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)