Tuesday, November 2, 2010

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.



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