StM News

St. Martin’s Honors English I students recently traded their desks for a political arena as Matthew Munhall’s classroom became the staging ground for a modern-day take on “Julius Caesar.” Students stepped into the roles of campaign managers, tasked with bringing Shakespeare’s characters into the 21st century through persuasive ad campaigns.

Each group functioned as a full campaign team for a primary character from the play. Their goal was to convince a skeptical audience of peers and faculty that their candidate was the rightful leader for Rome. To build a winning platform, students had to master the mechanics of rhetoric, blending world history with Shakespeare's specific use of poetic language.

The project required a deep dive into three specific rhetorical appeals:

• Ethos: Students established the credibility and moral character of their candidates to build trust with the voters.
• Logos: Campaigns used logic and reason, citing specific actions and traits from the text to support a character's platform.
• Pathos: Teams created emotional connections through storytelling and evocative language.

The final presentations featured live campaign speeches and student-produced TV advertisements. These multimedia elements enabled the class to demonstrate its ability to communicate complex, centuries-old ideas in modern formats.

Guest judges, including Middle and Upper School Counselor Heather Wiltshire, AP Computer Science Teacher Mrs. Maureen Smith, and Head of Middle School Mrs. Jenny Velasquez, evaluated the creative arguments. While the judges ultimately selected one group as the winner, all four teams demonstrated an impressive level of research and a clear grasp of the text.

By dissecting classical literature and reimagining it for a contemporary audience, these students proved that the themes of “Julius Caesar” remain incredibly relevant to the world they inhabit today.