TOWAMENCIN- With the classic Wedding March playing in the background, boys dressed up in tuxedo shirts and jackets, and the girls in long, formal dresses, the eleventh grade English classes co-taught by Mrs. Ellen McKee and Mrs. Becky Poole took part in a ten-year Valentine’s Day tradition yesterday.
To celebrate the day of love, Mrs. McKee and Mrs. Poole hosted a wedding reception yesterday during her third and fifth period classes. Inspired by the many weddings at which she has played violin over the years, McKee had each student act as the Best Man or the Maid of Honor and recite the Apache Wedding Poem in front of their class to practice their memorization skills.
Choosing the Apache Wedding Poem because of its non-denominational views, Mckee loves the message of the poem that “two lives become one for a common cause.”
On February 1st, classes co-taught by McKee and Poole began to memorize the poem line by line. For two weeks, their classes practiced the poem, leading them up to the test of reciting it to two students dressed up as a bride and groom. Students each went up one by one, first saying something about the happy couple, then delivering the poem to the “guests” of the wedding.
To make the classroom feel like a wedding reception, flowers covered desks and students brought in wedding cake, cookies, and other snacks. Moreover, because they will do “anything for North Penn students,” Country Bride and Gent kindly donated the tuxedos for the students to dress up in to make the atmosphere more realistic.
Anastasia Corbin, junior, also added some realism to the pretend event by singing “I Will Always Love You” after the readings of the poem were finished.
Combining appreciation for literature, public speaking practice, and an atmosphere of levity and celebration, students were immersed in a hands on and differentiated learning environment, while capturing plenty of smiles and laughs along the way.