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?