Lesson Plans: A One-Day Snapshot

On August 18^th, I conducted a lesson with my beginning acting class that I’d prepared and planned out with more care and attention to detail than I’d ever done before. I was excited, but also nervous; when my by-the-seat-of-my-pants lessons failed, I always had the excuse of, “well, I just sorta threw it together,” or “yeah, but it wasn’t a real lesson plan.” This time was different—I was implementing something I’d carefully constructed. I was terrified.

The Lesson.

Here is a condensed overview of the lesson I implemented with my class, using Act 5, Scene 1 from Hamlet (click HERE for the text).

Actioned Reading

Students will take out homework from Day Four (Completed “French Scene”); in triads, students will compare their beat changes and titles for each section of text. Triad will democratically select most effective/memorable titles for each section of text and write section headings on the board. As a class, vote on favorite titles to create one master “outline” of events.

Students will embody and enact the story of the text using only the heading titles to guide them; students will NOT use scripts but will use section headings and beat changes to shift tone and drive plot appropriately. Groups will share in an open rehearsal.

In discussion: What did you observe in your classmates’ scenes? Was this an effective technique for understanding the story or “reading” the text? Why or Why not? Was this an effective technique for rehearsal? Why or why not?

What I’ve Learned.

My students responded to this in an overwhelmingly positive way. A few days prior, very few of them were enthusiastic about Shakespeare, and now I feel like the majority of them have an increased level of confidence. At the very least, they know Shakespeare can be funny!

My students are very capable. They don’t need me to lecture, or lead, or hover over them while they do work. They need me to empower them, give them skills, and give them space and time to be creative and autonomous.

Assessment is a constant tool in my classroom, and if it’s constant, it’s not scary. By asking students to produce answers, to come up with ideas, with original content, they aren’t as afraid of evaluation—because they can see and understand where that evaluation, where that grade, comes into play. And I think it’s really important that we liberate students from grade-based fear, and that we encourage them to know how to self-evaluate, so that they can set goals and accomplish them.

What I’d Change.

Overall, I’m very happy with this lesson—though I benefitted from having a class with very few struggling learners. My EL students are very fluent, my IEP students need extra time for testing but did fine with this assignment.

I suppose throwing Shakespeare at beginning acting students is pretty daring, but they really did rise to it. Next time, though, I think I would use a less loaded text—maybe Our Town by Thornton Wilder, or some other piece from modern American theatre.

And I suppose I could then ask the students to continue their engagement with the text by actually staging it and memorizing a scene, whereas I didn’t dare do that with Shakespeare.

What I Enjoyed.

I loved many things about this lesson. Some of the tiny things I enjoyed:

• The quirky and funny titles that students came up with for the scene. “Giddy Gravedigger” and “Glum Gravedigger” are examples of some of the witty expressions that students invented. These memorable titles show that the students are not only grasping the text, they’re also having fun!
• The amount of laughter generated—both by the titles, but also by the attempts of students to act out the scene, making up their own words (since they had little hope of recalling Shakespeare!)
• All the tiny “aha!” moments popping up all over the classroom
• How little lecturing I had to do—the discussion was mostly student-led 

Overall, I’ve realized how much careful and thoughtful planning gives to me and to my students. Specifically, the regular and recursive act of pre-assessment and post-assessment/closure helps me ascertain how my students are doing, and allows me to really pinpoint the struggles of certain kids. But in a general sense, executing a thoughtful lesson plan—even if it didn’t work perfectly!—allows me a physical and material reflection of what I do as a teacher. And now I can dip back into that lesson plan, edit it, reinforce it, make it stronger and richer.

I feel less stressed, more engaged, and more confident.

I’m excited about all the lesson plans I get to make. I wonder if by the time I retire, I’ll have enough to release a theatre arts textbook.

On Pre-Assessments and Rubrics.

Setting

I conducted my pre-assessment with my beginning acting class, a mix of mostly freshmen and sophomores with a few juniors and seniors jumbled in. None of them have taken drama before, though two of them are technicians who are enrolled in my advanced technical theatre course. I have 32 students in the class, 5 of which are EL students, 4 of which are designated GATE, and 5 of which have 504 plans or IEPs.

This class takes place first period, at 7:30 in the morning. This is a difficult time for teenagers to learn, so I start every class with a series of stretches and warm-ups to help them be present and engaged. After about ten minutes of activities to wake-up their physical, vocal, and kinesthetic responses, I told them we would be engaging in a pre-assessment activity to "check in on where we are as a class."

A hand shot up immediately. "Is this going to be graded?"

"No, I'm just trying to figure out what we know and don't know yet."

Another voice. "Assessment? Like a test?"

"Uh, no, not quite," I hadn't expeted them to react so strongly to the term "Pre-Assessment"!

"Because we do Pre-Tests in Geometry and they suuuuuuck." Ah-ha. I had hit upon it--"Pre-Assessment" already meant something to them, and it wasn't positive. I had to pedal down a different road.

"Well, this isn't a Pre-Test, and it isn't graded. And hopefully you won't think it 'sucks.' It's more like...like I'm taking the class's temperature. Are we warm, are we cool, what do we need to all come together and feel like a nice San Diego 72 degrees." They smiled at that.

Pre-Assessment

My initial pre-assessment activity was very low-stakes:

Have students go to the bookshelves and grab a play they think looks interesting (may take 5 minutes or more). Have them page through the scripts, getting familiar with the font, the size, the formatting. Have them write any questions they have on post-it notes and stick them on the board. Answer all questions. Focus on format. Ask: What’s different about plays versus novels, poems, or nonfiction books?

My first instinct was to completely overhaul this activity in the prep period before my class started. I was second-guessing the effectiveness of the entire exercise: the students would be disengaged, would learn nothing, would refuse to participate! All I could think of was the worst-case scenario.

Ultimately, I realized this moment was my pre-assessment. I needed to trust in the process, trust in my students, and let go of the perfectionist impulse to get teaching "right". I needed to lean into the learning--after all, I'm learning, too!

 

Pre-Assessment Findings

The good news is that my students did participate--and participate fully! While a few students hung back and did not approach the bookshelves with the same enthusiasm as their peers, everyone eventually found a text they were content to flip through.

And flip through.

And flip through.

Many of the students got caught up in the story very quickly--they began to read the plays! What a funny problem to have. I reminded the class to approach the board and begin to fill it with their findings, but the questions were very specific to each text as a singular piece of literature. They were not connecting to the universality of plays as a type of text, they were advancing to the story.

I had to write the first note on the board myself. "Plays > Books because they don't take as long to read." That got a laugh from my students. A few of them began to write observations on the board. "No surprise characters in a play" "Less descriptive than books" "italics". The board slowly grew.

A few of the kids wrote nothing, but watched their peers and nodded as salient points and valid questions were scrawled.

Effectiveness of Pre-Assessment 

I was fairly happy with the way the pre-assessment activity turned out! We had a crazy mind map on the board in all sorts of fun colors. The students felt free to write "silly" questions that they might not have in a class discussion ("What's en mean??" Answer: Enter). I got a good sense of the class dynamics and where their content-area learning melds and merges. Since ours is a collaborative practice, a collaborative pre-assessment felt good.

This style of pre-assessment, however, does not allow me to track individual progress the same way as a quiz or other independent "pre-test" would.

 

Effectiveness of Rubric, and Amendments 

I didn't have a rubric going into this pre-assessment, because the nature of the activity was collaborative. However, I now think that I would amend this and first have the kids rank themselves on a rubric of 1-5:

5    I know a lot about plays and feel very comfortable talking about their content and conventions.

4    I know a fair amount about plays and feel comfortable talking about their content and conventions.

3    I know some things about plays and could talk about their content or conventions.

2    I know a small amount about plays and might be able to talk about their content or conventions.

1    I know very little about plays and am not able to talk about their content or conventions.

After the pre-assessment activity, I would ask kids to rank themselves again on the rubric and see if they felt more confident after the "group mind-meld" activity.

The rubric also gives me a way to gauge the class as a whole--are they comfortable talking about content and conventions, or are they very confused and unable to discuss at that level?

Conclusion / Next Steps

I'm excited to use group-based collaborative pre-assessments throughout my course; I think that it helps the class see how much their collective brain knows. I think individual students can slip through the cracks in activities like this, and the self-check rubric can hopefully help connect the dots and point me towards those students who may need more support.

Resources for Drama Teachers

Check out my webpage for High School Theatre Teachers!

http://theatreresource.weebly.com

Week Four Assignment - Assignment 4B

Welcome to my Teacher's Page!

Hello! My name is Stacy Michelle Walker. I have the great good fortune of being the drama teacher and director at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, California. Not only am I currently the teacher of the drama program at MCHS...I used to be a student there!

Teaching at my old high school is strange. Some of my old teachers are still there! But mostly, it's an amazing experience, and my students love that I was once "one of them"--I was president of the drama club when I was a senior!

I never thought I'd be back, but a serious of twists and turns has brought me here, and I'm so, so grateful. And tired. It's a big job.

I took the personality test and learned that I am classified ENFP: Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.  I found a very well thought-out resource about these "personality types" here. According to the site, ENFPs are Champions.

"Champions often speak (or write) in the hope of revealing some truth about human experience, or of motivating others with their powerful convictions. Their strong drive to speak out on issues and events, along with their boundless enthusiasm and natural talent with language, makes them the most vivacious and inspiring of all the types."

That's all very flattering, of course! I think my extroverted nature, coupled with the intuitive/feeling/perceiving parts of me that feel comfortable and confidant dealing with emotion, growth, need, and connection, make me a great fit for a large theatre program like the one I run. I tell my students all the time that we are in the business of becoming better humans, utilizing creativity, collaboration, and compassion to understand ourselves, our colleagues, and the greater world.

I think art is noble! And powerful! and I think it's the connective tissue that ties together all the other parts of academia. I think I could have a beautiful time teaching any subject--so long as I mastered the content first!

My personality definitely affects my relationships with my students. I am aware that my over-the-top energy can be overwhelming for some students, so I've learned to tone it down and go after the one-on-one experiences more. Then later, when I'm in front of a crowd of 600 on opening night, those student know that it's an "act," and still feel connected.

Likewise students open up to me easily and often. Because I run an arts program that deals with feelings, and change, and interpersonal relationships, I have a lot of students coming into my office and unloading stressful, secret, and sometimes scary situations on me. I've had students come out to me as queer and as trans, I've had students explode into tears about school and relationships and parents. In my one year of teaching, I've had to call CPS multiple times.

I feel very privileged to be a resource for them, and I take it seriously.

My serious face.

According to the Felder and Solomon Learning/Teaching Styles Assessment, I am:

• More Active than Reflective
• Decidedly Intuitive versus Sensing (I ranked an 11!)
• Slightly more Verbal than Visual
• Slightly more Sequential than Global (shocking!)

 I think in all of these, balance is key, and interrogating my lesson plans and activities to make sure that there are different pathways to accessing material and mastering content is crucial. Knowing that my personal preferences can affect how I design my lessons is a good reality check.