I am so pleased to be presenting in a daylong Arts Integration Conference that will be held completely online on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. Organizer and innovator Susan Riley calls it the first ever Virtual Arts Integration Conference! 

Susan is an Arts Integration Specialist and Consultant.  I found out about her and her arts integration work by following her blog Education Closet. (It’s a good one—definitely worth reading and re-visiting.)

We happen to live in the same state—Maryland—but I’ve never actually met her face-to-face! Susan is the Arts Integration Specialist for Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland, but she also serves as an Independent Arts Integration Consultant to several other districts in the United States.  I am thinking we should meet for lunch sometime….

Her idea for this Virtual Arts Integration Conference is, in my opinion, brilliant! Here’s how it works:

You register for the conference via the link on Education Closet. The web-based program “AnyMeeting” provides the platform for the live presentations. On July 31^st, you follow the login instructions you will receive, connect to the session, and you will be able to see your presenter’s screen and hear everything through the speakers on your computer.

Your registration gains you entry to the day’s sessions, unlimited lifetime access to the 8 session recordings, and ongoing access to the members-only conference community where you can engage and chat directly with other participants from around the world and the presenters. So, even if you are busy on July 31^st, you can still experience the sessions in their entirety.

Your conference fee also includes a copy of Susan’s book Shake The Sketch: An Arts Integration Notebook which will be mailed to you. The book is the focus of the first session, led by Susan from 9 – 10 AM (U.S. Eastern Daylight Time). Susan will start the conference day with an overview of Arts Integration at its best, visionary programs and practices, and a look at the basics of beginning an Arts Integration program.

My session is up next from 10 – 11 AM. I chose to call it “Drama Integration: The How and the What of Merging Drama and Curriculum.”

Since I only have an hour, I thought it would be best to focus on how teachers can and have used particular drama methodologies to engage students in meaningful curriculum-focused learning. I will share some photos, videos, examples, and resources, and then leave time for participant questions and comments.

From 11 – 12, Elizabeth Peterson, will lead the session on “Studio Days: Create, Reflect, Discover.” Studio Days give students the time to work on a project from start to finish, reflect on their process, and discover things about themselves as creators.  This concept sounds fabulous to me and I look forward to attending Elizabeth’s session. She is a creative teacher in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and the host of another excellent blog: The Inspired Classroom. (I read that blog regularly, too.) She has a Masters in Education, “Arts and Learning,” and is currently enrolled in a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies program through Plymouth State University with a focus in “Arts Leadership and Learning.”

Suzanne Parrish, a teacher and active artist in Fairfax County, Virginia presents “Creating Frameworks for Meaningful Learning” from 12 – 1 PM. She will help participants consider which teaching strategies can be effectively implemented to help students develop meaningful learning in the arts across the curriculum and look at learning frameworks within the classroom to design authentic experiences for students. Her goal for students: independent thinking and creative application of key understandings of standards-based education

Suzanne creates, teaches, and has advocated for the arts within and beyond the classroom including creating original opera, advising museums, presenting at conferences, managing student art contests for government officials and curating art public displays. Her passion is working with faculty and students to encourage and inspire arts integrated teaching and learning. I know I’ve met her through the Kennedy Center’s CETA program over the years and I am sure that she has a lot of tried-and-true ideas to share in this session.

Elizabeth Peterson returns in the 1 – 2 PM time slot to present “Integrating Music and Literacy.” The parallels that music and literacy share can increase students’ understanding of visualization, story structure, and the writing process. In this session, Elizabeth will help participants explore the natural connections between these two subjects and learn ways to integrate them within learning experiences.

If you’re looking for a way to showcase student learning and successes in your classroom and/or you want to advocate for arts integration, stick around for the 2 – 3 PM session led by Jessica Balsley: “Blogging as Advocacy.” Jessica founded The Art of Education, but what started as a blog grew into a catalog of 10+ online classes for Art Teachers, and an online magazine with daily articles, tips, tricks, videos, and discussions about the hottest issues in art education. She is also a K-5 Art Teacher in Iowa and a District Art facilitator who is passionate about relevant professional development opportunities for art educators.

In her session, learn how easy it can be to start your own blog and gain inside tricks from a professional blogger. The result could be enormous benefits to both you and the arts in your school. I am so looking forward to learning from her!

Ali Oliver-Krueger is a teaching artist, director, actor, classical singer and writer/composer. From 3 – 4 PM, she will lead the session called Musical Detectives: Practicing Inferencing Skills through Creative Opera.” Creative opera is an emerging form of creative drama in which music and drama are fused together to tell stories and express thoughts, ideas and feelings. Musical Detectives draws from the creative opera classroom strategies of active listening, guided imagery, and role-play to create a safe, fun environment for searching for clues within and drawing conclusions from grade level texts.

As a teaching artist and arts education professional, Ali has worked with schools, opera companies, and arts organizations throughout the U.S., including The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts and The John F. Kennedy Center Education Department. Ali’s work as a teaching artist is rooted in creative drama. I am so looking forward to learning how she has taken this work to new musical heights!

There is also a recorded session available all day long: “Making Meaning through Science and Art.” This session will explore some of the natural intersections in the processes, topics, and skills of art and of science that students encounter as they observe the world, develop their understandings, and communicate their thinking. It’s led by Nancy Ramsey, but I do not have any biographical information to share about her. (Sorry!)

Susan Riley will close out the day with “Shake the Sketch, Part 2” from 4 – 5 PM. She’ll focus on collaborative lesson planning, additional ways to assess Arts Integration, and how to implement the successful on-going professional development critical to any Arts Integration program. She will wrap up the Virtual Arts Integration Conference with some final thoughts and a special giveaway!

I know that there is already great interest in Connectivity: An Arts Integration Virtual Conference. An art teacher I grew up with in Rhode Island wrote me that she is going to attend. The Arts Infusion coordinator I am working for in Tennessee told me that he learned about it through a newsletter and definitely plans to participate. Because the online platform can only accommodate a certain number of connections, I know that space is limited. So, wherever you may be on July 31st, if you think you’d like to be a part of this innovative event, I’d recommend registering pretty soon!

Some people think that to put on a play, you just need to get a script, figure out who is going to play each role, and then start practicing. A lot of well-meaning people do it this way and actually make it through agonizing rehearsals, exhausting set and costume preparations, and the stresses of a production that seep into weeks and months of their lives. See, for example, a set of superb articles on one parent volunteer’s first-ever directing experience with 30 fifth graders and their parents. 

These articles illustrate humorously and touchingly what can happen when parents or other volunteers with little to no theatre background direct school theatre productions. It’s a big job and in many cases, these people deliver a production that makes everybody—performers and audience—feel good. And, on one level, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But to me, these performance experiences are like looking at a sports team wearing sparkling new uniforms, superb athletic footwear, and carrying the finest equipment—shiny balls, gleaming bats or sticks or rackets. The players take the field—the green manicured, white-lined field or the state-of-the art gymnasium. But when they begin to play, it becomes clear that no one has taught the players the basic skills of the game—the passes, the kicks, the dribbling, the catching. No one has had them practice those basic skills repeatedly and then helped the young players use them in the game. The kids will look good and they will try hard, but in the end, the experience is not nearly the quality it could be—for them or for anyone watching them.

Just because you’ve been in a play or two or seen a number of plays doesn’t mean you know how to direct one. Of course, I am making the case here for the value of hiring of theatre educators to do this important work.

The Basic Acting Tools (Body, Voice, Mind) and Skills (Cooperation, Concentration, Imagination)—They are all you really need for theatre of quality (and that looks different at every age level, of course). But, you need to work with young people so that the Tools and Skills are as solidly in place as possible and then build from that strong foundation. Then, to that foundation you can add the extras like costumes, make-up, sets, scenery, etc.—but not until the foundation is solid.

Theatre educators understand the use and the importance of physical and vocal warm-ups, theatre games, and concentration exercises. They know and use the vocabulary of the theatre with their student actors. In recent rehearsals, I’ve observed my grad students teaching and using terms like:

·      Places

·      Cues

·      Read-through

·      Walk-through

·      Stumble-through

·      Run-through

·      Off book

·      Ad lib

·      Actor’s Neutral

·      Blocking

·      Blocking to create focus—Triangles, Clusters, Levels

·      Call

·      Focus

·      Stage presence

·      Build

·      Holding for applause

·      Use of stage areas

·      Cue-to-cue run-throughs

·      Practicing and rehearsing transitions

·      Side-coaching

Theatre educators know a variety of Rehearsal Techniques to implement to alleviate monotony and infuse young actors with energy and expression, such as:

·      A Cue Bang or Speed Rehearsal

·      Play the gist of the scene using your own words

·      Whisper the scene

·      Mime the scene

·      Perform the scene in slow motion

Theatre educators do not (and should not) have to yell constantly to get the attention and cooperation of student actors. They understand that practically all aspects of their time with students have to be rehearsed—how to enter the rehearsal space, take breaks, and reassemble. One of my students taught her cast of 40 to sit in a circle if she played a major chord sequence on the piano and to gather in rows facing the stage if she played a minor chord sequence. When rehearsal breaks were over, she simply played the chords and the students assembled as rehearsed in the appropriate places. Another student rehearsed her cast to respond to the cue “Waterfall,” by running their fingers from the tops of their heads to their shoulders, shaying , “Shhh,” and ending in silence with their attention focused on the director and what she had to say next.

Do these “All-Quiet Prompts” always work? Of course not, but theatre educators begin the production process armed with the tools and skills of directors who have studied about and worked with young people. They understand how to create rehearsal schedules that reflect how much you actually can accomplish with students in a two-hour rehearsal. They understand how to vary rehearsal activities and keep the cast engaged and enthusiastic. And they understand that the whole process—performances and rehearsals—should be rewarding and fun.

You may also want to read:

In Educational Theatre, The Quality of the Production Does Matter

CUA MATE Students in Action

I am just wrapping up a semester in which I taught a course on classroom drama strategies completely online. I learned more than my students did, in many respects, and I am wrapping up this experience feeling highly enthusiastic about how the course evolved and the enormous potential for arts education online. Following are some of my thoughts about what worked.

Creating Community Online

The course assignments were posted on the University of Richmond’s Blackboard system, but what really made the course work, in my opinion, was the online software that I use. Webex Meeting Center allowed the students and I to connect and see each other via web cams and speak directly to all in attendance.

Each student signed on from home every other Thursday night from 8:00 – 9:30 PM. Seeing the faces, expressions, and gestures of whomever was speaking, and hearing voices, laughter, and reactions to whatever was being shared made the online experience so enjoyable. Recent articles I’ve read report that the lack of face-to-face contact is a major cause of students’ dissatisfaction with distance education. They may love the convenience of online learning, but they miss the classroom community.

This ability to see and hear one another was the strongest contributor to the community in our class. We all looked forward to our Thursday night meetings during which students would share the PowerPoints, videos, and written products that they had created:

“I think that the online class meetings have been the best part of the class itself.  It is nice to share all the work that we have done and more importantly, it is really great to be able to see other teachers’ ideas and work with the same activities.”

“I have taken other online classes in which our reflections and projects were all posted on the discussion board. I really enjoyed meeting online and sharing our presentations from my classmates.  I felt it really brought meaning to the class.”

“I have loved getting online and seeing what everyone has accomplished and had problems with.”

“I think that online meetings have also been extremely beneficial.  It has been great to see these strategies used from K-12th grade and even to see how the same strategy worked out at the same grade level.  I would definitely take another class similar to this one in format and topic!”

(Another amazing feature of this software: I can record all sessions so that any student who has to miss a class can access the recording and view it at another time. See photos that follow this post.)

Videos

Because our focus was on the use of drama strategies for active classroom learning experiences, video examples of the work in action were a crucial component of the online course. The students had book chapters and articles to read, but because we were not able to try out the various drama strategies together as a group of adult learners, videos were key.

“I have so enjoyed the combination of videos and readings. The videos made things so clear.”

I had already created a number of short instructional videos, but offering this course made it imperative that I go through my files and create more. I posted videos on Vimeo that showed students creating Tableaux of historical and literary moments, presenting Human Slide Shows of sequences of events in episodes from history, writing and rehearsing and performing Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre, and participating in Character Interviews. I also revised several PowerPoint presentations that explain the drama strategies step-by-step in words and images. I saved them as movie files and posted them on Vimeo as well.

Without the videos to reinforce the readings, I know that the course would not have been nearly as effective. The videos of the drama work elucidated the text explanations and validated the use of the drama strategy with real students.

It takes a lot of time to do the initial videoing, edit the clips so that they give a good sense of the drama strategy in action, and then post the finished product on the Internet, but it’s a learning tool that we all have the ability to take advantage of. Because of sites like YouTube, people are quite tolerant of less than perfect videos. I believe that, more and more, students will expect videos to illustrate the methods that they are reading about because making and sharing them online is really so easy. It’s my opinion that video is especially critical to the success of online learning meant to result in helping students be able to do new things as opposed to just attaining new knowledge and information.

Assignments

My hunch that my students would benefit more from sharing the drama work that they did with their own students than from writing papers and taking tests proved to be totally correct. Their major course assignments were to create PowerPoint presentations and videos to share during our online meetings. My Webex software allows me to pass control of the screen to any participant who can then share anything from his or her own computer.

So, as in a face-to-face class meeting, students shared how they put theory into practice (what went well, what was problematic), but working online always meant that we got to see photos and videos of the actual work a classmate was talking about.

“I also really appreciate that the class is based on performance and projects rather than tests and papers.  I feel like I have learned so much more about Human Slide Show and Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre by doing them with my students than I would have had I taken a test on the information.  And I think our power points and videos are so much more interesting and insightful than a written paper would be.”

Future Arts Education Online

I am hoping to offer this university course again and others, too. This spring I am conducting a course to train teachers in Shelby County, Tennessee Arts Infusion Schools to present Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre to other teachers. And this training will occur completely online! Next school year, the Kennedy Center’s CETA program is sponsoring its first online course and I will get to design and deliver it.

I have learned so much and each online teaching opportunity adds to my understanding and, I hope, the quality of the experience for the participants.

If you have any ideas or practices that have worked for you in this arena, please leave me a comment.

Attention Classroom Teachers and Theatre Teaching Artists: The Drama Department of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC is pleased to announce a Masters degree program focused on Creative Teaching through Drama. And—you don’t have to live in the DC area to pursue this course of studies. You can even choose to complete this degree over the course of 3 Summers.

Theatre and Teaching

Theatre and teaching have a lot in common. Both experiences are and always will be overwhelmingly face-to-face interactions with other human beings.

Theatre is an intense presence in the moment—in the present, the now. So is Teaching—for the most part. That shared quality is the first of many reasons for launch of a new track of the already successful Master of Arts in Theatre Education degree program. This new track, Creative Teaching through Drama, emphasizes coursework in drama as a learning method.

Among the arts, drama is an especially powerful tool for actively engaging students in their learning and increasing comprehension of a wide variety of subjects. This new track of the MATE degree program will offer teachers and teaching artists a background in the art form of theatre, further grounding in selected Education courses, and knowledge and practice in proven drama teaching methods.

There are many ways to get the initials M.A. to appear in your title—especially with the multitude of online degree options out there. But here at CUA, we believe in the value of working together in real time and in the same room. Yes, you’ll have to get dressed and travel to get to classes. Yes, it will cost more, but ultimately these group interactions—like live theatre experiences— are so worth it.

Why?

Work with a community of learners that becomes a community of colleagues.

Again and again, my students tell me that the MATE program has enriched them in more ways than merely what they’ve learned in their coursework. They love getting to know other like-minded people and they learn a lot from one another—opportunities, ideas, and methods.

They share their victories and their challenges. They help one another with advice and they support one another by doing things like:

·      attending productions a classmate has directed or is performing in

·      offering one another opportunities to work with their students

·      lending each other books for courses

·      communicating online

·      getting together socially—all leading, in many cases, to lasting friendships

You will become a better, more effective teacher and you’ll get greater satisfaction out of your work.

Our goal for the Drama courses in the MATE is to offer information and practice in active, engaging, meaningful student learning through drama. Again and again our students report the immediate applicability of course methods and materials in their own work—whether it be a classroom drama strategy that worked, a production design or application they were able to implement, or a new approach to teaching something they already teach.

We work to put theory into practice. We work to focus on the educational uses of drama that are inspiring, renewing, and worthwhile, and even—fun! We believe that when kids learn better and enjoy the learning—YOU become a better teacher and more thoroughly enjoy your work.

Learn not just the why of the work, but the HOW.

As I wrote in a previous post, there are lots of published articles that strongly promote the advantages of the arts in students’ education. These pieces declare a wide range of benefits for students, but they are all focused on WHY when teachers and teaching artists need HOW.

How do you use the arts to capture students’ imaginations and creativity? Then, how do you channel those in productive ways?

That’s our focus in the MATE program: Again—Theory Into Practice—Beyond WHY and into HOW. Theatre and drama in our schools can contribute to motivating, compelling, and challenging educational experiences with observable benefits for students and for teachers. But not until you know HOW.

Receive the support of a caring, knowledgeable, well-connected Faculty.

The Drama Department will be here for you during and after your degree work. We are a small community that offers person-to person guidance and coaching.

The faculty has proven again and again its ability to co-create and tailor the educational experiences of the MATE students. We help students design projects that meet individual goals and needs. We help them integrate proven practices with new ideas to pursue areas of interest like:

·      intense observation of a master teacher in action

·      writing and producing an original one-act play with students

·      creating written materials for young theatre audiences

·      developing and integrating drama strategies to enhance the study of the Science curriculum

·      designing and building a set that works on a school stage—(even students who are convinced that they cannot draw!)

·      implementing and reflecting on the use of drama with students with learning disabilities

·      writing and submitting articles to educational theatre publications

We believe we offer our students the greatest exposure and capability to work in ways that they don’t even know exist yet. We try to challenge them to stretch themselves and accomplish far more than they even believed possible at the start of the MATE program.

You can make a career out of doing what you love.

One of my favorite sayings: “Do what you love; the money will follow.” I am a firm believer that people can combine their love of teaching with their belief in the value of drama for learning, but achieving this goal involves another favorite saying: “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”

A degree is one of the few things in life that can never be taken away from you. You can get married—but you can also become widowed or divorced. You can lose a home. Your car can be repossessed. But once you’ve earned it, your degree is your degree for life. I believe it is so worth the time and money to earn a degree that will prepare you to do work that you love.

My mission is to teach a new generation of leaders in the field.

One final note: My personal professional goal in this work is to prepare and energize the future leaders in this field. I fully intend for my students to be the authors of the books, articles, and videos—not merely the receivers of information, but the producers. I try to instill them with the confidence to be the drama educators who will make a difference in the future.

My ultimate personal goal: I plan to be reading about my students and their excellent work when I am lounging on a beach in Florida thinking of the next restaurant that will honor my Senior Citizens Discount!

You may also want to read:

Earn a Masters Degree in Three Summers

CUA MATE Students in Action

Here’s a statement by adults that I imagine many of you have heard regarding educational theatre productions (or school plays): “We are not concerned with the quality of the performance; we are more concerned with the experience that the students have in the process.” Initially, this sentiment sounds admirable and reasonable.

But I got to thinking—would these adults make the same statement regarding, say, a math test? “We are not concerned with the quality of the performance; we are more concerned with the experience that the students have in the process.”

In most other school subjects and activities, the product is just as important as the process. Good math class experiences are intended to produce good performances on tests. Athletic teams practice hard to deliver the best possible performances in competition.

When it comes to theatre production with young people, I firmly believe that their experiences in auditions, rehearsals, and presentations (the process) should be positive, affirming, and confidence building. I also believe that when the product that these same students work on is a high-quality theatrical production, they reap even greater benefits.

Unfortunately, I have seen too many instances of school theatrical productions that are unnecessarily weak, and when this fact does not bother the adults, it’s because “the kids all had such a good time.” I know that it’s completely possible for everyone involved—students, production staff, and audience—to have a good time and also deliver a strong performance. But there are some obstacles to this that I have repeatedly observed over the years. My list follows.

Biggest Obstacles to Quality in Educational Theatre

(*Elementary through High School)

Too many students in the cast. While the goal of including as many students as possible is certainly admirable, it’s often not feasible. Sometimes school stages are just too small to accommodate a cast of hundreds. Often, there’s not nearly enough adult supervision for a large number of student performers during rehearsals or backstage during performances. And usually, an inadequate amount of rehearsal time and planning has been allotted to coordinate the entrances and exits—let alone the acting, blocking, choreography, and singing—of huge cast productions.

I’ve heard of some schools that require every student to participate in the theatrical production. Aside from exhausting the energy of the director and stretching his or her ability to create enough roles, this stipulation sometimes backfires when resistant students are uncooperative. Being in the play becomes a punishment instead of a privilege.

Too ambitious a production. In other words—the show or the script is too long or too complicated or above the ability level of the student actors. Or there is too much concern with staging a “name” production rather than considering the available time and talent of the participants. And no one is thinking about the potential audiences who have to sit through long, under-rehearsed presentations.

Too little time devoted to rehearsals. “Budget one hour of rehearsal for every minute of stage time,” says Aaron Frankel, author of Writing the Broadway Musical. So, for a 60-minute production, professional actors would probably rehearse 60 hours. Student actors, arguably, would need even more time. Sixty hours of rehearsal broken down into 2-hour segments would mean 30 rehearsals; meeting twice a week would result in a 15-week rehearsal schedule; three rehearsals a week would be a 10-week rehearsal schedule. (And this is for a one-hour production.)

You could argue that the time allotments above are too much, but my main point is that overwhelmingly, student actors and their directors work on too much material in too little rehearsal time.

Overemphasis on costumes, make-up, scenery, and props. There’s nothing wrong with great costumes, make-up, scenery, and props, but when those production elements outshine the performances of the student actors, I always feel that there’s been a misalignment of priorities. Solid, strong performances by students in T-shirts and jeans on a bare stage always trump weak, poorly prepared performances by actors in gorgeous costumes on ornate sets.

Not enough emphasis on the Basic Acting Tools—Body, Voice, and Imagination—and Skills—Concentration and Cooperation. Very young students can be taught to project their voices, speak with expression, vary vocal tone and pitch to create character voices, articulate, and speak slowly enough to be understood. They can be coached to use their bodies—to modify posture, poses, gestures, and movements—and their facial expressions to communicate the thoughts and feelings of characters. They can contribute imaginative ideas for character portrayals and solutions to stage problems.

They may need practice, but students can maintain their concentration while acting. They can focus intently on playing their roles, remain in character, control inappropriate laughter, and disregard actions and noises unrelated to what’s happening on stage. In terms of cooperation—or the theatrical term “ensemble”—students respond well to the expectation that they are part of a community of actors who work together and support each other as members of a team. These Acting Tools and Skills are the core of all excellent theatrical performances.

The Director has little to no theatre background. Often a teacher or parent who has volunteered or been pressured into directing a school theatrical is not nearly skilled or prepared enough to do this big job well. In many cases, they do not even know what they do not know.

The Director has theatre background, but little to no experience working with young people. An educated and experienced theatre director who expects students to work like adult professional actors, who confuses hollering with directing, and understands little about how to harness the energies of student actors rarely delivers a satisfying theatrical experience for anyone involved.

The concerns of the adults take precedence over what’s good for the student actors. A few examples: Adults who complain about a child’s small role when, really, all that child is ready for is a small role. Adults who want their child to sing a solo part when his or her voice really is not suited for solo singing. Adults who push children who are too young to be on stage because they’re so cute.  Adults who insist on taking photos and videos when they have been asked not to.

There’s certainly more that can be added to my list, so please join the conversation by leaving a comment. High-quality theatrical productions with young people are attainable and valuable, but they may require readjusting some firmly embedded ways of thinking and working.

I’ve been reading lots of articles lately that strongly promote the advantages of the arts in education. They declare a wide range of benefits for students, such as:

• Enthusiasm for learning in children of all ages
• Responsibility, self-discipline, and focus
• Stronger problem-solving and critical thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement, school success, and scores well above their peers on SAT exams
• Instruction that is active and involves multiple modes of perception through different “intelligences”—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
• A way to help troubled youth by offering an alternative to destructive behavior
• Opportunities for parental, community, and business involvement with schools
• Development of a positive work ethic and pride in a job well done
• Creative thinking that involves exercising intuition, gathering information, exploring options, taking risks, making choices, refining solutions, crafting a product, and sharing the end product with others
• Sustained attention and practice, hard work, self-discipline, craftsmanship, and patience

To be sure, these are all wonderful benefits and I’ve witnessed actual examples of them all in my career. But, in my opinion, these advocacy articles fall short by addressing only the WHY of arts in education: “Here’s WHY we should be sure the arts are a part of every student’s education: … (See above.)”

To me, there’s now enough WHY out there. I think teachers (and the general public, too) need more about HOW. How can teachers use arts methodologies to reach and engage students in meaningful ways? The communication of HOW has become one of my missions with this blog.

So, here’s today’s attempt at moving beyond WHY and into HOW:

I recently read a good article on the topic of readers theatre. I agreed with the author’s recommendations: “In the upper grades, students can create their own scripts individually or with a group…. Teachers should ensure that vocabulary words and definitions are repeated throughout the script.”

Yes, they can, and yes, they should. But HOW? There’s a lot more to implementing the good arts idea than there is to asserting it. So, here’s how I’ve found it works to prepare students in the upper grades to create a script:

First, Create a Collaborative Script with Students

1. Choose a curriculum topic for the script.

2. Limit script length by limiting the amount of information it will include.

3. Create a list of the information to include in the script.

4. Establish yourself as the Head Playwright.

5. Choose the context of the script.

6. Provide the opening lines of the script.

7. Tell students what the topic of the collaborative script is, the information it will include, and how the script will begin.

8. Encourage students’ ideas for adding to the script.

9. Record the lines.

10. Read through, edit, and continue to add lines to the script.

Of course, there’s a lot more to it than just following a list of steps, so I hope the video that follows provides an even greater insight into HOW to involve students productively in an arts in education—in this case, theatre arts—classroom learning experience.

One of the arts integrated teaching strategies that has been greeted most enthusiastically in my work is the one I call Human Slide Shows. Also called “Freeze-Frames” and simply “Slide Show,” here’s how the drama strategy works:

A group of students playing characters create several Tableaux or slides. When these slides are presented in sequence, they show the progression of events in a scene from a text or an episode in history. Although the student actors remain frozen in each individual slide, the slide show depicts a sequence of action.

The student actors vary their poses and facial expressions from one slide to the next. This Human Slide Show is a synthesis of their decisions about 1.) which events or moments within the scene are the most important  to represent as slides, 2.) the order of events—what happened first, second, third, etc., 3.) how characters in this dramatic circumstance would likely think, feel, and move, and 4.) how actors use their faces and bodies to communicate actions, circumstances, and emotions.

In each slide, the student actors remain silent, still, expressive, and focused as they strike the rehearsed sequence of poses. 

Observers participate in the Human Slide Show presentation by closing their eyes when cued with the word, “Blackout” to simulate a lighting blackout while actors change positions. When they hear the cue, “Lights up,” observers open their eyes to view each slide.

It’s a simple, but powerful classroom drama technique. My grad students have been examining their curriculum materials  (from Kindergarten to 12^th grade) for Human Slide Show possibilities and they’ve come up with quite a few illustrative sequences, which I’ll share here. The video that follows will more fully explain the drama strategy with photos of students performing Human Slide Shows.

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (1967)             (Special thanks to KD)

1.    Dally, Johnny and Ponyboy sit behind Marcia and Cherry at the movies.

2.    Dally arrives and starts taunting the girls who try to ignore him. Johnny and Ponyboy are extremely embarrassed by Dally.

 3. Cherry finally turns around and talks. This amuses Dally and humiliates Ponyboy and Johnny.

 4. Ponyboy and Cherry walk to the concessions stand. Dally and Johnny sit with Marcia.

The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (1995)    (Special thanks to SL)

1.    Joetta spreads her arms and stands between Momma and Byron while Kenny watches.  Joetta is begging her mother not to hurt Byron.

2.    Momma picks up Joetta and moves her aside.  Byron watches fearfully.

3.    Momma goes to light a match and burn Byron’s fingers.

4.    Momma consoles Joetta and explains she doesn’t want to hurt Byron, but has to.

5.    Momma lights another match and Joetta blows out the match.

The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (1995)    (Special thanks to KD)

1.    Byron checks himself out in the side view mirror while Kenny clears snow and ice off the car.

2.    Byron gets his lips stuck to the side view mirror because he was kissing his reflection. Kenny looks on in disbelief.

3.    Byron tries to free himself as Kenny runs inside for help. The family looks to see what happened.

4.    Momma pulls Byron’s head and rips his lips from the mirror.

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe (1987)     

(Special thanks to SL)

1.    Nyasha and her father descend the hill toward the city gates.

2.    Manyara runs up to her sister crying and hysterical.

3.    Manyara begs her sister not to go see the King.

4.    Nyasha comforts her sister but heads inside to see the King.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)

(Special thanks to CS)

1.    Max make mischief and his mother sends him to his room.

2.    Max lands at the island of the wild things and they growled at him.

3.    Max tells them to be still.

4.    Max becomes king of the wild things and they all have a big party.

5.    Max says goodbye and ends up in his own room.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605)            

(Special thanks to HC)

1.    Macbeth kills King Duncan.

2.    Macbeth meets with Lady Macbeth still holding the bloody daggers.

3.    Lady Macbeth returns to the murder scene and frames the guards.

4.    Other lords arrive to wake the king.

5.    They discover that the king has been murdered.

   “Landing in Plymouth: The Voyage”            

(Special thanks to KS)

1.    The Pilgrims board a ship call the Mayflower to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

2.    They live in cramped quarters on board the ship.  Each person has about the space of a small bed.

3.    They hit a period of severe storms. The Pilgrims are uncertain if the Mayflower is strong enough to withstand the storms.

4.    After more than two months at sea, the Pilgrims spot land.

Abel’s Island by William Steig (1976)

(Special thanks to RS)

1.    Abel seeks shelter from a huge storm in a cave with wife, Amanda, and many other friends.

2.    Strong winds pull away Amanda’s scarf.

3.    Abel leaps to grab the scarf.

4.    Abel gets pulled by the storm and gets lost in a flood.

5.    Amanda screams for Abel.