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