Hi All,
I got so many great ideas. I can't wait to share them with the teacher on
Monday. Thanks to all. Here is the hit:
What about having the students use technology as part of a speech to inform?
They could choose a famous person and use powerpoint to create a
presentation that inbeds video or podcasts.
***********************
Why don't they video tape each other reading humorous interpretations or
dramatic speeches from famous plays and upload them to the school's website
or an internal website for class viewing. Anything they can do with voice
can be adapted to video and they can work on the editing and producing side
of drama.
***********************
My high school drama teacher had us read/research a play of our choosing and
then redesign the stage and setting for the play. (I worked on a play by
Eugene Ionesco) For the project we also had to reassign the actors to be
thespians from the present time. We didn't use much technology but it could
be a fun transition to add that to the assignment. It was one of my
favorite projects of all time.
***********************
How about anything with Photo story.. they can pick out their favorite play,
find scenes, or even just pictures and read or adlib sections...
I had a music teacher do a CD case of a favorite musician--good research,
but not technology.. if you add a tech component--show the case on a
document camera if you have it-- or put a picture of the musician/actor on a
PowerPoint and show the CD case..
***********************
How about taking a picture book or favorite folk tale and adapting it for
Reader's theater? The students would have to use critical thinking skills to
distill the story to the spoken word. They would have to use library access
skills to locate a suitable title. They would have to use their writing
skills in the adaptation but then they would use their Drama/Theater skills
to produce the show.
I just did something similar with a group of our at-risk kids and their
fluency increased, their reading delivery improved, and they seemed to enjoy
the entire process - and these are kids that have somewhat given up on
school.
What about having students research a time period on theatre and then
write a one page paper with MLA citations which culminates in a filmed
monologue?
***********************
With our "Iowa Core Curriculum," we are encouraged to do projects that are
"real world" experiences. If you have a theater group in town--maybe the
students could reserach the upcoming play and make a brochure that they or
the theater group could pass out. Talk to the public library people and see
if you could do a display on the history of theater. Have any movies been
made in your state/town???--reserach that and send to Chamber of
Commerce--or see if you could post on a state tourism website . .
***********************
This isn't a fully formed lesson idea, but maybe you could do something
related to the Open Source Shakespeare website:
http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/
It has a pretty neat search feature that allows you to search by work,
character, genre. It compiles interesting statistics of the plays (how
many times certain words occur, etc.). Within a play, it lets you click
on a character and see all of that character's lines.
***********************
I have a drama class in my library this week working on a project that they
started in class. They have written storybooks for kindergarten through
third grade on bullying. In my lab they have used a template that I created
for them for their books using Publisher. Using http://www.sumopaint.com/
or finding graphics they are then illustrating their books. The teacher is
taking their finished products to the local office supply store where they
will be printed in color. They will then read their storybooks to the
nearby elementary school. They will also record themselves reading their
books on Flip and create podcasts which can then be accessible through our
school website.
***********************
Why don't you have them create a dramatic library orientation? Have them
dress and be famous historical personages or neighborhood characters and
talk about the different Dewey ranges. Something mysterious for the 001-99
shelf Unexplained Mysteries - Bigfoot, Yetis, etc.; - maybe Bill Gates for
the computer aspects, 100 - Dr. Freud, etc. 200 - Moses and Buddha,
Hercules, etc., 300 - Immigrants & the Statue of Liberty, 398.2 - Folk and
Fairy Tale Characters, - you get the idea!
***********************
A couple of things that I thought might be fun as a former theatre teacher
myself
1: Have students read a historical play and then research other eras in
which it could reasonably be set.
or, design historically accurate costumes, props and scenery for the play
2: Have students write a script based on a book from the library; a picture
book would be the quickest for this kind of project
3: I've seen English teachers have students 'cast' the movie of a particular
book; the library component would involve finding photos or other
justification for their choice of actor, pairing it up with description from
the book
4: Theatre history is always a good library type project, I had my students
research a particular era (like ancient Greek theatre) focusing on what made
it unique or what was especially important about it (for example, when
Thespis, the first actor, stepped out of the chorus and first played a role)
and then create a 'living' timeline, a tableau that illustrated the era. If
you wanted to go all out with this, they could even do costumes, props and
scenery for this and you could present it to the whole school, like a wax
museum. The extra challenge for the acting students is to stay frozen as
their classmates try to make them laugh or move. You could also have a
large 'button' to make the display talk or move (like the animatronic
displays you see in some museums) and the students could deliver a little
blurb about the era(or even a short scene). If you do go this route, I'd
recommend doing one class at a time walking through, and make sure to give
the actors a break between classes. (Incidentally, this could also be fun in
conjunction with the social studies teachers; they could have their students
write up/design the display and the actors could simply be the performers)
***********************
Karen Manassa-Walstein
Teacher-Librarian
Old Bridge High School - Grade Nine Center
Old Bridge, NJ
mets53@comcast.net
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