Sixth Grade Adventures: Over Too Soon

When I started this adventure, I had great hopes for the amount of time I would be able to work with these students. As it comes to a close, I can't believe I'm surprised that I was thwarted by testing. Today should have been my last time with the students. Instead, the students had standardized testing and test preparation.

I've planned with the teacher to come back on their last day of class to do some activities with them. At least I'll get the chance to say goodbye...

So I've learned a few major lessons from this experience:

1. No amount of excitement about a subject can replace good classroom management skills. Each time I arrived, the students would cheer and I'd hear shouts of "Yay drama!" Did this guarantee they'd pay attention and behave appropriately? Not on your life.

2. You never know what is going to actually work.

There were days I thought it wasn't working, that the students didn't get it, and definitely didn't like it. And then the next time I came the students would ask, "Hey are we going to ______ again? That was really cool!" Go figure.

3. Teachers love volunteers.

I thought I would be imposing going into someone else's classroom. I never imagined how excited a teacher would be to have help. Want to make a difference in education? Help a teacher out.

Sixth Grade Adventures: Pleasant Surprises...and not so pleasant ones

Today there was a sub when I came to work with the students. The teacher had warned me the night before, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened.

To begin--the pleasant surprise. In my second class, there is a girl who rarely takes our work seriously. Today, however, she shined.

It was a relatively simple warm-up called One to Five Jump. The facilitator shouts out a number between one and five. The students and facilitator then call back the number while moving to a different level. One is as close to the ground as you can get comfortably. Five is jumping up in the air. Two through four are in between. Once done in English a few times, students who know other languages are invited to teach the rest of the class to count from one to five in that language and then lead, calling out numbers between one and five in their language. It can be really exciting for students who speak Spanish to feel like they are teaching everyone else.

The first time I called out one, she was the first and only student to move and call out the number. I immediately complemented her and pointed the other students to her as a model of how to do the activity. For the rest of the class, she continued to perform well, and continued to be the first students to accomplish the goals of the activity. I complimented her periodically and congratulated her again at the end of class.

It was a remarkable change. It was just what I needed to see after the first class fiasco.

It was the perfect storm. The students next door were testing. We were too noisy. I gave the students a chance to go outside since they'd been trying to keep it down. As I gathered the students together in a small grassy area, a few of the boys were still dawdling around a table. I was in the process of bringing everyone together when all at once a boy started climbing up on top of the railing and another teacher walked by with her class. She yelled at the student to get down, asked who I was, then proceeded to chew me out for not watching him do something dangerous, being too noisy as other students tested, and basically being irresponsible...in front of my students. It was totally inappropriate and completely humiliating.

With all my authority undermined, I simply told the students that due to their behavior we were going back inside and we were done with drama for the day. In shaping student behavior, it is what happens during and immediately following behavior that has the greatest impact. I did not let what happened get me angry. I did not react emotionally. Once inside, I calmly told the students that I was a guest in their school. I was not paid to be there. At any time, if someone complained, I could be asked to not come back and that would be the end of my time with them. They were completely silent.

A short time later, I saw the principal walk into the classroom. I had seen her a few times before during the semester, so I knew immediately who she was. I sat at the desk in the back of the room and about had a heart attack when she came up and asked who I was. She wasn't there for me, but to check on a student that had been sent to the office earlier that day. I told her what happened, and she was furious that a teacher would do that in front of students.

Sixth Grade Adventures: Scenic Design

I thought I might see what happens when I bring a little art into our drama today. The plan was to have them work in groups to draw a location. Then using the amazing technology of iMovie, I'd take a picture of the students in front of a green backdrop (I love butcher paper) and superimpose them onto their design.

We began by talking about the story of Peter Pan. There are so many exciting locations for students to imagine. I decided to use the pirate ship location as a reward for the group that did the best at meeting classroom expectations. As expected, EVERYONE wanted to get the pirate ship. In the first class, it was pretty easy to select the group. They've been a lot more rowdy than the later class, which I was not expecting. The second class was so well behaved I had to put their groups in a hat and draw one out to get the pirate ship.

One student, we'll call him S, likes to draw, and was excited earlier in the year to show me some of his drawings in his sketchbook. I expected him to be the first student in the class to start drawing. Instead, he sat quietly and let the other members of his group draw. When I checked in and said I was looking forward to seeing what he was going to draw, he expressed little to no interest in drawing. I was a little shocked, but complimented him on what I had seen of his work before and walked away. Eventually, he picked up a pen and got started.

I had a few fun little classroom management moments today. I wanted to pause the students early in the process of sketching to give and ask for feedback. When I picked up the first group's drawing and asked the class what they thought was good and what they should keep working on, no one looked up. It was great that they were working and engaged. Let's celebrate that for a moment........ Okay, but I'm a teacher, and I need to help them learn how to make their work even better. So without saying anything, I went to each table and picked up everyone's papers. That got their attention. Then as a class, we reviewed each group's sketches so far and that went a lot smoother. I automatically did that with the second class and saved myself a lot of time and frustration.

UIL thoughts: Why we teach

UIL conference at UT Austin. Hundreds of high school theatre students everywhere. I helped teach a class on bilingual theatre with my amazing professor. I had one of those moments teachers have maybe once or twice a year, if you're lucky, that sustains you for the next six months of difficult students. I walked over to a pair of students working on a scene. I had noticed the young man struggled with stuttering when he was sharing his thoughts with us earlier. However, when he read from a script and when he performed...the stutter was completely gone. When they reached the end, the young man reached out, grabbed my hand, and whispered, "I love this."

Sixth Grade Adventures: This Magic Moment

Had one goal this week. There was a certain student, we'll call him Ron, that has not been participating on a regular basis. He's been withdrawn. A few weeks ago he wrote "I am a life hater" when describing himself. Encouragement has not worked.

So...this week two things happened.

First was during the warm-up activity. It's a call and response with some nonsense words. Each time through, the leader changes the volume. Ron did not even get up from his desk, so this time I ignored him. As we went through the warm-up, the students got more and more into it. Then we went through it as quietly as we could. The moment was magic. Everyone in the circle was completely focused and involved, ready for what was next. I could almost hear the angels singing as the clouds parted. It was the first time the class had a sense of unity.

The second happened a few moments later. As I divided the class into groups, on his own volition, Ron got up from his desk, walked over to join a group, and got to work. Ha!

Sixth Grade Adventures: Guilt by Association

Showed up for my second week of teaching my lovely sixth graders. As they walked by me into class, I heard excited whispers of “Drama!” (music to my ears) interspersed with “Testing!” (…screech)

Do students remember coincident events? You better believe it. I did a little happy dance inside to see them so excited to work with me again. I had to laugh when I remembered that while I worked with them before, some were pulled out of the room for reading assessments.

Goal for the lesson- The students will be able to use their bodies in artistic ways to represent objects and ideas.

AKA- Intro to image work.

The cafeteria was ocupado during the first class, so we tried to work outside. Okay, you can stop laughing now. They kept running out of the space I delineated to work in. Once we settled into a circle, I introduced them to a little warm-up called “Use it or be it.” I would call out an object. They then had the option to either use the object or be the object. Toothbrush. Soccer ball. Washing machine (my personal favorite of the day).

Next we moved into a game sometimes called Donkey or Bibbity-bibbity-bop. This the students started to get a little more into. In groups of three, they created images of palm trees, elephants, bunny, and even a toaster. It provided an opportunity to introduce the students to image work. First, we talked about tableau where they created a picture of an actual scene. Learning their interests the previous week really helped. So we created a tableau of soccer, then one of football. First we took advantage of the opportunity to practice inferencing. First we described what we could observe. Leg pointing forward. Foot off the ground. Upper body turned. From there, we could infer that the student was playing soccer. We worked together to make adjustments to the pictures. For football, two students created a picture of one student tackling another. Then we talked how else it could be interpreted. When I asked what might make it clearer that it was football and not wrestling, for example, a student held his arm up like he was throwing a football and then took the place of the student being tackled. Then it was clearly football, and they had discovered on their own how to tell a clearer story. With the moments we had left, I introduced them to images, or representing ideas instead of a picture of an event or moment in time. We ended on images of friendship and hope.

In the second class, we stuck to the stage in the cafeteria. So much easier to keep the students under control. One student decided he didn’t want to do anything. First he lay on the floor. Then he sat outside the circle. Eventually I let him and ignored his behavior. On the other end of the spectrum, I think I’ve got one on my side. Maybe two. Earlier, one of the students showed me some of his artwork after I complimented him on something he was drawing. It was awesome to see him beam at how proud he was of his work. Another student on the other had is always anxious for attention. When I taught Bibbity-bibbity-bop, he quickly volunteered to start in the middle before I even asked. I got one. Now I need to use his enthusiasm to spread throughout the rest of the class.

Hope for this next week- Setting up the work as a reward. They are so lucky they get the chance to participate in drama. Their school doesn’t even have a teacher qualified to teach it. I’ve had multiple conversations with their classroom teacher about it, and thinking we might have to cut back to twice a month inspired an idea. First, students who complete their homework, volunteer to read in class, etc, will have the opportunity to help lead warm-up activities. Second, every other week they have library time, so time is short. Initially, the teacher said we might have to cancel drama on those days. Instead, it will be shorter, and only those who are completing their other assignments and behaving well and participating in class will get to go. Those lessons need to be extra awesome. No pressure. Any theatre teachers out there have suggestions for just such a situation?

Sixth Grade Adventures: Knowing when to cut your losses

That's right. For my first week teaching drama to my lovely sixth graders, the teacher gave me two hours with each class so she could finish doing the reading assessments with students individually that I started last week.

With two classes, and one with all the students with special needs together, adjustments always need to be made. I planned five or six activities to meet similar curricular goals. The main hope-- to get these students to work together without killing each other. I mean "Students work productively with others in teams. Students will...participate productively in discussions, plan agendas with clear goals and deadlines, set time limits for speakers, take notes, and vote on key issues." (6.28)

So the original plan had the following possible activities:

Heartbeat Ball

Data Processing/Group Shapes

Mirror

Human Knot

Islands

Poster Dialogue

Compliment Web

And then there was the reality. The first class could not even grasp passing a ball around a circle at a consistent pace. So adding additional objects around the circle, which got caught on the rug fell apart. The roll of tape that they were supposed to pass got stuck and that distracted everyone. At least we had an opportunity to talk about distractions when we are trying to focus in class. I scrapped the activity for the second class and did a simpler group warmup.

Data processing. Talk about an eye opener. The goal is to challenge students to organize information without talking. "Get in a line from tallest to shortest." "Create a line in order based on the month you were born in." Some students' solution? Push others across the room. Not very productive when you are trying to avoid shoving matches that caused a student to turn a desk upside-down the week before. We're going to get there together somehow. :)

Mirror. Seems like a simple enough idea. Face each other while one student follow's their partner's movements like the second student is the first student's mirror image. Notice a through-line yet on these activities? ;) The first class was able to get started after their initial "Ew my partner is so and so and I don't want to look at them, or face them, or acknowledge their existence." During the latter class, that point didn't really come. So I asked for volunteers to help model the activity where I was the mirror image. Two or three students did pretty well and enjoyed it. However, when I sent everyone back to try again, I saw that they were still just sitting around. So I scrapped it and transitioned into the next activity. No sense in beating a dead horse. At this early stage, my goal was just to get them to work together, and that was not being met, so I moved on. They need to learn to work together to be successful in drama, in school, and in life. Drama is an entirely new experience for these students, and scaffolding is a careful process. I began to see in these activities what the students' abilities were so that I can better plan in the future to build on those, while helping them discover new talents.

Human knot. I know that you should never say never. Or always. Or constantly. But I'm going to break that rule. Never, ever do human know with sixth graders. Between being at an age where they are discovering their bodies, and the frequent pushing, and the not wanting to touch someone, or not wanting to be touched..............

Poster dialogue showed me so much about the students' interests, needs, and relationships with each other. Four large poster papers throughout the room each had a question:

What is drama?

I wish more people knew that...

If I could be anyone or anything, I would be...

If I could teach my teacher anything, it would be...

I invited the students to use a marker and write a response on each one, and if they finished quickly, to go around and place a check mark next to any answers they agreed with. The most common response? The students wanted to teach their teachers Spanish. I'm going to try to find ways to incorporate that into my lessons.

The most heartbreaking and challenging moment was when I asked the students to write a little more about themselves, to create a poem of sorts. The first line was "I am [their name]."

Each line after that started with "I am" and they would then add phrases or sentences that described who they were. A student. A brother. A dreamer. A dancer. As I walked around the room, I saw one student had written only a line or two. "I am a life hater." How do you respond to that? I asked him what he liked. Nothing. I asked if he was a brother. Ah, there was something. He was the youngest. Then I would give him two options and ask what he liked better. Neither. When he added a few more, it was a repeat of the original line. What have you done in similar situations?

We closed with an opportunity for everyone to share one thing they learned during our time together and or their favorite part of the lesson. I was surprised to hear that some parts that I thought did not go well were the parts they remembered and liked. Go figure.

Know when to cut your losses--when it comes to your lesson. If the students aren't getting it, they're not getting it. Adjust. Scrap it. Try something else. Ask a different question. But students themselves? Is it ever appropriate to cut your losses if you feel there are students you just can't reach? It's with mixed emotions I listen to the teachers talk about students with behavior problems. School barely started, but they are already running out of ideas on how to help him. How do you respond when you hear teachers hoping one of their students leaves?

Sixth Grade Adventures: Observation

You can never observe enough. In two weeks, I've observed each of the two sixth grade classes for about six hours. During some of that time, I pulled each student out one by one to help with reading assessments to help their teacher place them into reading groups. It was invaluable to have the opportunity to interact with each student individually, and to see and hear for myself the challenges these students face. For many, English is their second language, and they've been in bilingual classrooms for the last five years. Some have a second-grade reading level. Others understand and apply key concepts in spite of the language barrier. They may not be able to pronounce the word in front of them correctly, but they know what a root word is and how to identify prefixes and suffixes.

The biggest challenge I've seen that is holding these students back, however, is not language. They are smarter than they pretend to be. Better at reading, better at writing. Their biggest challenge is that they won't work together. Last week a student turned over a desk after an accidental bump turned into a shoving match. Other students want to move to another desk because they just "can't sit next to so and so." They're on the cusp of becoming teenagers, so the behavior is not a huge surprise. But they are so distracted by their own drama that they will have a difficult time learning anything. Their teacher and I came to each other with the same idea. As I begin working with them, the primary objective is to teach these students to work together by giving them the opportunity to practice working together in a variety of circumstances. It's one of the great things about using drama. Before delving into the rehearsal process in creating theatre, we build an ensemble. On Tuesday, these sixth graders will begin the journey of becoming one.

Sixth Grade Adventures: Take One

The first week of school.  How grateful I am to a good friend and amazing teacher for allowing me to enter her classroom and start at the beginning.  The plan is simple.  The execution is overwhelming.  The opportunity is unique.  For an entire semester, I will be going in to two sixth grade classrooms once a week and teach Reading, Writing, and Social Studies using drama based curriculum...that I get to develop.  It is not a requirement for obtaining certification.  I was planning on doing it without any pay or course credit.  Instead it will be part of in Independent Scholarship Project.  We want to be great teachers, so why not take advantage of the best opportunities to develop our talents and gifts?

Up until now, the most work I have done using drama in a public school classroom was four lessons within a month time frame.  This time I hope to get a glimpse of what can happen with a group of students when drama based education becomes a regular part of their lives.  The student population is around 95% Hispanic, the remainder being African-American.  These students were originally destined to start middle school this year, until their school failed the TAKS test and closed.  Instead, they were told they will be staying at the elementary school for yet another year.

One of the most inspiring words I've heard in a long time came from this wonderful teacher.  After 3 days of class, she said that she was not planning on using the literature textbook she was given because it was too difficult for her students.  Instead of forcing it on them, she is coming to understand where they are in their educational journey and working towards giving these students a chance to succeed. 

Looking for a little inspiration

This weekend I'm traveling to New Orleans for a much needed break.  Whenever I tell someone where I'm going, the immediate response is "Why?"  My thought is, "why not?!"  I've been hoping to find some inspiration to prepare myself for my last year at UT Austin and to enter the classroom.  I entered this field hoping to reach at-risk youth through performing arts.  I can't think of a city in the county that needs it more.  We make a lot of assumptions about people based on where they "choose" to live.  I want to see it for myself.  I want to have a reminder of those I am doing this for.  I want to be among people that have the will to survive in spite of their circumstances, and rebuild regardless of fear of another disaster destroying their lives or their future.

One part of the city I am especially excited to see is in City Park.   According to the park's website, you can:

          "Climb aboard Captain Hook’s pirate ship, journey with Pinocchio into the mouth of a whale or scamper up Jack & Jill’s Hill in City Park’s Storyland, a charming fairytale playground adjacent to City Park’s Carousel Gardens Amusement Park and the New Orleans Botanical Garden.

Brimming with more than 25 larger-than-life storybook exhibits, this storybook fantasy play area is inhabited by sculpted characters created by New Orleans’ finest Mardi Gras float makers."  http://neworleanscitypark.com/carousel_gardens.html

I feel a creative drama lesson coming on...

Drama Based Science Lesson #2

Going to try this out tomorrow.  It's definitely a challenge to create a lesson when you don't have clear objectives form the teacher.  So this was an attempt.  We'll see how it goes.

GENERAL TOPIC:  Science                            GRADE:  4th

FOCUS QUESTIONS:  What are the basic elements of the life cycle of a plant?  What helps a plant to grow?   

STUDENT OBJECTIVES: 
§112.6. Science, Grade 4.

(2) Scientific processes. The student uses scientific inquiry methods during field and laboratory investigations. The student is expected to: (C) analyze and interpret information to construct reasonable explanations from direct and indirect evidence.

(5) Science concepts. The student knows that complex systems may not work if some parts are removed. The student is expected to: (B) predict and draw conclusions about what happens when part of a system is removed.

First Lesson for (from) the Fourth Graders

What a day!  A few lessons learned:

1.  I overplan.  And by overplan I mean waaaaay overplan.  I cut down today's lesson while I was preparing for it, but in teaching it found it was still too long.  Everything takes longer than you think it will.  I spent some time in the beginning going over some ground rules for the work we were doing.  I'll take that out below hoping that without it, the full lesson could be used by a classroom teacher as is.  Goal:  Build flexibility in my lessons so I can remove or add actvities and still help students reach objectives.

2.  Kids are smart.  Really smart.  One kid during the Questions from a Hat activity gave an amazingly accurate definition for photosynthesis.

3.  Never assume.  The teacher I'm working with asked me to review vocabulary.  So I put on slips of paper terms from their text.  The cards said, for example, "Define herbivore."  When I read that, a student raised her hand and asked, "What does define mean?"

4.  Students can have fun learning.  As I was gathering my supplies to leave, a student turned around and said to me, "You're fun."  I smiled and thought, "And you learned today."

Ecosystems Lesson

Preparing for 4th Grade Science

This semester, I'm taking a class in creative drama. Over a month ago, my TA asked all of us what our preferred subject would be, knowing that we'd be in an elementary school classroom. I immediately thought social studies because I feel pretty confident in being able to use themes from history and bring them to dramatic life. I was taken aback when my TA said the teacher she'd like to place me with would have me teaching 4th grade science. Not exactly what I wanted to do. I almost said no, but after a few hours decided to give it a chance. It was the best decision I could have made. I've realized in trying to bring science to life that if I can teach science through drama, I can teach anything. Below is one of my first attempts. It's a lesson on recycling. Still a work in progress, but isn't everything?

"Beginning" the journey

So I wouldn't really call this the beginning of my journey, but I guess you have to start somewhere.  Steven Dietz once wrote that "...the beginning can never really be found.... In the end, it all comes down to this."  Irina may have been referring to the earth, but my "this" is the opportunity to bring education to life.  We can teach, and we can lecture, and we can instruct, and we can feel really good about our ability to relay information.  On the other hand, as Tevya may argue, we can give the gift of learning for yourself, not by yourself.

I do not claim to be an expert.  Unless of course it's part of the drama we're creating.  Then I'll claim to be an expert on everything from global warming to politics, from medicine to parenting, and I'll make you an expert too.  Instead, I think of myself as a specialist in continuing to learn and helping others to do the same.

No lesson is a finished product.  It's a continual evolution.  Students change.  Resources change.  Attitudes change.  Requirements from school districts change.  We change.  And sometimes even our spell-check chagnes. :)

I hope that this can be a place where current and future teachers can find what they need to continue pressing forward.  Lesson plans I've tried, lesson plans I want to try, the triumphs and failures that are all part of the journey...and to celebrate them all.