My third area for research and development this year is in the area of assessment. Letter grades are meaningless when it comes to holistic evaluation of all the skills and concepts involved developing the young theatre artist.
For years I've read about electronic portfolios, but was overwhelmed by the idea of creating and maintaining 95 of them. I think I've come up with a way to handle it that won't be too taxing.
This year, I'm implementing student showcases of their work at the end of each semester. Each grade level will have a performance piece that will be recorded and placed in the portfolio. It might be a monologue, a duet, a pantomime, a directing project, depending upon the grade level.
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I've had a difficult time keeping up with the electronic portfolio. The idea is good, but very labor intensive. I've been thinking it might be better to keep one tape for each students and add performances onto each tape.
Having reached the end of the first semester, we began recording the first projects in December. I decided it would be easiest to keep each class on a separate digital tape. I'm also taping them in alphabetical order. This will help me notice upon uploading to the computer if any students were absent or missed a taping day.
My 6th grade film class is helping me with the portfolio creation. Using iMovie, they are creating individual "movie" files for each student, with full name in the title and year they will graduate from my school. The students are uploading the segments, student by student, then saving the files to folders marked by year. We are saving the files onto an external drive with mega memory. Each time we tape work to go into the folders, they will be easily accessed and maintained in date order.
I plan to let students in 6 - 8 help with the maintenance of the portfolios and eventually give them more responsibility in selecting material to be taped and saved. The portfolios should give a very clear view of progress over time.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Reality Theatre in the Exploratory Classroom
I took a workshop at the EdTA conference in Chicago last fall on implementing "reality theatre" into the classroom. This form of theatre is basically process drama most famously utilized by Augusto Boal as a means to liberate the oppressed workers and peasants in South America.
The concept is that true life situations are acted out for an audience. The situations are problems faced by the participants. It could be discrimination in the workplace, sexism or racism in daily life and so on. Once the situation is played out, the audience can suggest ways to change the scenario. The scene is then replayed based upon audience suggestions.
Thus different actions lead to other outcomes. This can have an empowering effect upon both players and audience. Instead of feeling helpless in the face of a sexist boss or a racist landlord, tactics to deal with such people are developed through the use of theatre.
The latest hot topic in education these days is how to deal with bullying. There is a new state law in Ohio that mandates all incidents of bullying are reported by the teachers and administrators and specific steps are then taken in dealing with the situation.
I have implemented a Reality Theatre project for all my 5th grade exploratory classes this year. The students in a 9 week class that meets four days per week. The basics of drama are "explored" during class time, generally culminating in some kind of class project.
After four weeks of various theatre exercises and explorations in collaborative improvisation, I ask the student to write individual accounts of bullying they actually witnessed either as participants or observers. They must change the names of the characters so that no actual person's name appears in their stories. After everyone has turned in a real life story, I divide the class into groups and give each group a story to work into a performance.
When they present their stories, the audience discusses what they witnessed and offer suggestions for changes. The group immediately goes back onto the stage and tries out the suggested changes and a final discussion allows all to come to some conclusions.
I have been videotaping the group work and the audience responses. I will need to do a great deal of follow up work on this project to attempt to see if the work has any effect on decreasing bullying among these students.
I am almost finished with the second exploratory group. Each time I do the project, I learn more and gain more insight into the process and the effect it is having upon the students. I will report more as the year goes on.
The concept is that true life situations are acted out for an audience. The situations are problems faced by the participants. It could be discrimination in the workplace, sexism or racism in daily life and so on. Once the situation is played out, the audience can suggest ways to change the scenario. The scene is then replayed based upon audience suggestions.
Thus different actions lead to other outcomes. This can have an empowering effect upon both players and audience. Instead of feeling helpless in the face of a sexist boss or a racist landlord, tactics to deal with such people are developed through the use of theatre.
The latest hot topic in education these days is how to deal with bullying. There is a new state law in Ohio that mandates all incidents of bullying are reported by the teachers and administrators and specific steps are then taken in dealing with the situation.
I have implemented a Reality Theatre project for all my 5th grade exploratory classes this year. The students in a 9 week class that meets four days per week. The basics of drama are "explored" during class time, generally culminating in some kind of class project.
After four weeks of various theatre exercises and explorations in collaborative improvisation, I ask the student to write individual accounts of bullying they actually witnessed either as participants or observers. They must change the names of the characters so that no actual person's name appears in their stories. After everyone has turned in a real life story, I divide the class into groups and give each group a story to work into a performance.
When they present their stories, the audience discusses what they witnessed and offer suggestions for changes. The group immediately goes back onto the stage and tries out the suggested changes and a final discussion allows all to come to some conclusions.
I have been videotaping the group work and the audience responses. I will need to do a great deal of follow up work on this project to attempt to see if the work has any effect on decreasing bullying among these students.
I am almost finished with the second exploratory group. Each time I do the project, I learn more and gain more insight into the process and the effect it is having upon the students. I will report more as the year goes on.
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