Over the past few years, our team has implemented Project Based Learning approaches and attempted various culminating projects, from original works of art inspired by the play to public service announcements addressing contemporary issues.

But no matter what we did, our efforts did not quite land as we intended. Our students still seemed to trudge through the play without forming their own answers to the questions above.

Yet whenever we teach it, we also continue to hear that students see aspects of themselves in the text.

They relate to the dynamics among the parents and the teenage protagonists, and among the teen protagonists and their friends. They know what it feels like to hover between adulthood and childhood. They, too, face peer pressure and deal with loss. Many have made impulsive decisions and suffered the consequences. Like the characters, they struggle with the tension between what they want for themselves and what their parents want for them. And they know too well how it feels to have too much to deal with and want to escape it all and just be happy.

As teachers, we wanted to capitalize on these connections. More than anything, we wanted our students to link the themes they encountered in the play with their own lives, with other readings and with the world around them.