Teaching Trials

Part of the women's literature unit that I teach in AP Language and Composition consists of students performing a mock trial based on the play by Susan Glaspell called Trifles, also written as a short story called "A Jury of her Peers."

Well, this year's trial took the cake---really the doughnut. Let me explain.

I give the play to the five characters to read so they know who they're supposed to be and what they are supposed to know. This year the prosecution team got a bit overzealous and looked up the play on line and found out some things they normally wouldn't know if they obtained their information "legally" by interviewing and questioning the witnesses. That darned Internet!

But, the trial really came together, and everyone played his or her part magnificently. The two judges, who in other years needed some coaching throughout the trial, knew exactly what to do and how to proceed because they had actually read the packet on court room procedures I had given them. They were so believeable I felt GUILTY for laughing at the young man who played the Sheriff, whose outfit was outta here (Afro wig, plaid shirt, and leather stars and stripes vest), and so was his testimony, referring to a significant others as "honey bunnies" and insinuating he was prone to having accidents in his pants at the sight of blood.

All the while the characters were on the stand dressed in period clothes (thanks to the costume design crew) proficiently proclaiming the facts of the case, the two bailiffs were stuffing their faces with powdered sugar doughnuts, their mouths smeared in white like the people who do the milk commericials, only all the way around, not just delicately on the upper lip.

On a dramatic note, the attorneys knew their stuff and asked poignant questions that made some witnesses squirm, like the defendent who sought the mercy of the jury through tears and irratic sewing, and the farmer who blurted out an unrecognizeable phrase our of sheer panic.

I know. Sounds crazy. But, if you read the play, the trial would have made sense---mostly---except for the end where the bailiff got stabbed over a doughnut.

OK, so it was crazy---in a very good way. Students learned the basics of courtroom trial procedures, successful cooperative planning, character portrayal, improvising, debating, and doughnut dunking. (Hot chocolate was available after the performance.)