Cristina O’Farrill

Dramatic Literature
Dr. Carol Moe
Final Paper

Summary of the play

David Mamet’s RACE is about how two attorneys, Henry, a black attorney, and Jack, a

white attorney, debate whether to accept Charles as their client. Charles is a white wealthy business

man accused of raping a young black girl with whom he had a consensual relationship. Throughout

the debate the attorneys realize the case will be difficult to win because race will be a big issue in

trial. Both think of ways to make the case not seem like a racial issue. But Susan, a new young

black woman who was just been hired as an attorney in the firm had other plans. Since the case was

about a white man raping a black girl, Susan assumed Charles was guilty from the beginning. Her

intentions were to not let him get away with rape. At the end, Susan tells all of Henry and Jack’s

plan to the defendant’s lawyers so their plan could fail in court. After this, Charles quickly

confesses.

Description: This paper includes a full unit plan inspired by David Mamet’s play titled RACE. The

unit consists of two parts: (a) comprehension, and (b) grammar. The first part contains activities that

are related to particularly sensitive subjects such as race, gender, and class, which are presented

throughout the play. The objective is to initiate debates and discussions in order for students to

comprehend the play. The second part includes worksheets using passages from the play. Through

these exercises, students will be able to refine the following grammatical skills: adjectives, nouns,

verbs and capitalization and punctuation. The worksheets provided, can be used in conjunction with

the online videos.

Each activity has a set of learning objectives that instructors might adapt and use in their own

teaching to promote critical awareness, interactive learning, and community dialogue on social

justice issues affecting the community through the use of theater.

The present paper is aiming to achieve the following objectives:

 Identify adjectives

 Demonstrate understanding of placing correct punctuation and capitalization

 Identify nouns

 Identify verbs

 Perform a scene

 Complete and perform a Mad Lib Story

 Use their own intuition and their mental abilities to analyze and comprehend the given

lessons and doing the exercises

Audience: The audience will be 8th -10th grade ESL students

PART 1: COMPREHENSION
False assumption Lesson Plan
Suggested time allowance: 2 day class period
Level: College ESL students

David Mamet’s RACE discusses particularly sensitive subjects such as race, gender, and class. This
activity has the objective to make students understand how assumptions in these areas are seen in
everyday life. They will work in groups and will stage a scene with these conflicts for the class.
This activity can be done before or after reading the play RACE, but it is recommended to do the
activity before reading it to expose students to the delicate and personal themes David touches in his
play.
Procedure:
1. Students will be asked to think about what the term “assumptions” means to them. An open
discussion will take place about what “false assumption” experiences they have had in their
lives, the problems it created, and how they fixed the problem.
2. Next, the following stories will be presented to the class, and students will be encouraged to
seek out colliding assumptions. Afterwards, discuss how this “false assumption” lead to
major problems. The first story will serve as an example.
Story #1
A woman leaves home and makes three left turns. She returns home again.
On the way, she passed two women with masks. Who were the two women?
By reading this you probably assume that the two masked woman could be
thieves (but, maybe they were at a costume party nearby or maybe they were
two young high school girls fooling around and having fun)

Story #2
It is a hot August afternoon. The location is the living room in an old
Victorian mansion. The 7-foot window is open and the curtains are blowing
in the breeze generated by the thunderstorm that just passed. On the floor lie
the bodies of John and Marsha. They are surrounded by puddles of water
and broken glass. Please close your eyes and picture the scene. Now change
the picture. Neither John nor Marcia has any clothing on. How did they die?

Story #3
A man is walking down the street, sees a bar, and enters. He asks the
bartender for a glass of water. The bartender pulls out a gun and points it at
him. The man says “Thank you” and leaves the bar.

Story #4
“Peter said he’s been at home all day and never heard the doorbell, so the
delivery man must not have come.”
 3. Students will get into groups of 3-4. They will work together and create their own scenario
where the key conflict is assumption. The assumptions need to be related to either gender,
race or class. They will act it out in front of the other classmates. After each presentation,
they will discuss the kinds of assumptions that were made and what problems it led to.
This lesson was adapted by the following website
https://steameducation.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/false-assumptions-lesson/
The stories were taken from the following website
http://mrscienceut.net/False%20Assumptions%20Can%20Get%20You%20In%20Trouble.pdf

Social Issue Lesson Plan

Suggested time allowance: 2 day class period
Level: College ESL students

RACE is a play that will initiate many conversations. For this reason, in this activity, students will
pick out a passage from the play. They will explain why they chose that passage and discuss how it
is relevant to their generation. Afterwards, students will use the following questions to initiate a
debate in class:
 What do you think about the arguments the characters had in the play? Do you agree
in how they expressed themselves or in how they acted?
 Of all the issues presented in the play, which topic do you think is more controversial
in your generation?
 Can you relate these issues to any events happening in today’s world? How do you
feel about it? ( Talk about Donald Trump, Cynthia Brown, and Brock Turner’s case)
After the discussion, students will create a visual representation surrounding the controversial issues
they have already discussed. It can be a drawing, collage, painting, acronym, poem, etc. The
purpose is to let students express their feelings and thoughts on the subject. Students’ work will be
displayed in the classroom, and they will conduct a round-table discussion about their reflections.
PART 2: GRAMMAR

ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS WORKSHEET

Instructions:
1. Watch the following YouTube videos:
 What are Adjectives? English Grammar for Beginners | Basic English | ESL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz5InHzfY68
 What are Nouns? English Grammar for Beginners | Basic English | ESL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QcIp_zvGi0

2. Now that you have watched and learned about adjectives and nouns, write your own definition of
adjectives and noun.
Adjectives_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________No
un______________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

3. Make a list of 5 adjectives and 5 nouns you learned from the videos. Write one adjective and one
noun of your own.

Adjectives Nouns
Adjective from the videos: Nouns form the video:

My own adjective: ____________________ My own noun:______________________

Instructions: Read the passages taken from David Mamet’s play RACE. Underline the
adjective in each sentence. Circle all nouns.

1. Charles: I am the drugged patient…

2. Jack: Why is it; poor people don’t get dragged up in the press?

3. Jack: very large fee.

4. Jack: because I got a Black Partner. Rosy red rose. (P. 24)

5. Jack: Why? BECAUSE, in fact, you put a white girl in the dress, what does the jury

think…(p. 34)

6. Susan: Are black people different from other people? (p. 35)

7. Jack: ill prove it to you. Blacks. Know things no white man knows. (p. 20)
 PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION WORKSHEET

Instructions:
1. Watch the following YouTube videos:
 Capitalization Rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtSu_QTX8JQ
 How to Use Periods | Grammar Lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Itsk5XwaMc

2. Now that you have watched and learned about capitalization and punctuation, complete the
following:

 Complete the acronym MINT from the video “Capitalization Rules”

______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

 When do we use periods?

________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Instructions: Read the passages taken from David Mamet’s play RACE. Rewrite the
sentences. Place capital letters and periods were they belong to make a complete sentence.

1. Jack: That the whites will screw you. Any chance we get. We cannot help ourselves. (p. 20)
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. Jack: I’ll prove it to you. Blacks. Know things no white man knows. (p. 20)
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

3. Jack: I’ll tell you what I think. I think that women. Just like men. in the main, being self-
interest, will exploit every advantage they may have. Chief among theirs, youth and beauty.
Just as will men, who possess the advantages of being old and rich ( p. 18)
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

4. Jack: all people deal with shame or guilt. Jews deal with guilt. Blacks deal with shame. It’s
two of the wonderful ways we metabolize feelings of inferiority. Our job. Is to get them on
the jury to accept our new definition of the Group to which they belong. Not the “whites” or
the “blacks”. Not “the well-meaning”. Or “the people on my block”. But the new group-
which is called “the jury”. (p. 35)
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

5. Susan: I asked Kelly. For the forms. (p. 45)

________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

6. Henry: and your act. Was a violation to the law. (p. 64)
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
 VERB WORKSHEET

Instructions:
1. Watch the following YouTube videos:
 What are Verbs? English Grammar for Beginners | Basic English | ESL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH5HzbObnOI

2. Now that you have watched and learned about verbs, write your own definition.
verbs_________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

3. Make a list of 5 verbs you learned from the video. Write one verb of your own.

Verbs
Verbs from video:

My own verb:_________________________

Instructions: Read the passages taken from David Mamet’s play RACE. Circle all the verbs in
each exercise.

1. Jack: you paid the girl? You paid the girl for sex at some time? (P. 39)

2. Henry: I understand: you gave her a gold watch, or you gave her five thousand dollars a

week for…? (P. 39)

3. Charles: I exploited her. (P. 40)

4. Susan: But you investigated me. (p. 43)

5. Jack: You wrote it in your résumé. (p.42)

6. Jack” everyone goes to Venice. (p. 42)

7. Susan: I asked Kelly. For the forms. (p. 45)

8. Susan: You hired me anyway. (p. 46)

9. Jack: Everyone feels shame. (p. 46)

10. Charles: Yes. I wrote it. (p. 49)

11. Charles: We joked about it. (p. 52)

 MAD LIBS THEATER

Teacher/Instructor Guidelines:

After teaching students about the parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives), they will apply
what they have learned by performing a Mad Libs story scene. Explain to students how the game
works. Remember you can adapt and use you own teaching techniques depending on your students
grade level and language proficiency. You can either add more parts of speech or make it simpler.

Instructions:
1. Tell students they will watch the following YouTube video to fully understand how the game
works:
 Mad Lib Theater with John Cena
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48pP0WFjuOE

Instructions:

 Whole Group: Write the following parts of speech on the board:

Nouns:_________________________
Person:_________________________
Verb:__________________________
Nouns:_________________________
Holiday:_________________________
Color:___________________________
Adjective:________________________
Color:___________________________
Adjective:________________________
Verb/ed:_________________________
Vegetable:_______________________
Verb/ed:_________________________
Person:___________________________
Verb:____________________________
Verb:____________________________
Color:___________________________

Afterwards, tell students to come up with nouns, verbs, and adjectives that fits the part of speech in
each of the blanks.
When all the blanks are completed, distribute the Mad Libs titled “More Lights” to each student.
Have them write the parts of speech they completed on the board in the same order. Pick a student
to read the Script.

 Pairs: Tell students they will now work in pairs and complete their own Mad Libs template
called “A Visit to the Dentist”. Distribute the worksheet to each pair. Tell them they will be
performing the scene for the class.

*Higher level: At the end of the activity, tell students to make their own Mad Libs Script and
perform it.
Instructions: Step #1

Find a partner. Complete the following parts of speech. Do not look at the story until you have
complete this step.

Nouns:___________________________

Person in room (last name):_______________________________

Adjective:___________________________________

Noun:______________________________________

Noun:______________________________________

Part of the body:______________________________

Part of the body:______________________________

Nouns:_____________________________________

Noun:_____________________________________

Noun:_____________________________________

Exclamation:_______________________________

Noun:_____________________________________

Noun:_____________________________________

Noun:_____________________________________

Verb:_____________________________________

Noun:_____________________________________

Adjective:__________________________________

Noun:_____________________________________
Instructions: Step #2
Now that you have completed part #1, fill out the Mad Lib in the same order as the list. Write the
nouns, verbs, and adjectives that fits the part of speech in each of the blanks. It does not need to
make sense; it’s supposed to be funny. You will receive credit as long as it is the correct part of
speech. Act out the scene with your partner in front of class.
 Reference

Mamet, D. (2010). Race (1st ed.). New York, NY: Theaters Communication Group, Inc.

More Lights. Classroomjr. Retrieved from https://www.woojr.com/christmas-mad-libs/christmas-

mad-lib-lights/

Price, P.; Stern, L. (1998.). Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad libs: a visit to the dentist. Rainbow
Resources Center. Retrieved fromhttps://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id
=001471