Performing poetry

I'm counting on Shel Silverstein's poetry to make tomorrow fun for the kids, while I put them through the torture of cold readings. In order to get a baseline starting point for voice work, I will give them each a different short Silverstein poem to read on stage before the rest of the class and the digital camcorder.

I'd like to get through the class twice. The first time, I hand them the poem as they go up to the stage. The second time, they will have had the poem in hand for the duration of the class, so we will see if going over it in the mind leads to improvement.

I picked some slightly longer/more difficult poems to give to the 7 drama students in this class. The way they approach their poems may very well provide modeling for the rest of the class -- we shall see what happens.

On Friday, we'll do the same thing with a group poem, recording the first read through, then work it for the period and record it after one session. Eventually, the students will be working out actions to their solo poems and the group poems with a goal of performing them before the entire school during our morning auditorium time.

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.