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

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.

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.

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.