Kristy #10

I think that my favorite word when it comes to Student Centered Learning is OWNERSHIP. I think that the word ownership perfectly encompasses what student centered learning is all about. Ownership is handing it over to the students giving them charge and responsibility. YET I love that there was focus in this reading about how even though the students do have this ownership in the classroom the role of the teacher is not a peer or a friend, but the teacher still acts as the responsible adult in the classroom, its not student-lead or child –driven, but learner-centered, and this is understood by all, and that is what ownership encompasses, the actual investment of the student. This is what kind of classroom I would like to have, implementing a student centered learning classroom where the students can have ownership in the things that they do and not think its “dumb” or a “waste of time” or “something that they HAVE to do”.

Student Centered Learning

One the most memorable lessons that I have ever had in the McKay School of Education came in a class when the teacher said, "Some days, your lesson plan will simply be to make it through the damn day." Now, while that is a good sound observation and advice, it seems like there are definitely better ways to do things.
As a future teacher, it seems like there times when my desire for my own schooling is about the same as that for a struggle teacher-- just to make it through the darn day-- the thought of teaching my own class at 110% every lesson does seem to be a bit daunting, but then the thought of not giving my all seems even worse.
Given the ideas of student centered learning, it seems fit then, that my goal every day, despite personal struggles or challenges with teaching, should be to make sure that the students are the center of the teaching. All of us have been in classes where the teacher doesn't seem to be concerned with the students-- but instead has other things on their mind, or is distracted, or doesn't seem to care what goes on the classroom. For me, student centered learning means that I am doing my best to make sure that the students are not only understanding the concepts I am teaching but WHY I'm teaching them. Students know when they are the center of the classroom, when the teacher actually cares and the environment is one that is ready to cultivate education and real learning. Students also know when the teacher is passionate about what is being taught. My hope is that my students will be able to tell the difference between my classroom and others that they are in; they will will be able to recognize that my classroom is one where they are valued.

Briana's Response # 12

Student centered learning is something that seems like it should be inherent in all the teaching we do. What kind of teacher teaches for the benefit of themselves? In my opinion, that's just an excuse for not being able to do something the person wanted to do. Something I want to make sure I do when I'm teaching is not include myself and my own personal involvement in the activities too much. If I'm the one doing the activity and the kids are simply watching, then they're aren't the one's learning and it means I'm not teaching. The students need to be involved in everything, giving answers, participating and giving any kind of information they can. In my future classroom, I want to do continual assessments from the students in order to make sure their learning is actually happening and I don't just think it is. That's one of the biggest problems I see myself having. By checking the students, I can make sure their learning comes first.

Student Learning

One of the most important things in the classroom is that the students are in charge of their learning, they're motivated to learn, and the teacher has placed them first. I know sometimes I tend to think of myself when teaching. I'm the teacher. I have the lesson plan. I know where we're going in the unit. I know about theatre and what is good and what isn't. I learn this way so that's how we're all going to learn. But instead of thinking about me as the teacher, I should be thinking about the students and always monitoring whether they are learning and are excited about learning. Student-centered learning has to be a the forefront of everything that is done. Lessons should be changed to fit how the students are learning and at the pace they learn. When I learned about this concept I thought back to my drama teacher, and I have gained more and more respect for him because at how well he had planned his class. Everything we did was beneficial to us and we enjoyed what we were doing. Because we enjoyed it we were motivated to do more and learn more. Even the students who did nothing in other classes put forth effort in his class because they wanted to. Additionally, it was a teacher-student environment, it was a student-student environment. Students worked with each other on their work, on their projects, and if they didn't pull their own weight, other students learned really quick not to work with them. Everything was centered around the student and they're learning. To put this structure and environment in my classroom I want to really critically think about the work we do and if it is completely beneficial to the students. Also, making sure they are active, mentally and physically in the activities they do.

Kirsten--Student Centered Learning

I really like how in this chapter they called it Learner-Centered Practice. I thought it was great how they discussed that the teacher is there to be the responsible adult but the students are also there to ask questions, lead discussions, and shape the learning opportunities. Building that relationship with the students as a teacher is so important. It is so important because it "...creates an atmosphere of mutual trust, openness, risk-taking, and problem solving." In my classroom the relationship I have with my students will be so important. I want them to feel comfortable enough to take risks. I want them to feel that I am there for them. But also I want them to know that they need to work hard. THey need to be able to push themselves and find the inspiration they have inside. I am not going to be an easy teacher, I want my studetns to learn and to grow, knowing that I am there to aid them along the way. Going back to the idea that the students are the one that can also ask questions and inspire where the teaching goes. Each class is different and I want to be flexable enough that I can allow myself to listen and go where the students need me to go. Just by listening you will be inspired where to take the lesson to teach them the most valuable information.

Heather- Student Centered Learning

One of my favorite parts of the chapter; something that really just hit me, and sparked my thinking, was the quote that said “The best starting point for school is young people’s real interests; all across the curriculum, investigating students’ own questions should always take precedence over studying arbitrarily and distantly selected ‘content’”. I love this! This is the way I want to implement student centered learning. I have realized that I, as the teacher, should choose a course of study for my class to take, but what we end up learning from those different units of study is up to the questions my students have and the direction they are interested in taking. The example of the study of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ is perfect. I was thinking, there are so many different ways to go with the study of that play, but rather than the teacher choosing the way she wants to implement the play, why not see where the students’ interests and questions take it, and then mold the future lessons and activates around them? Student centered learning will be my future classroom. There is no question in my mind that I learned more fully when I was a participant in student centered learning. It’s wonderful for the teacher to love and feel passionate about the subject, but it means nothing in a classroom where the students feel nothing for what they are learning; it means nothing in a classroom where students’ questions are not being explored and answered. It will be my goal to always assess where the students are at, let them ask questions, and then let those question shape where our lessons go, and what the real goal of the units becomes.

Instruction and Activity

This is a very hard. In our 2ndth day there, our lessons was teaching them about how to select and cut a monologue. How do you do this without having the majority of our lesson be sitting down at the desk? But then again, does doing so many activities allow them to really understand what is neccessary in how to cut a monologue. It was a hard thing to rivel with. We decided on doing much of the lesson monologue cutting together as a group, leading it as a discussion rather than a teacher lecture. By doing it as a discussion, we were able to ask the students, "Why do you think its ok to cut this sentense?", "What is neccessary in a monologue? Why?", and "What is this characters motivations?" It was a really intersting discussion. On another day we discussed Objectives and Tactics. We again were frought with activities vs lecture. Which is most benificial. We felt it most important for our class to do the pb&j hook then have them create objectives for their monologue and to work on it with us there to help them individual if needed. In another lesson we discussed movement in a monologue and got intune with our bodies. That was another lesson but we had a different problem, did we have to much activity and not enough instruction. It turned out ok but I still wonder if that for each of these lessons there was something else we could have done to make it more meaningful and a better balance of the two.

Student -Centered Learning

Our first meeting with Bradley led to some interesting discoveries. He told us that we needed to push these students but also start with the basics. They needed to know how to cut a monologue, how to select one, and how to perform one. He also didnt know if they needed to be taught about resumes, which we discovered they did need to learn about. All of these little understandings allowed us to help each student understand what is needed to have a successful audition. It was also amazing that our class was only 8 students. Because of this, each of us was able to have the opportunity to work one on one with each of the students and help them make discoveries. It also was nice because we were able to give them each personalized feedback and take time with them on their presentation of their monologues. I felt I know each of them and know what I can do to help them create a good audition. I feel like this is so important to have because without know how to connect and teach to your sepecific students can be a real disadvantage for them.

Lesson Planning

The first thing to discuss is how frustrating lesson planning can be but also how great it can be. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with a couple of great women and we have made some great lessons that have gone on without a hitch. It was nice to feel confindent with them and to know that our lessons were productive and effective. What I have learned most about lesson plans is that it is great to plan out the lesson and know it well enough that you can flow from one section to the next. THe other great thing is that if you know your lesson well enough then you can ad lib and play with it a bit. Its nice to see that a suggested topic by one of the students may be more benifical for them to discover and that can lead to a very impactful lesson. SO you can take the opportunity to see the different options you have and flow with it. I see it like surfing on a wave. You need the skills, background, and plan to get up on top, but just allowing it to push you ahead is the way to manover around it. On our first day and even into our second, we didnt know how long it would take for each lesson. We found ourselves running short but we were able to ad lib and catch ourselves. We recovered with another activity that supported our topic and lesson plan. It was great

Student Centered Learning

I want my classroom to be student centered in every way. Not that the students feel like they can run everything and walk all over me. But in the sense that they know that I know them, and that they know they will stretch and grow in my class room. I want them to interact with each other and have a sense of trust and understanding with each other as students. I want them to take ownership of their education. As a teacher I want to know the needs of all of my students and have the constant goal for each one to reach a measure of success. I wonder about how I am supposed to not focus on the administration and just the students. I know that there will be quotas I have to reach and parents who think that they know better. So I think that keeping students in mind will be easy in theory and I don't want to get distracted by what outside people are saying. I will implement student teaching moments where they are able to share their knowledge with each other and group learning so that they are able to learn collaboration with each other.

Assessing Theatre Students

This is an interesting topic. We are doing a monologue unit and their final assessment is the preformance of their monologues. It is hard because we have had little assignments aiding the students overall performance and many of them have not done those assignments. Its hard because we had 1 person turn in a paper we assignmed but she was the only one. Do we just discontinue the assignment because it wasnt clear, or do we give everyone a zero. We have to decide as a group but we untimatly said they need a zero on that assignment. It hopefully will get them to think about it. It is intersteing to with this experience because it is not your classroom you have to work with the teacher because his system may be different and it is hard to think about how you want it to work in their classroom. But it all works out in the end.

We will be going to do our final assessment of their monologues this next friday and we hope that they do a good job with their monologues. We are choosing to assess them on each of the items we discussed in class. Giving them the rubric will hopefully help them to know exactly what to work on to have a great performance. It is also great to see them work on something that they will be using in the future as they get ready to audition for different colleges.

Teaching Day Six

This final day of teaching was very interesting. The assignment for each group was to write a 10 minute play, which would roughly be 10 typed pages. We wanted them to be finished with enough time to hear each group read their play. When we saw they needed more time we gave it to them. But at the end of the class three of the four groups were done with their scripts and one even had time to read theirs for the class. The one group that didn't finish only had 3 pages to their script. And it was frustrating to me as the teacher because I kept thinking 'why didn't think group succeed?' We went and talked to them at different times to give them ideas to move the plot along and we had them act out plot points to give them dialogue. But they still only had three pages. I would like to know what to do in those situations when you see that it was obviously possible for the other groups to finish the task, but for some reason one group couldn't finish it. For it to be student centered I need to be aware of all the students, but I don't know what this group needed different to be able to complete the task.

Contextual factors

The first day we went to teach at Maple Mountain, we were not astonished to see all caucasian students. The difference was that you could tell each student had their own story and their own life. In our 2nd day of teaching we were talking about objectives and tactics in a monologue. We started by having someone tell a story from their own life with a strong emotion. They told and embarissing story. After that we had each of them write a personal monologue with a strong emotion. They were to talk to that person in the audience. Each student came up and had a touching experience to express. IT was increadable to hear their stories. It made me realise that some of these students were dealing with sucide of a parent, a father leaving, hatred for a sibling, love for a good friend, etc. Once they all expressed these impactful moments, I had a new insite on them and what each person was dealing with. Numbers from the website didnt help me, but taking what I learned from each student did. I was able to talk with them differently, and knew how to apporach them with different topics about assignments, performances, etc. It changed me a lot.

Teaching Day Five

Today we had a warmup activity and then let the students use the rest of the time typing on laptops their script. We were able to check out four lap tops from the BYU library for the students to use! It was such a good idea because they worked harder having a computer to use and they were able to collaborate more. I think it was a good use of technology that furthered their progress in writing their play. For student centered learning there was one student who said he was able to think better when he had his ipod earphones in and so I let him keep one in one ear. And he did work better and was able to come up with more ideas. I think that as a teacher to be aware of the students needs is important and know that the same thing won't work for every student. I wondered what activities we could have done to give them more energy back so that they didn't feel drained from writing and thinking at the end of the period. That's something I'll add to this unit in the future.

Teaching Day Four

We discussed dialogue today and talked about the format of scripts and what makes dialogue interesting to read. We did a good activity with them on the board that got them all engaged in what the discussion was about. They thought about the contextual factors of plays and what makes them different from novels. They also realized the audience only knows what you choose to tell them. We talked about word choice and I think they were surprised by themselves at what they already knew. I think sometimes we don't know how much we know until we're asked to explain it. We asked them to start writing their scripts in their groups and they were off to a good start. Mrs. Foster had said that the students hate playwrighting but I think it was because they felt so much pressure to make a play. Since they were in groups of three to four people they were each able to contribute ideas and be able to forward the process along. Today was a good balance between instruction and activity because some of our beginning activities were also instructing them how to write for the latter part of the class. They are starting to treat us like teachers, which is a very odd feeling for me, but I'll get used to it!

Teaching Day Three

I loved teaching today! We talked about characters and how they can build characters and today I felt like the lesson plan just built perfectly off each point. We had them write a monologue at the end of class as their character. The monologue also served as an assessment to make sure they did it. But when they did their monologues some of them were stumped and wondering what to write. So I reminded them of the activity that we did of tablos for their new perspective of their story and it went awesome. I told them to think of a tablo that their character was a big part of and then write how they felt about it. I was thinking, man, I would like to feel this was after every lesson plan. I think one thing we are getting better at is gaging how long an activity will actually take. One thing I'd like to keep in mind for all my lesson plans is what activities to do if there is extra time. Like games or discussions that will build on the lesson so they don't just sit around the last 5 minutes of class. I think that will help students know that as the teacher I value their time in my class and want them to always be learning and exploring. Today we didn't need the extra activities because they all stayed on task and we were able to accomplish all that we wanted them to do. And the monologues will later be put in their full length script so they already have a starting point for most of the characters!

Texts and Literacy

We were planning on teaching the students about Resumes. I wanted them to look at resumes and headshots. From this they were to discuss what makes a good resume and a bad resume. It opened a great discussion and lead to some really interesting insites. It was also good because that day we did performances. We used those as the text that day and gave oral feedback to the students. It was great because we were able to use the text and create meaning more than just text book answers.

Teaching Day Two

I learned so much from todays lesson about classroom management! And what to do when some students get done 10 minutes before other students on a project. It was a huge learning day. We took them to the library to pick out a fairy tale story for their script. When you get students in a new environment they act completely different. I feel like once we got them back to their class they were much more focused and willing to listen to us. I think I am learning the balance between instruction and activity. Many activities need to be explained before they get broken into groups. And I think because in so many classes I hear not to spend so much time lecturing I get worried that they are going to get bored. I think that as I teach more and more I will be able to know what the balance is between instruction and activities. I want them to put to use the knowledge that they have, but first I want to teach them to make sure they know it. Another thing I struggle with is knowing what they do know and what they don't, because I've only met them one time before this lesson. I just want them to benefit from being in my classroom, and for their knowledge to increase.

Teaching

Our first lesson we really wanted to get to know every students name in the class. We wanted them to learn plot structure, the terms and be able to identify them in a story. We used a lot of student centered learning where we were close to the students and they were all interacting in different groups. You could see them engaged, and when someone mentally checked out you were able to bring them back. One moment that stuck out to me was when we were in a circle on the floor and they were coming up with new definitions for exposition, rising action, etc. they were each working in their pairs and we were right there to answer their questions. I feel like they knew that their opinion mattered. Then the pairs taught the definition to the rest of the class so they were able to teach their concept. I feel like this activity also helped with their literacies in the classroom to know what we are refering to throughout the playwriting unit and that they knew they understood what was being asked of them. I really want them to be confident in their abilities in this whole process.

Krystle's 15th Post

I want student centered learning to be a large part of my future classroom. I feel that students learn so much more when they are taking an active role in it. Because I know that when I am participating and actually doing I remember better and I actually care. It's important to make sure that activities are various so that you can reach not only the students that work better in groups but also those that work best individually. I really liked the quote at the beginning of the reading by Lisa Delpit, "The teacher cannot be the only expert in the classroom. To deny students their own expert knowledge is to disempower them." I think that this is so true even though I hadn't really thought of it that way before. I want a classroom full of experts not just me. I feel that to allow the students to be experts gives them a voice and a place to share it. In the reading there was the example of the teacher not having the student raise their hand to give feddback and rather just talking when no one else is talking. I think that this really does give the power back to the students because then the teacher isn't dictating who is and isn't speaking. When I think back I can remember that being what we did in drama but I hadn't thought about what it does for the students. I agree with it giving more freedom to the students and giving them a sense of control in their learning.

Post Teaching #1-Elisabeth

The concept of student-centered learning is something that we talked a lot about in 276 with George. But some things have occured to me as I've gotten further into the major. First, the abount of ownership that students are given needs to correspond with their abilities. That may seem obvious, but if students who are very new to theatre are given an assignment that an advanced class might be given without the literacy that advanced students have, they will either panic and not do it, or try to do it, but fail because they simply don't have the necessary literacy. The same is true of advanced students. I've seen teachers who refuse to allow very compitant students any type of ownership, and lose the respect and attention of their students. Ownership is not the same for each class, or even for each student. It is easy for teachers to set a cirriculum and keep it, instead of adapting it to students needs and capabilites.
The words student-centered learning also make me think of something else. Currently I am a TA for 114, I have a student who has missed a lot of class for family reasons, and is asking for extra credit options. On the one hand, some would say that others have been doing the work on time and have been in class, and so it is unfair to give this student extra help when he has not been doing what other students have been. But on the other hand, what does everyone else have to do with this one student. Student-centered learning also means, at least to me, working with the individaul student to make sure their needs are met. If that means special help, then that is what happens in many cases. Obviously there is a method to this, and you can't just give out good greades to everyone if they didn't earn them, but you can work with students who need extra help without it having a negative effect on the rest of the class.

Day 6 of Teaching - Krystle

Monday was our last day of teaching. Can I just say that I really enjoyed it. It made me super excited to have my own classroom and be teaching all of the time. The main goal of this post is to talk about assessing theatre students. *sigh Where to start? I'll start by talking about my assessing experience at Maple Mountain High. Monday was their first preview day. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but it worked. You see the day that we were supposed to hand the rubrics out the class was cancelled and so we were left to hand them out the day of the preview. We figured that was better than not giving them at all. For me it was more of a memorization check than an actually preview considering that only one student was completely memorized. Granted we only had 8 students but it was a little sad that only one seemed to take what we were doing seriously. In the end rather than holding the students to what we had intended we gave scores based more on preparedness rather than audition ready. I think that when it comes to assessing theatre students we are a little more lenient than we are in other classes. I think that we care that the students learns but we care more about their growth than their abilities. I don't think this is a bad thing though. I think that it's good to hold a high standard but you have to know where to draw the line. Theatre shouldn't be just about fun and games. It needs to be about growth and knowledge. I think that it comes down to preparing your students for what you're assessing them for.

Day 5 - Krystle

Well we weren't able to go and teach today but I'm going to blog about applying texts and literacies in the theatre classroom. When I think about this I think about all of the possibilities that we have as theatre teachers. We have so much right at our fingertips but I don't think that we necessarily think of them as texts and literacies. At least I know that I didn't. I think that one of our greatest and most commonly used text is the body. It's the one that does everything, from moving to speaking. It has the ability to convey more meaning that just about anything because of how versatile it is. How we use it is the literacy. It's understanding the purpose and how we can use it. Thinking of texts in a theatre perspective is very different than just thinking of texts in general. My perspective on what I consider a text and literacy has changed because I now look at texts as a broader option rather than limiting to just books and printed texts.

Briana's Response #11

Contextual factors is never something I really thought about. Well, what I mean to say is that I thought about it but it was something that I did inherently without realizing that what I was thinking about were actually contextual factors. One of the biggest ones that I've come to make plans for in our teaching at Springville high school has been the fact that our students very much like to talk to one another. There are certain students who will continually chat if you let them be near one another. This is something I've had to think about and I've definitely used the teacher proximity to try and diminish the amount of talking that goes on while we're teaching. Another thing, and this may be because of the teacher's work environment or for some other reason, is we have many students who miss numerous days of class and are therefore behind in work and difficult to work with in groups. I never thought about having to deal with something like that. It's a big problem, especially for those students who are in groups with them. But this is something that needs to be taken into account when putting students in groups or doing assignements.

Briana's Response #10

For our unit at Springville high school we're doing a small overview of theatre history. The students were broken up into groups and then assigned a genre and playwright to do a group presentation on, and a scene from the playwright's most popular work. I thought these outcomes were a very good way of applying texts and literacies in different ways. We gave them each a packet with information on their genre and playwright and they were assigned to make an outline of that packet with specific categories for the playwright's life, style and works. This assignment helped us to gauge their understanding just from a reading and to see their literacy in reading a text book and looking for specific information. Then they had to find their own three sources on the internet for their research presentation. This was also a form of literacy they were accustomed to. Their performances, however, are a form of literacy that shows their understanding of their topic that they've researched and then put into a practical situation. That literacy is something that will continually be used in a theatre setting and is very important.

Briana's Response #9

Shall we talk about lesson planning? I think that might be one of the easier things for me to do when it comes to teaching. Well, in a sense. I usually know what it is I want the end goal of the day to be, and I know exactly what things need to be done for the entire unit. From there it is simply a matter of figuring out what order to place activities in so that the whole unit builds on itself. One of my biggest concerns for our unit while doing our teaching at Springville high school these past couple weeks was that we weren't putting enough teaching moments into our lesson plans. But I've realized that teaching theatre is a completely different ball game than any other teaching area. Students are going to need time to work on their scenes and to memorize lines and such, and during those times the teacher is going to have a lot of down time. This time doesn't have to be spent just sitting in the office or at a desk, it can be used productively and therefore become a teaching moment for the entire class. I think another thing that is important about lesson planning is being flexible. The plan is not always going to work the way that you wrote it out, so we have to be willing to change it up a little bit. Go with instincts, as long as their helpful and productive.

Kristy #9

Teaching Day #5
We had quite the day teaching today. Multiple reasons it was not the best day teaching...The day before Thanksgiving break...HAHA! yeah right I think that the kids were all already on vacation mentally! but they actually did pretty good regardless.
It was a work day today for the students to work on their scenes. So there was a lot of work to do keeping them on task and helping out different groups.
TIP: if you have a group of 30 teenagers and they aren't listening. Yell out 1-2-3 EYES ON ME! ...works with 4th graders, works with teenagers! haha! (the only thing is the 4th graders know to yell back 1-2 EYES ON YOU!)
sad moment of the day: there is a young women in our class that is part of a special ed program and she has an aid that is always in class with her. She leaves early a lot or doesn't come to class at all. Today her group was working on their scene and she was sitting there saying that she couldn't say the words right. I told her, its okay they are hard words but you can do it! she said, but no, I am special ed. I told her- no you can do it! I was really sad that she uses that status as a crutch. There are a lot of other students with much worse disabilities than she had that can do it. so it think that it is really important to make sure that you know your students situations 1 on 1, so that you can best determine what they really can and cant do, so that they don't over use their excuse of being special ed.

Thinking about contextual factors in the theatre setting, Teaching Day 6

It's done! I can't believe it. It went by very fast. I wonder if it would have seemed a lot longer if I had to teach everyday... I have learned a lot. Probably one of the biggest things I've learned is how to better teach the unit we taught: playwriting. I've seen things that work, and I've seen a lot of things that I'd like to change. I also realized that I think I'm more prepared for teaching than I thought. There's still a lot of things I need to figure out, but I think I'll be ok. Frankly, the entire time I was teaching, I couldn't help feel that this was just "fake pretend", that they were just letting us practice. So I’m excited to get my own class.
As far as today, honestly it was kind of slow...Because they didn't finish their scripts as early as we thought they would, we had to give them the entire period to finish up. We wanted to make sure we weren't disrupting their flow of thought and so our intervention was minimal. In fact, I think I spent a total of 10 minutes talking to students. The rest of the time we were just sitting on the side.
Regarding contextual factors though, I was reminded of the economic status of many of the students. One group was not able to finish in time and so assuming they all had internet/computers, we told them we’d email their script to them and they could work on it over the break. One of the students however, did not have internet. Fortunately we were able to print out the script for her; but it was still a good reminder for me to remember contextual factors that I learn and observe such as resources students have (and do not have) access to.

blog 6

Thinking About Contextual Factors in the Theater Setting
I found that it is hard to think about contextual factors without being in the class. I felt like I did alot of preparation and worrying for things that did not happen. There were not alot of problems students may have and I think the most importaint thing is to be able to adapt to each classrooms needs. We had some students that were from different countrys and things but none that really needed accomidations. The biggest accomidation we did was to remind them to pay attention alot.

blog 5

Applying Text and Literacy’s in the Theater Classroom
It is amazing how many Texts and Literacy's are applied in each class of theater. For example, we use the body, voice, and a basic lesson plan to help the students to express themselves creativly. They create their own texts by combining whichever text we are using from the lesson plan and themselves. We also had the students create their own scripts. This helped the students relate to the shows they preformed. It is easy to apply text and literacy to theater because it is inherent in theater.

Teaching Post 6-Elisabeth

1. Applying texts and literacies in the theatre classroom
This whole concept of texts and literacy still confuses me, mostly because I feel we are applying new words to old concepts. But in our lessons, we used the body as a text, and treated it as such. We explored the different ways its can move, specifically explored different body parts, and how all of these things can express emotion. These lessons were geared towards teaching literacy in the human body on stage.
Honestly, I did not think about literacy that much, because that word means something else in my head. Instead I was thinking more about words like understanding, exploration, and connection of ideas. I do not understand how text and literacy is any different then students understanding the material you are discussing, and being able to connect previous knowledge and activities to what is presently being done. In my mind, that is what teaching is, so I simply don't understand why this is a new concept. It feels like a new name, a name that has other connotations in teaching being assigned to a new concept, and I find it confusing.

Teaching Post 5-Elisabeth

5. Student-centered learning
I've discovered that there is a fine line between listening to students concerns, and listening to them complain. Because we were unfamiliar with the classroom setting, we did things that they did not feel comfortable with. I can think of 2 examples, one where I believe student input was valid, and another when it was not as applicable. We gave a time limit on their scenes that was 2 minutes longer than they were used to. The entire class got very stressed out. We could tell that this was real fear; that we were asking them to do something they were not prepared to do, especially in the time they were given. So we adjusted the time limit, after listening to student input. On the same day, we assigned them to groups to write in. Again, everyone got very upset when we wouldn't let them choose their own groups. They asked that they be allowed to choose. But we had noticed that there were students who were totally distracted when they were together, and a new student in the class who did not really know anyone. So in this case we kept the groups we had assigned, because it would in fact be better for their working environment. Both choices were made to benefit the students, and allow them to succeed in what we asked of them. But one took in student input for the value it had, and the other decided that in this case student learning would be better aided if we did not give in to them.

Megan's Response: Student Centered Post #13

I made some comments on my last teaching post about student centered learning, but now I get to go further with my discussion. In my years as being a student I loved and had great respect for those teachers that actually taught and cared about the students. As a teacher I hope to be like this. Some strategies for student centered learning that I want to implement in my future classroom are to be flexible. I think it is great to have an outline of a lesson plan, but I have to be able to move in a different direction or take more time on something if I need to. I also think asking about previous experience really helps cater your lessons to the students. Whether I ask them questions or fill out a survey or other activities to assess their experience I will be able to learn from them and plan around that. I also want to get to know my students. I had experience with that while I was teaching and choreographing at Bradley’s school. The kids listen so much better when you call them by name and look them in the eye. If you talk to them directly they will respond. There are some students that won’t respond to you no matter what you say, but you can keep trying. In my future classroom the students will be the center, they will be the function of every lesson. I want them to have a better drama experience than I did in high school. I want to expose them to many different art forms and different techniques so they are well rounded and feel more ready for college. I want my students to succeed and I am going to do the best that I can to make sure that happens!

Megan's Teaching Day #6

Today was our last day teaching! It was a great experience. Today was the preview of their performance for monologues. I have never seen a unit all the way through. It was great to be able to there from start to finish. I have learned many things during this process, but I would like to comment on student centered learning. Some of the time we had followed our lesson plan exactly as it was outlined, but most of the time we had to switch it up due to the students. This way we catered our lessons to the students. I am glad that we were flexible so that we could change things for the students. Teaching really is all about the students. From my past experience just teaching 1 or 2 days there isn’t much experience with that because you are there only one day then you leave, but being able to be there for 3 weeks was amazing. We got to know the students, helped them and were able to cater our lessons to them. They are really smart and move really fast through things, so we had to bring more material. We were able to give them constructive feedback on their monologues. I wish that we would have been able to provide more resources for them to succeed. For example, give them their rubric sooner for the final performance, give them a schedule so they know what is going on, and give instructions better. This way the students have all the resources they need to succeed!

Student Centered Learing

Student Centered Learning
We learned early on that it is very important to center the lessons around the students. Our lesson plans were moving the students to quickly through the unit. They were not retaining what we taught them or having time to complete the activities. After the second lesson we decided to take out a lesson and have some more review and practice time. It worked out really well to give them that time because it helped them retain what we were teaching them and allowed them to be able to integrate it into their final projects. We also needed some extra time for practice and because we had skipped a whole lesson we had time to give extra days. However, also because we had Tuesday that we didn’t think we were teaching we even had a chance to introduce stage combat with comedic styled falls and running into walls like we wanted to do for the lesson we skipped. Because we worked really hard, paid attention to the students, and were willing to put in a little more work revising lesson plans things went really well and the students liked us and learned a lot.

Lesson Planning

Lesson Planning
The more I teach the more I realize how important it is to have exact lesson plans. Especially when we are teaching in groups. We have run across some frustrations when it has not been clearly defined in the plan what to do or who is teaching. It is especially important to put in them who is teaching when creating a lesson plan for a group to teach because the teachers can look over their parts before hand and ask any questions they want. This way if someone doesn’t understand something the can talk about how to do it ahead of time providing a more time efficient class and also showing the students that we are united as their teachers.
It is also important to include in the lesson plan the rubric and expectations so that the teachers are also unified in telling the students what the requirements are. It has been difficult for the students to sometimes understand what we wanted because if they have a question and ask one teacher and the other group asks the same question to a different teacher both of the groups got different answers. Creating two different rubrics and a lot of confusion. It is best for the teacher preparing the lesson to be specific and also if there are questions that the teachers didn’t think to discuss have the students go ask the teacher that prepared the lesson or lead the discussion, whichever the group prefers ( just make sure you choose one), and have the questions answered by that teacher. This helps with the confusion of the teachers and students.

Balancing Instructions and Activity

Balancing Instructions and Activity
Balancing the instructions and activities are hard. I think where they really grow and learn are the activities so I want to do a lot of them. On the other hand it is important that the students know when and how to use each of the techniques they apply in the games, which is where the instruction comes in. We have found the balance between activities and instruction usually is in having more time for activities but explaining the importance of the activity before we do it for a couple of minutes and asking the students how it applies to acting and life after. These breaks of instruction also help the students focus and have a break to breath preparing them for the next part of the activity. We also get to see the students progress faster than when we were when we were having them do a few activities right in a row. I think because they understand the importance of the activities and the things they are learning from them, they are more willing to fully participate. Also giving them the instruction between activities makes it easier for them to remember everything because it is less overwhelming. This is the best way I have found to balance instruction and activity so far and it seems to be working great.

Assessing Theater Students

Assessing Theater Students
Assessing theater students is easier than I would have thought originally. I thought it would be hard because it is hard to tell how much natural talent a student has and grade them according to them improving. However, it is easier to tell if someone is trying then I thought it would be. They give off the kinds of feelings like they are embarrassed or nervous, which I have found out in Jr. High students most times that means they laugh and giggle. They also get excited and jumpy. If someone was not trying they seem to be more distant and find the activity boring. They sit in their spot with their eyes glazed over and don’t really talk. It is also easier to assess the students when they are not with their friends. When they are not with friends they are focusing more on what they are doing intrinsically and work harder. They also get more nervous and are more afraid of taking risks. Hopefully by the end of the class they let go of this fear and are able to embrace the activity. Each of the students improve on the new activity in every class and it is easy to see where they started and where they ended that day. And through that you can see if they were applying themselves. I also see the importance of written out assessment sheets so the students have clear expectations and know what we want to see the improve on, and also so the parents can see what we grade on because they are not in class and cannot see the students development as easily.

Teaching Post 4-Elisabeth

6. Balancing Instruction and Activity
Jr. High students are squirrely. I really don’t know how else to put it. It is difficult to get them to listen to verbal instruction for any length of time. The best way we found was to stagger activity and instruction. On our first and second days, there was a lot of verbal instruction, because of some unforseem problems. By the time we got to the end, kids were practically bouncing out of their seats. But once we got them on their feet and doing things, they were ok. They were able to focus (mostly) when we finished the activity and discussed it. Another thing I noticed is that modeling as well as giving verbal instructions keeps students more engaged, and makes it more clear what you are expecting. Once concern that I had was the amount of activity compared to instruction. We had a lot of activity, but I was unsure if it was clear from the verbal instruction why we were doing all of the activities.

Teaching Post 3-Elisabeth

4. Lesson planning
One of the most important things that I’ve learned about lessons planning is not to be too rigid in what you do. What I mean by that is don’t assume that you know how long activities will take. We’ve had a few lessons where we got a little bit earlier than we thought we wouold, and didn’t have another activity planned, so we were scrambling. So we’ve learned always to have one more activity planned than you think you’re going to get to. We’ve also had lessons that take longer than we thought they would. Because we are under a time limit with this unit, we often had to keep moving even though we didn’t get done with everything. It would have been nice not to nessisarly plan every day out, but to plan out what you want done in a unit, with a general sense of how long you have to teach it. That way, you can move through it without being as concerned with getting everything done in one day. You still have time constraints, but your movement within that time is easier.

Teaching Post 2-Elisabeth

3. Assessing theatre students.
Assessing understanding seems almost easier in a theatre class than more “academic classes.” Theatre classes are very activity based, so you can often see if they are understanding what you are working on simply by watching them as they work. So as you do activities, there is a lot of informal assessment. One thing I’ve noticed with jr. high students though is that they have a lot of trouble fully committing to what they are doing. You see them do something brilliant for a second, but then they realize that people are watching them and stop doing it. Even when they are performing for a formal assessment, they are still acutely aware of the fact that they are being watched and might look silly. So you have to watch them closely to see if they are understanding, to catch the moments they forget they are being watched. That's easier to do with three of us in the room, but it will be harder when I'm the only teacher. And then there’s trying to find a way to get them past that fear, but that goes under a different section.

Teaching Post 1-Elisabeth

2. Thinking about contextual factors in the theatre setting.
There is one girl in the class that Miss Hollie told us about. She doesn’t like to perform. From what she told us, and what I observed, I think she would be classified as LD. So a lot of the activities we did that the other studetnts caught onto quickly, she struggled with. Also, her fear of being watched and looking silly is more intense than that of her peers, and that is pretty intense considering most jr. high students are afraid of looking silly. Often during activities, I noticed that she was really concerned about doing it right, and often preferred not to do the activity in order to not feel silly. Because there were three of us teaching, I could take the time to walk her through things a little more slowly, and do it with her so she felt less silly. In a class where I was the only teacher, if there are students who don’t understand as easily or quickly, that is something that needs to be addressed, or that student may just give up and get little out of the class.

Heather's Teaching- Post 6

It has been good for me to start looking at my lessons in terms of texts and literacies. I’m still not sure if I’ve fully wrapped my head around the concepts, but I’m surely getting better! When you look at everything you use in the theatre classroom as a text, things change! Everything has more you can do with it, more you can learn from it, and more you can teach with it. I think for me as a teacher, when I sit down to write a lesson plan, I need to think of everything I’m using to teach first, then I need to think of how I can use that to enhance my lesson even further. I think when I look at my lessons in terms of texts and literacies worlds of ideas will open up and my students will get so much more out of their learning experiences. When you look at everything as a text, and then find ways to explore and understand it, there are millions of possibilities. It’s really rather exciting. We’ve been trying to do this with our playwriting unit, and I think it has really helped us. When I look at our activities as a text that can be explored and learned from, rather than just a ‘hook’ there is so much to teach, there is so much for the students to understand, and there is so much more to have fun with. As I continue to think about and grasp the concept of texts and literacies, I think my classroom will become a more rewarding place and I will become a better teacher.

Heather's Teaching- Post 5

It has been an interesting experience for me to observe the students in light of the contextual factors our teacher gave us at the beginning of this process. From her explanation of her students, and the general student population at the school, I expected to meet a group of students with low self confidence and attitude problems. This is almost the opposite of what I’ve found in my students at Spanish Fork. What I learned from this is that although it is important to be aware of the contextual factors surrounding your students and your school, you can’t let that form your opinions about how your students will act, who they are, or what they are capable of. I would have never known these were low income kids coming from the ‘bad’ part of town.
I did find that it was important for me to know that some of the students do not have access to technology in their homes. This changed the course of our lesson. I have started to assume that every home has the internet, that every home has a computer, and this has been a very important lesson to me that that may not always be true. Where I may have had students take their scripts home to work on and type at home, I’ve decided to keep that activity in class. Knowing the general contextual factors surrounding your students’ lives, should be something you’re aware of as a teacher, but not something that lets you make pre-judgments about your students and their abilities.

Heather's Teaching- Post 4

We had not really been doing formal forms of assessment in our classroom, not being sure of what authority we had in our cooperating teacher’s classroom, but as we talked with her on Friday she wanted some forms of points to give her students for our unit. This got me thinking about how I want to do points in my future classroom and how I want my assessments to be graded and recorded. I really feel that for the most part in a theatre classroom points can be awarded for participation. I’ve realized I need a way of assessing participation though, because there are always students who work harder than other students and they deserve the extra points. But on the other hand, every student has a different personality, and for some a lower level of participation still might be them doing their best. This is something I feel that I will just have to practice while I’m student teaching, and something that will really depend each year on the students I have.
So we went through and decided on points to give for each day according to our form of assessment that day. I like that in a theatre classroom you don’t always have to assess through turned in paper work but that a performance, or an activity can come as a form of assessment. We have had a couple of days where the students have needed to turn something in and then the rest of the day they’ve just needed to be a part of the activities going on in the classroom. I believe both are valid forms of assessment, and that by using both the students won’t get burned out.

Heather's Teaching- Post 3

I just love teaching theatre. Each day we go into the classroom, I’m just so excited to be there. I feel blessed to be able to teach drama classes. I think it seems so natural in a theatre setting to have student centered learning take place, and that alone makes the classroom a fun place to be. It’s been so great to watch our student learn and grow as each of our lessons has introduced something new for them to think about and apply to what they already know. Something I’ve found really rewarding is when we prepare the students for their next task (without them realizing it) and then we give them the task and they do it with excitement, with energy, and with confidence. It has been so fun to see how amazingly creative our students have been with our “Fairytale Deconstruction” playwriting project. Because we gave them the option to choose their story and we gave them the time to pick a new storyline and we let THEM have control of their learning, they have opened up and just really been creative with their ideas. One day we had them write monologues from the perspective of one of their new characters and the students were so excited for us to read them, and we were so impressed with what they had written. I have found that sometimes I set my standards too low for what the students can produce. I have realized that I need to place more confidence in my students, because they can truly achieve amazing things when we let them!

Student-Centered Learning

Learning about student-centered learning was a good experience as I have been teaching. I used to think a lot of this was doing activities, partly because that's how I learn, so when lessons are more activity based I come away with more and remember it longer. I, honestly, put discussion into my lesson plans because I knew we were supposed to. But as I was teaching I realized the great value in both, and that both should and do focus on student-centered learning. One thing we did was making lists. We did this partly at the suggestion of the teacher because she had learned that it really helped the students learn when as a class we created a list of what we were learning, and they wrote it down, that way they could refer to it later. Talking about it, and writing it down seemed to really help them keep it in their minds. I realized that student-centered learning is doing anything that centers on the students and how they learn best, regardless of what that is. If the students do better with activities, include more activities, but if they do better with discussion, do more discussion. One of my weaknesses is that I center my lessons according to how I learn, because I assume that's how all theatre students learn, but that is not true. Especially with kids in Junior High as a lot of them aren't necessarily "theatre kids" but are there for the credit. There was one lesson we were doing where I wasn't planning on having a large discussion, but jumping into the activity right off. But as I started talking I realized they were engaged and were learning from what I was saying, so I talked a little longer than planned, and it seemed to really help. Center the lessons around how they learn best and they will learn more.

Lesson Planning

Lesson planning is so important to do so you know where you are going in each lesson and what the final objective is for your students. But something else that is important is understanding your lesson, not just knowing what it is and what each activity is. I mean that if something happens and you need to adjust because the students don't get it or are going faster than you expected, then you can change activities in the moment so your lesson is being tailored specifically to those students. There was one day where I had something planned but I could see the students weren't connected fully yet and needed to take a step back and spend more time on an aspect we had already done. So I stopped that activity and had them do one that I knew, but hadn't planned for. And it helped. So I learned that understanding where each lesson is supposed to go is the most important part of lesson planning. Along with that, a part of the lesson plan should always have a section at the end containing back up activities. Most likely, things in the classroom are going to go differently than planned on paper. So a teacher should always be prepared with something to do when the lesson changes. And plan in your unit for some lessons you thought would only take one day to take two, and some lessons you planned on taking two days, only taking one. If you plan on it happening, then you will be prepared and won't have any problems.