Weekly Journal

This is my weekly journal. Each week we were expected to reflect back on class making noting of specific highlights that were important to us. This is my six week journey!

October 20, 2015 - Week 1

Leaving visual arts and heading to drama, I have to admit I was less than excited. A lot less. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have this hatred from drama; but I am certainly uncomfortable with it. In fact, I’ve always like the idea of drama and the process of learning it encompasses. However, it’s not something that has ever come naturally to me. I’ve always felt uncomfortable. That’s why as soon as I had the chance to stop taking it in high school – I did. Walking into class on the first day, I was nervous, anxious and uncomfortable. I think all of my peers were feeling this way too. We were uncertain as to what to expect. Kari-Lynn eased all of this, though. The class was a welcoming and respectful environment. The classroom was laid out in order to provide as much free space as possible and an open circle for us to partake in. We were told what to expect in the class and the guidelines to teaching drama in a class. As Kari-Lynn explained the process – I suddenly felt at ease. She asked our permission to share our thoughts and feelings. She insisted that we had the right to pass if ever we felt uncomfortable sharing. This was big for me. I don’t like to be put on the spot. Two classroom rules as simple as those suddenly made the classroom a place where I felt comfortable.

As we moved into our activities, Kari-Lynn introduced us to a chair sitting in the middle of the room. The chair represented drama and we were expected to position ourselves in relation to our comfort level with drama. The more comfortable you are, the closer you move to the chair and vice versa; this was called position mapping. Naturally, given my brief background I moved relatively far away from the chair – three quarters of the way out the room. Once we found our place we were to freeze in a pose that also represented our relationship with drama; this was called tableaux. I had my arms crossed but I was still facing the chair. This represented the fact that I’m not comfortable with drama but I was still open to learning new strategies and giving it a shot. This activity was very neat – it allowed me to see how others in the class also felt. It was comforting when I realized that the majority of the class was in the same boat as I was. I left the class feeling motivated, determined, and open to learn more about drama. I guess the saying is true, first impressions last forever – if the feeling in the room wasn’t welcoming I could’ve been completed turned off and not have been as open as I was, thus limiting my learning experience.

October 27, 2015 - Week 2

This week was the first class of strategy presentations. It was certainly a different experience. The presentations were setup in such a way that the group would pick a mentor text and all of their strategies would help to tell the story – playing it out through the various strategies they were assigned. Each member was expected to be an expert of their specific strategy and teach it to class while allowing us a chance to practice and perform. This was an excellent idea, just as Dwyer’s theory suggests, we retain more information by doing and by teaching. I really enjoyed this about drama. We used the theories we have learned from our undergrad and incorporated them into a classroom. Instead of memorizing and regurgitating we took the information we knew and learned strategies to incorporate them and see them in action.

One of the strategies that really stood out to me was Alter-Ego. One student would express their feelings as the character of the book for instance, and other students would act out how they are feeling. In this specific case, we were reading “Smelly Mel,” we had to express our feelings as Mel throughout specific scenes in the story. As we expressed our verbal feelings, other students in the group were to represent these feelings by acting them out. This is a great strategy. It allows multiple intelligences a chance to work together and show case what they have to offer. Linguistic learners would love to express their feelings verbally, while Kinesthetic learners would enjoy representing the feelings using their body. Not only does it lend to multiple intelligences, but it also encourages creativity. Students have to identify feelings that aren’t explicitly stated in the text and create innovative thoughts in order to present these ideas to the class.

After the presentation, we learned about the Elements of Choral work. We incorporated these into a strategy called “Soundscape.” As a class we read the Ladybug Garden. After we finished reading, Kari-Lynn explained that we create a “Soundcape” of the garden. A “Soundscape” is a strategy in drama that incorporates the elements of choral work. As a class we created vocals for the garden. This was a very neat activity. Some of us were birds chirping in the garden, some of us were bees buzzing around, and some of us were wind blowing. It allowed us to be creative and silly all at the same time. I really think any students would love to do this activity. Kari-Lynn had us focus on the elements of choral work throughout by changing our pitch, tone, duration, and number of voices.

November 3, 2015 - Week 3 

This was the second week of presentations. We all knew what to expect. As much as it isn’t that fun to sit there and listen to presentations. These were actually fun, and I was looking forward to them. As each week passed by I was taking more of a liking to drama. I wasn’t necessarily very comfortable. But, more importantly, I was open to learning new strategies and ideas I could use in my future classroom. These presentations were fun and they were interactive. This week, a strategy that really stood out to me was “Role on the Wall.” This was a very interesting strategy because it relied on critical thinking. As the group read the story, we were encouraged to infer about certain characters’ characteristics. We had to write these characteristics on a silhouette of the character on chart paper. On the outside of the silhouette, we were to write characteristics or feelings that we thought the character embraced during specific parts of the story. And on the inside, we were to write what the character was thinking. It definitely put and interesting spin on drama as it’s certainly not what you would expect. But once again, it ties into Gardner’s theory by tailoring drama to different learners.

After the presentations we moved into a large group circle and learned the elements of movement in drama. In our circle we were assigned a card that had a movement both in words and as a visual. This once again tailors to different needs, the picture helped to depict what was expected. The card I was originally assigned was “Smash.” There were no instructions, we were encouraged to come up with a movement that depicted the card. Naturally, you do the first movement that comes to mind – but Kari-Lynn encouraged us to use the elements of movement. We had to focus on changing our body, energy, relationship, space, and time/temp. We rotated the cards in a clockwise direction and we each had a chance to depict one of the moves focusing on these elements. After this we split up into groups of four and had to create a dance using four of the movements from the card, as well as different elements of movement. This was a fun task. We were encouraged to think outside the box, and use different elements of movements for each.

January 5, 2016 - Week 5

This was our first class back after placement and the break. I walked in with much more confidence than I had expressed in any of the classes previously. I felt confident. I was able to use strategies learned in previous classes in my placement! My students had so much fun and it really opened my eyes to how important it is to integrate drama into the other curriculums. It makes learning fun and also tailors to a variety of different learners. This was the beginning of the change in my position mapping, I was starting to move closer to the chair. I began to be more open to drama. I knew that the strategies and skills I was learning in class were actually relevant and useful.

This week was my group’s presentation. We chose “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” as our mentor text.  Preparing for this presentation was much different than preparation for other assignments. We had to become the expert in our field and teach it to the class. My strategy was “What If,” essentially you pose “What If..” questions after reading certain parts of the book. It encourages problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. If you couple “What If” with another strategy like “Hot Seating” or “Tableaux” students can answer questions or make a pose in relation to the new story. Personally, I’m a critical thinker – I’ve always loved to be Devil’s Advocate and pose what if questions. This was a fun strategy for me to learn, and to teach to my peers. I will definitely use this in my future classroom as I think students would really enjoy it.

After the presentations we did a fashion activity where, after some background knowledge, were encouraged to take place in a mannequin factory - in order to make the perfect mannequin. At the snap of Kari-Lynn’s fingers, without much though, we had to jump in and start acting. Once we had an idea of what we were doing, we split into groups and had to create our “ideal” mannequin. There were limited guidelines, with most of the decision up to us. We came up with a mannequin that was tailored to the needs of the people in our group - small, athletic, etc.; if we were shopping, we would want a mannequin that is similar to us in order to see the clothes on them. This is where we went wrong, in my opinion. Everyone is different. If this mannequin worked for us, it certainly wouldn’t work for the next person. The most creative mannequin was one that was adjustable in every way imaginable. I thought this activity was a very creative way to promote social issues. There is no “ideal” way to make mannequin. It goes to show that drama can be incorporated into everything, just we as teachers need to be creative and effective in the ways we do so.

January 12, 2016 – Week 6

Leave it to the class I was least excited for to provide one of the most relevant activities of my university career. Who knew drama could be so much with kids? Drama is and art that all kids love. They are able to express their freedom and creativity in fun, innovative, and silly ways. Today we travelled to Edith Cavell Public School to partake in a variety of drama activities and strategies while working one-on-one with Grade 4 students. It was great! Every student seemed to be enjoying themselves because the activities that Kari-Lynn arranged tailored to the interests of kids. I was paired with boy who absolutely loved drama – he wasn’t afraid to answer any questions and really let his creative, albeit silly, side show. Drama allows different learners, as suggested by Gardner, to express their intelligence in a variety of different ways. Not to mention, drama is extremely easy to integrate into other subjects. In my placement, for example, I was facilitating a novel study on “Wonder.” A novel about a boy with facial anomalies that is being integrated into a mainstream school and classroom. The novel teachers character education. This novel study was closely related to the language curriculum – but I took every opportunity I had to incorporate drama strategies.

Kari-Lynn introduced the concept of “Perfectville” to the class and had students and teachers create the ideal village. It smelled like pineapples and bacon. We had bacon farmers who grew bacon on trees. It’s simple things like this that can make drama fun. From there, we used a variety of different strategies to act out the different happenings in “Perfectville.” My personal favourite was the “Corridor of Voices,” all the students and teacher candidates were encouraged to think of flaws in “Perfectville” as we entered a house. We had to remember that even the smallest of issues would be a shock in the village. My partner and I came up with the idea that as the door opened the room was a mess! The whole group laughed, because something as silly as that, was very dramatic. As Kari-Lynn walked down the corridor, students were encouraged to share their ideas as though voices were coming out of the walls.

After the students left for lunch, we finished up our class in a circle. It reminded me of the good old elementary days when there wasn’t a worry in the world. We each shared our short final presentation representing our relationship with drama and how it has changed since the beginning of the course, using strategies learned in class. I elected to use position mapping as it was one of my favourite strategies throughout the course. Instead of being three quarters out of the room, I was in close proximity to the chair with a more open pose. I still wasn’t completely comfortable with drama, but I felt as though I was far more prepared. Prepared in the sense I would be able to teach it if the time came. I also used the strategy “What if…?” I posed the question, what if I wasn’t as open to drama at the beginning of the semester? Would I have taken away as much as I have? Would I be as prepared to teach drama as I am now? Who knows? Thankfully, I was open to the idea of learning to teach drama and I learned a great deal that will be of much use in my future classroom.