Lesson 5 Oct. 20-22

This week we picked up where we left off last week! We did our 6 big question analysis, but instead of using photos, I brought in props for the kids to first analyze, and then we had a volunteer come up, try on the object, and show us how someone who was wearing that object would walk/behave:

Tough Motorcycle jacket!

Old Lady with a cane and Fedora!

Soldier from the 1960's

Super Fancy Opera Gloves! 

This was a really popular exercise - of course costumes or props always make a big impact. I think really drilling the 6 big questions with images helped the students to think more deeply and be more descriptive with the props.

This was also a great way to transition into how a character moves, and getting into our bodies.


After specialist, we did our warm-ups as usual. We also did a Robot warm-up:


But in Mrs. Paulson's (Ms. Anderson's -sub) class, Maxwell had a tongue twister he wanted to do:

One Smart Feller!

After our warm-ups, I went over the vocab words for the day: Script, Rehearsal, Blocking, Prop (Stage Property)

We then explained that our next step would be reader's theater, and that we had split them into two groups, and they would be doing a performance of the script next week. To familiarize them with the script (The Little Old Lady who wasn't afraid of anything) we had the kids watch a youtube video of a woman reading the story: The Little old Lady who wasn't afraid of anything.

A wonderful thing happened while the kids were watching the story - they got up and performed ! With no encouragement - It was great to watch! ( I have a video of them in our photos/video folder)

We then distributed the scripts, and had the kids split up into their groups, review their parts silently, then sit in a circle and do a read through or a "First Rehearsal"

After reading through the script everyone went back to their desk, and we had them visualize their character. We talked about looking for clues about our character in the script, and filling in the rest with our imaginations! You are the shirt? What kind of shirt? A Hawaiian shirt? A Pirate shirt? A Lumberjack shirt? How would each of those kinds of shirts talk and move differently? What kind of a shirt are you? And so on for each character.

The students were given a sheet of paper to draw their character - they will wear their picture when they perform to show the detail of their character creation!!

I was so pleased with how this lesson went - most of the kids were anxious that we wouldn't actually perform the play until I reminded them that the performance was next week! It was great to see them so excited to show off how they had developed a unique character and the voice and movement that they were going to use to bring them alive.

After having them analyze the props - we had them BECOME the props! This' personalization' and internalization of a character (whether human or object) is so very important to not only performance, but character analysis in reading, as well as creativity in writing.

It was Mrs. Mayer's brilliant idea to have the students draw their character - I really think it took the lesson to the next level!!

Props and the 6 Big Questions Oct. 13-15

This past week we started as usual, with photo analysis. It is great to see the students thinking more deeply each time, with less encouragement. We challenged them this week by using stock photos, as opposed to stills from film, as this allows them to analyze the photos without bringing previous knowledge of the situation represented into their analysis.

For warm-ups we did Cat/Cow, Puppy Panting, and re-visited the motorboat/siren lip exercise. We then quickly reviewed our  reading vocabulary:
Dynamic
Energy
Pace
Volume
Punctuation
Emotions
Projection

I had a long note card with each term written on one. They did a great job remembering, and when they answered correctly I also showed the note card to the class to reinforce the word.

We then moved on to our 1st part of the lesson: The Hat Exercise

  By this time, the students were getting to be pro's at analyzing images, and we needed to move to the next step and analyze an object..

Prop  is our new vocabulary word.

We created 5 stations and at each station was a large piece of note paper, with the 6 big questions written on it. Also at each station we placed a hat:

Chef
Knight
Baseball Player
Pirate
Witch

The students had to work together to answer each of the 6 big questions. Each student had to write two of the answers down (to practice writing skills). They also had to incorporate correct punctuation.

The teacher and I modeled the exercise with a princess hat, encouraging the students to think beyond one word answers.

Once the students finished answering, they were given a few minutes to rehearse how they would present their description of their prop, remembering to read like a storyteller, not like a robot.

They did a great job. some students were, of course, more enthused than others - but for the most part  bringing an object to life, along with their own words was exciting and a bit nerve wracking.

One great teaching moment was when a student obviously felt silly acting out and using gesture - but when she completed her reading her fellow students said that they liked her gestures best. - I pointed out to her that sometimes it is the things we think are most silly, or that make us shy that can really make a performance great - that she should always trust her instincts - the movements she picked were great - and everyone really enjoyed them!!

Knights standing tall!

Chef's stirring the pot!

ARGHHH Matey's!!

Witches dancing!

We did not get to the second half of our lesson, which was the introduction to readers theater, and the passing out of scripts. We decided we would just pick up right from there next week!

Lesson #3 Volume, Pace, and Punctuation

Read Like a Storyteller, not like a Robot!! Volume, Pace, and Punctuation

This week we began again with analyzing images and answering the 6 big questions. The students are really getting into the groove, looking deeper and getting more creative. The Teachers are also really going more and more in depth, guiding the students - I am learning some great questioning techniques! One thing we also learned is that, although it is fun, pictures from contemporary films can prove challenging, as the kids are relying on previous knowledge and information to answer the questions, rather than just drawing their knowledge from the image in front of them. This was curbed this week by the follow up question - "Would you have known that by just looking at the picture?"

The great thing was, they were very attentive to emotion in all of the images - "How is the character feeling" got lots interesting and differing opinions.

We also reviewed what we learned last week - "What kind of reading did we do last week?" Emotional reading, they tended to remember right away, and Dynamic the got with a little prompting - It starts with a "D" and is "explosive" like Dynamite

 We did our warm-ups - this has been a nice intersection with mindfulness practice - we do three body warm-ups, three face/tongue warm-ups, and a tongue twister:

  

We do a different one every week- I would like the teachers to have a collection of warm-ups and tongue twisters that the kids are familiar with and that can be used in any class before presentations/ read aloud/ etc...

Read like a Storyteller, not like a Robot: Volume

We first did a modified "Bean Bag" exercise to practice being aware of , and modulating our volume for different situations. We used a witch doll. All of the students gathered at one end of the room. first, the witch was right in front of them, they had one sentence "There's a witch flying in our classroom" that they said aloud together - they had to speak to her like they were reading a bedtime story, She was then placed farther and farther away - and they had to adjust their volume - being sure to never just yell at the witch.

This was really great - the kids were not only doing a great job with their volume - but they have really taken the "Read like a storyteller, not like a robot" to heart. They were using great emotion and intonation at all volume levels - I was extremely impressed!!

Out Vocabulary word for this section was PROJECTION or PROJECT.

Read like a Storyteller, not like a Robot: Pace

For this exercise, students were getting used to putting reading concepts into their bodies. The idea that we can "physicalize" reading techniques that will then manifest in their voices and reading style.

For pace, the students had a sentence they would read, while "Flowing like a river" through the classroom. A story teller has a good steady flow, like a river. However, does emotion effect the pace of the river? "YES!" was the resounding answer. So we practiced flowing in a neutral way, and moving from Sad, Bored, Excited, Mad, and Shy. Experimenting how this effected their pace, and how that, in turn, was expressed as emotion (and even changed the way they felt in their bodies)


Read like a Storyteller, not like a Robot: Punctuation

I  began this portion of the lesson by talking to the students about how authors give us a road map of symbols in every book - clues to Emotion, Dynamics, Pace, and Volume - they do this using Punctuation.

We gave the students slips of paper with COMMA PERIOD EXCLAMATION MARK and QUESTION MARK written on them. On the smart board we put up sentences lacking punctuation and they held up the slip of paper they thought fit best - This was an idea the teachers came up with, and it was sooooo great! it really solidified the kids thinking about punctuation in written form before we physicalized it.

Then we headed to the gym! We modeled the movements for each of the punctuation marks, and reminded the students to also change direction at the end of each sentence - They were given their own copy of the sentences to read so that they could move independently through the gym.

Reminder sheet on the gym wall.

The students were a little skeptical at first, but really engaged, especially as the teacher jumped in and read with them!

Mrs. Mayer Reading with the students!!

I also have video available in our Oaklawn 3rd Grade Folder in the CITA shared folder.

Mrs Mayer's class showing the Question Mark motion! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mrs Schuster and the class showing EXCLAMATION MARK!!!

Mrs Paulson's class showing our review of the "lion face" warm-up!!

We also gave the students a whole paragraph with blank spots that they had to fill the punctuation into. They then walked that paragraph with the movement.

This week we were getting very technical with our reading skills - the kids did a great job following along - and Mrs Mayer assured me that although it can seem a bit too technical - we have to hit these pieces in order to make sure that when we get to the "fun stuff" there is structure underneath it.

This makes total sense, it can sometimes feel, however, that as a theater teaching artist, every time I am in the classroom it should be "costume - acting - fun time". Although in reality, I know, and can see, how the technical acting techniques we are applying not only fit well into what the teachers are already trying to do, they are making a difference in solid applicable ways to how the kids are approaching reading

Unit #2 Dynamic and Emotional Reading

Unit 2 this week went very well. I believe we, (the teachers and I) are really getting into a groove of passing instruction and leadership back and forth. Our focus this week was dynamic and emotional reading.

After reviewing the six big questions they analyzed an image and with prompts from the teacher and myself, they wrote answers to the questions in their journals. It was really encouraging to see how many of them, when prompted took their descriptions to the next level instead of just  surface answers: 

We then did warm ups for the body, face and tongue to be ready to read! 

Dynamic reading:

We gave the kids a definition of  "dynamic" and talked about how reading like a robot is BORING!!:

We read each sentence like a robot, and then again dynamically - using their bodies to convey the action of the sentence.

Emotional Reading:

I then had the students name emotions - and we wrote them on the black board:

 I then modeled reading a sentence with the wrong emotion - they really got a kick out of that!

I would then pick an emotion that didn't match a sentence - they would read it that way, and then we would try it with the right emotion.

Group reading  Dynamic and Emotional reading:

We then split the kids up into 5 groups of 4 and there instructions were to read the passage to themselves, then read it aloud together. Then they picked 3 dynamic actions to do together, as well as the emotion that they thought best matched the passage. 

They had about 10-15 minutes to work in their groups while the teacher and I walked around and helped, and we then performed them in front of the class!

Practicing Flinging Open The Cupboard Door!!!

P..P..P..Please don't eat me!!  - can you guess the emotion they chose?

                                                              Mrs. Mayer's Class

                                                                        Mrs. Schuster's Class

                                                                    Mrs. Paulson's Class

A few things we noticed/realized: We really have to keep the sentences for any choral reading simple, to ensure that all students of all reading levels feel successful. 

It was also amazing to see the difference in participation in the choral reading vs. small group work from classroom to classroom. Mrs. Paulson's Class had a very successful experience with the students really applying the emotional and dynamic reading skills  in the small group work - but were almost overwhelmed with energy when we did the choral reading with the whole class, which was the opposite in Mrs. Meyer's class. (they were successful with group reading - but seemed more engaged and enthused during choral reading)

Sept. 21-25 First Week in the Classroom!

Wow, what a week! It was great to finally get into the classroom and meet all of the students, and see how our first round of planning played out in the reality of the three classrooms.

One of the things that came out from our first plan is that Mrs. Meyer stated that, as I was really steering the ship for the first day, she got to observe her students in their classroom setting, but from a completely different perspective. For example, a girl in class is very quiet, but raises her hand to answer questions consistently. She does not regularly get called on, as she is drowned out by the enthusiasm of her peers. Mrs. Meyer noted that she kept an eye on her later in the week, and made sure to call on her more often.

At the beginning of my time I did a brief introduction of myself, showing some pictures of plays I had been in and talking to the students about some of the things we would be doing with theater in the classroom - there was good general excitement.

While the students were gone at their specialist, the teacher and I discussed how the kids were doing energy-wise that particular day, and how we would break up the afternoon.

We began with a game called "Introduction and Applause". A very simple activity where each student came up in front of the class, introduced themselves, then bowed, and had to stay up in front of the class while the students gave them a round of applause.  - This was good for both the students as presenter, and as audience. It is a good icebreaker for teachers at the start of the year.

We then went on to the Prezi presentation I put together called Creating a Character. I was most concerned about this portion being boring for the kids, but it was very well received. The students were asked to look closely at the images and answer in depth about the "Big Question" being discussed. For the three images at the end, they were asked to answer as many of the Big 6 questions as they could, and explain their reasoning.  This is something that the teachers can use and update, or re-create year after year in order to drive home the  6 Big Questions (who what when where why and how) The Prezi:







We then proceeded with the team building games - Zoo day, the mirror exercise, and the Human Knot. I believe these are also exercises/warm ups that the teachers can use at any point throughout the year for focus, creativity, and team building.

We have our outline for next week all set up, and it just needs a bit of ironing out and specification on the activities.

I am, at this point, feeling as though I need a bit more experience in lesson planning.  All three of my teachers are really helping me, but at the same time, with so much planning to do I cannot ask them to take extra time to teach me out of our 2 weekly planning hours. I would find it helpful to have a 101 lesson planning training, so that I can be thinking about strategies for implementing Theater into a teachers curriculum over the 12 week period in the most effective way (also the way that will mirror how the teacher will be implementing it in the future)


I have really enjoyed having my first experience the different energy in each of the three classrooms, as well as the differences  and similarities  that Cindy, Lisa and Elizabeth bring to their teaching.

Second Cadre Meeting 9/9/15 and Teacher Planning

In a flurry of activity, I wasn't able to write my blog last week, so two this week!

Last week Wednesday (Sept. 9) we had a second cadre meeting. This meeting was great, tons of things were clarified:

1. Co-teaching is only in front of students. 1 on 1 time with the teacher does not count

2. The idea that when we are working with the teachers, we are enhancing current curriculum - this is a huge key to CITA working. We need to remind the teachers that whatever we are doing - the hope is that they can re-create it in the future. My teachers do have this in mind already.

3. We also got a bit of clarification on what the purpose of the blog is : How is what we are doing affecting teachers specifically, or what is the impact on the teacher?

4. The final "Showcase" is not to have a "performance" per se at the end, but it is more of a way to show process, and and how our art form has been incorporated into the classroom.

As Tami and Kris have said, We are building the plane as we are flying it, and I feel like this cadre meeting definitely helped build a bit stronger of a base for us to work off of!

Later that same day, I had a planning meeting with my teachers at Oaklawn. I went over everything that we talked about that morning at the cadre meeting, and I definitely felt like we were all on the same page.

We got down to the nitty gritty of  what days and times I would be in the classroom, and decided that I would be in each classroom one day a week. During Read aloud time 12:20 - 12:40 (about 20 Min) we will do theater games/exercises that help the students with
1.projection/breathing
2. speed of reading
3.phrasing (following punctuation)
4.expression

The awesome Read Aloud time book  we will work with!

Then in the afternoon at about 1:15 we would set up/take down for afternoon activities and from 1:30-3 pm we are going to work on simple character development as it pertains to a  smaller book they are reading.

 The students will be put into small groups and will work together on reading it aloud, in character (including the character of the narrator)

The week of Oct. 26, 27,28 the students will "perform" (read) their stories to their classmates using the techniques they have learned.


I think my teachers felt better after this meeting - getting solid ground under us as far as what our goals were for the first 'unit' and setting out a week by week schedule . (I know I definitely felt better!)

INSPIRATION - Mr Rodgers!

I have many hero's in the worlds of the arts and education, and I think it is important to be reminded of the work they do. So in order to inspire everyone, and to promote thinking like, and being inspired by, the great artists and educators of the past and present, I am going to sporadically post "Inspiration"  blogs featuring their work.

My first blog, as you can guess, is featuring one of my all time favorites: Fred Rodgers. I was searching for some songs that would have perhaps been good to use during our classroom time, and I ran across these two:

1. Making Up Stories is Learning:

2. I'm Still Myself Inside:

Both of these songs are so lovely - He is so brilliant at taking a concept/problem/fear etc... and explaining it simply and using singing to do it.

On his program he utilized song, puppetry, dance, video, storytelling seamlessly to educate, comfort and empathize with children of the early childhood education age group.

He also used music many times to help children manage their feelings, and new things that were happening in their lives. I think this is a part of CITA that we could explore further, helping teachers develop classroom management methods not only for the educational needs of their students, but for their emotional needs/management, and learning of social skills.

I plan on watching more Mr. Rodgers to get inspired!!

And his message to adults is one that I still watch every once and a while when I feel low, or uninspired - I feel like this message especially pertains to the Teachers and Teaching Artists of AIM:

What a brilliant man.  

First Cadre Meeting - 8/28/15

Our first Artist Cadre - 8/28/15

Our first cadre meeting began, as I am learning most AIM meetings do, like so:

Delicious Breakfast Cookies...Mmmmmmmmm

We had a ton to discuss, so here we go!

I. Hours - My team had suggested that we could break the kids off into smaller groups during their reading time in order to get even more work done. However upon discussion with Kris, we really ironed out that the goal of the program is co-teaching, and so even though it is an awesome idea, the only hours that count toward our 8 hours a week are when we are in the classroom with the teacher.  

A. We talked about how we could perhaps look at how we could integrate theater in the classroom with Daily 5. I could be in the classroom working with smaller groups, or something like that. I will discuss this with my teachers and see if that is something they would be interested in.. 

B. Another awesome question that came up had to do with the teaching artists working with the teachers one-on-one. This, I believe is very important - it is not necessarily lesson planning, but actually giving lessons to the teachers in our art form so that they feel comfortable teaching it  -  yes, some of that can be picked up as we are working in the classroom, but I would strongly argue that taking a bit of time to work with the teachers without the students on the basics of an art form, or the specific way you want to integrate it into the classroom is really at the heart of our purpose. An hour 

 or two once a week or every other week (that counted towards our 8 hours) in workshop with our teachers,  is the idea that I walked away from our cadre meeting most passionate about.

II. We discussed the AIM Academy, and we all thought that it went great! The idea of putting together a FAQ sheet for the teachers containing all of the pertinent who what when where why and how came up - something that would really give them a clear idea of not only what the goals of the program are, but exactly how they are expected to utilize their teaching artist. Erika Svanoe suggested this be distributed to teachers as they apply, which we all agreed was a great idea. 

III. We also discussed how to utilize the funds that are allocated for each classroom. I asked about the possibility of getting a GoodWill gift card, or something like that, as the reimbursement route is  not a possibility. There was also discussion about having a bit of spending cash for the small things that pop up, that we don't necessarily need to order.

A. While discussing this, I had a few ideas, including :

1. Sending a letter home with students letting their parents know

that we are trying to create  a stockpile of costumes for the classroom to use, and that they can send in any fun costume pieces that they think would be especially useful for American History (they would remain part of the classroom collection)

 

 2. Costume creation for both Rock Star and Timeline exercise will be a  great part of the program - it doesn't have to be crazy and involve sewing- but putting the costumes together and learning to be observant about what people wore and why is an AWESOME EXERCISE!

 3. Putting together "Time Tubs" with the costumes labeled approximately according to decade will be a great way to keep things organized. 

IV. We also discussed our blogs, and there was much collaboration on how to get them done:

Yay!

Kobi and Kris = getting it done! 

Babatunde and Erika  Working it out!

I did notice one thing during our meeting: 

AIM could also stand for "Arts Integration on Macs"!

So, to sum up my feelings at the moment

1. I am excited to get into the classroom

2. I am nervous to get into the classroom

3. Getting together with my teachers again on Sept. 9 - I hope to get our Lesson Plan completed and to work out other opportunities for them to utilize me (if that is what they want) 

4 I am also excited to meet up once more with the artists on the Sept. 9th as well and learn about what the executive committee thinks of our ideas/questions! 

5. I have almost completed a prezi presentation for the first week of class, and holy smokes, I am overloaded with 3rd grade pop culture! 

Tiny Conductor

I adore this video! This would be a wonderful Arts Integration exercise with many different age groups - all they need is a prop baton and a small box to stand on. I can imagine a group of kids doing this along with a conductor (for a smaller section of music). What a great way to learn about rhythm, movement, and emotion in music (as well as exposure to classical music)  Questions about how the music made them feel sitting and listening in comparison to standing and "conducting" could also be great!

Anyways, It was to great not to share - the pure laughter and enjoyment at the end made my day!

Review of Online Arts Integration Conference

Review of online Arts Integration Conference!

On July 29th a number of the AIM teaching artists got together to view an arts integration  Conference. This, I feel was a great way to get our creative juices flowing and observe how many different artists integrated their disciplines into the classroom.

I found the dance/movement integration to be particularly compelling, as they were not only utilizing dance, but also simple character creation in order for the students to become, for example, the cycles of rain fall.  This got me thinking about how important it is to consider your art in it's simplest forms, and how uncomplicated exercises can have the ability to solidify important educational concepts.

By this I mean that there is no great character analysis, no need to understand or explain elements of theater to have kids participate in an exercise in which they become the H2O in all of it's different forms and perform a dance/performance that, I know in my own childhood, would have made the process much more memorable than reading it in a book

I look forward to viewing more of the sessions. I think they will also serve as inspiration along this journey, when, as it inevitably happens, there are creative frustrations and detours.

Week #1 Aug 18th 2015

On Tuesday, August 18th I met with the Third Grade Team at Oaklawn Elementary!

                    

Lisa Jasper Mayer

Cindy Paulson

Elizabeth Schuster

 We had a great time and got a lot of work accomplished. They really wanted to focus in on History this first semester, which was exciting for me, (and allayed some of my nervousness about this first go-around) as history has been my focus in my work at the Minnesota Historical Society (duh) as well as at the Wilson Place Mansion here in Menomonie.

When we originally met during our three day academy, there were many ideas that were thrown around.  I am glad that my team, like me, although excited about the breadth of ideas, were intent on focusing down to core ideas and really getting specific as to what we were looking to do, and how theater/theatrical techniques could best supplement and compliment their goals.

We narrowed down our 'Big Idea':

Character, Empathy, Identity

We also broke down how our first semester would look.
1. Theater games for the first week or so, introducing the idea of creating a character. Really acting 101. I am excited to get the kids thinking about how they already do this in their day-to-day lives, and also to challenge them to think critically about how they use their powers of observation daily without even thinking about it. (games: power point with pop culture references to "guess the emotion" "Round Robin" character creation, The Mirror Game)

2. We then discussed doing a "History Rock Star" exercise. This is a way for the students to think about character and observation as a way to get to know people/music/style/etc. from the past.  We will pick decades, and have the students research a song/band and lip sync as a group performance for each other. I am thinking 40's or 50's through the 90's. (Age and Lyric appropriateness will be vetted beforehand!). This exercise will be a good next step towards our next project. (And SUPER FUN!!)

Punk Rock!!

Classic Rock!

80's Hair Bands!!

3. After Halloween, when the students begin there American History lessons, we will then begin work on our "Living Timeline" where the students will pick, era by era, a work of art, photo or event that they feel is important to that era,  re-create it (a'la Tableau) and then bring it to life with a short scene.

What are they thinking?? We'll find out!

This is the plan thus far, as well as my working with the students during their read to self time in small groups(we are still discussing what this will look like)

We will see how this changes and morphs - as we know it will- as we move along.

I am just so excited to work with and learn from these wonderful educators!!! As well as to be inspired by the students!!

Addendum: This is a video I just saw from U. W Madison, About students working with Mindfulness, and I loved it. I certainly hope to incorporate some of this into our daily classroom routine!