https://docs.google.com/document/d/1koIC1xdX0URtpqbOFd0OU33721hxzHz7SMkdlcGhv4Q/edit?usp=sharing
Reflecting on this project, I am unsure if I would use it in my high school class. Although I did enjoy many aspects of this project, it just seems a bit too unbridled and individualistic for high school students. That being said, I believe this project was appropriate for both our age and skill level. We were given the freedom to discuss what we wanted to, which was way fun to explore where our lives and opinions intersected.
I still believe that an overall theme would have been helpful. Our guided discussions at the beginning where pretty helpful at accomplishing an individual theme for our performance, but I was still not sure about what was expected of us. I would have also appreciated to see more examples since I was kind of unsure about what was expected, despite having a grading rubric.
If I were to adapt this project for high school students, I would have formatted it to align with a theme we were already discussing as a class or with an "essential question" we were discovering. This would help the adolescent artists to not feel too overwhelmed.
Another way I could adapt this to my future classroom is to have it specific to a text or common core standard. English teachers are meant to use literature to teach standards, so having a play that doesn't accomplish specific common core standards would be useless. There are a few ways I could incorporate these standards in, such as using a standard about referencing or using quotes in a final product since this was verbatim theater. Or I could have students adapt a piece of literature or scene to fit verbatim theater. This could be done in several ways- have them choose a theme from the text and create a small performance around that theme or have students use an already written story line and portray it on stage by using supplemental quotes from themselves and other individuals outside the classroom.
As an artist, I did learn some new things during this process. I found it fascinating how much art and life intersect and how theater can explore the same kinds of things that traditional art and literature discuss. I found how theater expresses some things better than what literature can. For example, movements can be incredibly telling for a feeling. Writing down a scene where a person is frantically throwing off clothing that is being piled upon them is not as engaging as actually seeing it.
I was going to talk about how theater lacks the ability to show inner thoughts and feelings, but then I remembered the nature of our verbatim theater performance. Some lines that I spoke originally were performed by my peers as they were dressing me. These lines gave snippets of feelings from a wide variety of people and were successful in expressing feeling without having the original person saying it.
I also found the process to be very interesting. I had never written a play, especially one where we had to come up with a "story line" instead of basing it off of an already written text.
I believe I did a fair share of contribution. However, I am a little disappointed that I was unable to perform my meager three lines of talking while the others had many. I was happy our group was always in class each time and everyone was willing to participate. I feel that we all had good insights for our project and that we all contributed. I do think there was an imbalance in who provided the technology aspect. I am grateful to those who were able to spend time on the media parts of the performance since I definitely didn't have time to clip the videos, time them, and layer audio. I was very happy with the outcome.
My specific contributions were mainly on the visual aspects, including how we can incorporate the key text of "You are Special" and reflecting the movement of taking off stickers like in the book by having me take off articles of clothing. Other than that, I think we all contributed equally in the creation of the overall story line, mostly from bouncing ideas off of each other and building on other's ideas to create our end product.
Overall, I did enjoy this project. I think it is a great way to give students artistic freedom and to have them comment on issues or themes in their own lives. I don't think this specific project could be done in high school since it is so subjective and independent, but I do think variations where it has to be specific to a text or to an essential question could be used in my class. I was happy to work with the members in my group and we all worked together to complete the project.
Reflecting on this project, I am unsure if I would use it in my high school class. Although I did enjoy many aspects of this project, it just seems a bit too unbridled and individualistic for high school students. That being said, I believe this project was appropriate for both our age and skill level. We were given the freedom to discuss what we wanted to, which was way fun to explore where our lives and opinions intersected.
I still believe that an overall theme would have been helpful. Our guided discussions at the beginning where pretty helpful at accomplishing an individual theme for our performance, but I was still not sure about what was expected of us. I would have also appreciated to see more examples since I was kind of unsure about what was expected, despite having a grading rubric.
If I were to adapt this project for high school students, I would have formatted it to align with a theme we were already discussing as a class or with an "essential question" we were discovering. This would help the adolescent artists to not feel too overwhelmed.
Another way I could adapt this to my future classroom is to have it specific to a text or common core standard. English teachers are meant to use literature to teach standards, so having a play that doesn't accomplish specific common core standards would be useless. There are a few ways I could incorporate these standards in, such as using a standard about referencing or using quotes in a final product since this was verbatim theater. Or I could have students adapt a piece of literature or scene to fit verbatim theater. This could be done in several ways- have them choose a theme from the text and create a small performance around that theme or have students use an already written story line and portray it on stage by using supplemental quotes from themselves and other individuals outside the classroom.
As an artist, I did learn some new things during this process. I found it fascinating how much art and life intersect and how theater can explore the same kinds of things that traditional art and literature discuss. I found how theater expresses some things better than what literature can. For example, movements can be incredibly telling for a feeling. Writing down a scene where a person is frantically throwing off clothing that is being piled upon them is not as engaging as actually seeing it.
I was going to talk about how theater lacks the ability to show inner thoughts and feelings, but then I remembered the nature of our verbatim theater performance. Some lines that I spoke originally were performed by my peers as they were dressing me. These lines gave snippets of feelings from a wide variety of people and were successful in expressing feeling without having the original person saying it.
I also found the process to be very interesting. I had never written a play, especially one where we had to come up with a "story line" instead of basing it off of an already written text.
I believe I did a fair share of contribution. However, I am a little disappointed that I was unable to perform my meager three lines of talking while the others had many. I was happy our group was always in class each time and everyone was willing to participate. I feel that we all had good insights for our project and that we all contributed. I do think there was an imbalance in who provided the technology aspect. I am grateful to those who were able to spend time on the media parts of the performance since I definitely didn't have time to clip the videos, time them, and layer audio. I was very happy with the outcome.
My specific contributions were mainly on the visual aspects, including how we can incorporate the key text of "You are Special" and reflecting the movement of taking off stickers like in the book by having me take off articles of clothing. Other than that, I think we all contributed equally in the creation of the overall story line, mostly from bouncing ideas off of each other and building on other's ideas to create our end product.
Overall, I did enjoy this project. I think it is a great way to give students artistic freedom and to have them comment on issues or themes in their own lives. I don't think this specific project could be done in high school since it is so subjective and independent, but I do think variations where it has to be specific to a text or to an essential question could be used in my class. I was happy to work with the members in my group and we all worked together to complete the project.
Sierra, it's great to read about your experience with this assignment and how you are grappling with how this project, if at all, could fit in a high school English classroom. Great job!
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