Voices from fall

So what actually went down in the fall semester? No grandiose experiments to bring about instant mindfulness. The school theme for the year is "Voices." For me, that meant work on vocal technique -- especially in 4/5 drama and the 4 - 6 exploratory classes. The younger the student, the more chance there is of making a lasting contribution to voice and communication skills.

In fifth grade, each 9 week class ended with a morning performance of some kind of group poem with actions. To simply stand still and recite did not appeal, nor did I think it would improve student vocal technique.

4/5 worked with Edward Lear poetry. The whole class worked on The Jumblies, and each individual student was given two Lear limericks to perform solo vocally, but with a partner to provide actions to the speaker's words. Separating voice and action was a useful exercise in that the young actors got to test individual skills yet be with a partner within the performance. Not nearly so scary, which is a boost for collaboration skill training as well.

For me, as teacher, I finally got a handle on working with such a large class. 39 students in 4/5 drama makes it difficult to observe each student for a good length of time. Groups of 3 and 4 at the beginning of the year were not as productive as groups of 6 and 7. Or perhaps the early work would have been more difficult no matter what size groups, since more than half of the class is new to the school this year. Regardless, it is getting easier to work with them, but I haven't had time for a notebook check since mid fall, nor have I been giving them notebook assignments. When we worked on the Lear poetry, it was intensive rehearsing for several weeks on end. I need to get some response and reflect time into the routine.