Staging two scenes from Jane Austen in class

In my Academic Writing Two classes this week, we worked with two scenes from Jane Austen in terms of the positions of the characters relative to each other. In the past, I had the students draw pictures or diagrams to show who was where in the scenes. But this time around, we stole a bench from the courtyard to represent the sofa on which Anne Elliot, Mrs. Musgrove, and Captain Wentworth sit in "Persuasion", and we cleared a space around a table for five characters from "Emma" to play an anagram game while Mr. Knightley observes them. Staging the scenes made for playful sessions full of insights into the two scenes. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 18 May 2022)