes from that era.

Costume-making is part of the trickiness of the lesson.

“This (effort) is where my marketing comes in,” Rocus said. “Students get bogged down in the language of Shakespeare. They’re intimidated by it. Making these costumes is a pre-reading activity that is also fun. While they are having fun, they are doing research and thinking independently, which is a good skill for college and high school, and they’re cooperatively learning.

“They’ll give me a bibliography of their research, and they have to create an Excel spreadsheet for the money they spend (on their costumes) so this is a lesson plan that is layered.

“Who said research has to be in the form of a written paper?” asked Rocus, who is in her sixth year of teaching at Christ the King.

The eighth-grade researchers are working from two classrooms, with seven teams of four to five students in each. Each team has its own Shakespeare-inspired name. Some team names are: “The Merry Brides of Windsor,” “The Brides of March,” and “The Flaming Youth,” which is a line from a Shakespeare sonnet.

Budget monies came from the students, but no group was allowed to spend more than $50. What’s more, students are not only doing the research and making costumes, but Rocus has a firm rule that purchased thrift store clothing must have something sewn on 7 sleeves, or padding for example. Further, Rocus requires each member of the team to learn to thread a needle and do some of the sewing.

“This is a basic life skill,” Rocus said, in explaining her “everyone sews” rule.

As the students worked on their costumes, Rocus asked them which music they would like to have playing in the background. Many voices called out “Sinatra” and soon, Ol’ Blue Eyes was crooning to the students.

As the students worked, Rocus explained that she was following the rules of Shakespeare’s time. In Elizabethan times, women were not allowed to perform on stage, and this meant boys played all the parts in a play 7 even female roles. In keeping with this tradition, only the boys will model the clothing the students are preparing.

“The boys have been great sports about this,” Rocus said.

Brendan Kelly, 13, stood still while two of his classmates worked on his costume’s cape. Sporting a thrift store hat, Kelly looked ready for his red carpet debut.

“I am a guy from the 1500s who is getting married,” Kelly said, explaining his costume. “I learned it was illegal for a woman to be on stage, and I’ve also learned how literature is reflected through clothing.”

Chanel Burns, 13, sewed a vest, as she described the lesson. She said she has embroidered, but sewing was a new skill for her.

“I didn’t know Shakespeare wrote comedies,” Burns said. “I always thought he wrote things more like dramas.

“We recently watched ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and Mrs. Rocus broke this down so we can understand it better. When you read Shakespeare, you are not always sure of what it is or how to pronounce the words, but seeing it and learning this way really helps” Burns said.

Maureen Aspell, the principal of Christ the King School, complimented Rocus and her efforts to make Shakespeare more approachable.

“Mrs. Rocus does a terrific job of helping students develop their talents,” Aspell said. “This is an excellent hands-on educational experience for the students. They learn the history of Shakespeare and they’re very enthusiastic. They take this creative approach very seriously and this lets everyone shine.”

Rocus said her efforts to bring Shakespeare into her students’ lives were a two-part effort for her language arts class.

“I want students to see Language Arts not just as a class but as a way people communicate. I also want them to look at literature not just from a reader’s perspective, but also as an author, to inspire their own writing.”

“I like Shakespeare; I’m just a fan of the classics. There is nothing wrong with the current werewolf or vampire stories, but this unit works every skill and is time-tested. This is a solid and engaging lesson plan across the curriculum that we will work on for the next four weeks, and one that has a rubric covering a multitude of Illinois learning standards.

“As an added attraction, the students will compete and model the costumes for the whole student body during Catholic Schools Week. Our panel of judges will have a set scoring sheet that determines how close the finished costume is to the correct time period, and then one group will win trophies,” Rocus continued.

“Yes, it is noisy in here but I have them working on their projects here in the classroom because I need to assess individual student skills, rather than the skills of “helpful” parents. A project like this is a memory maker, and like many teachers, I believe the journey is just as important as the destination,” said Rocus, as Sinatra crooned yet another song to inspire a classroom full of Shakespearean scholars.

Christ the King Catholic School, 9240 S. Hoyne, has nearly 300 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. For more information about the school, visit: www.ckchicago.org.