Our Town at J.L. Mann High School- Drama II Classes

 The majority of this blog shows my production of "Our Town", which I had both Drama II classes perform for each other. This was in an effort to continue the work they had been practicing when I started teaching, as well as a chance to see how other people make character choices. I think it also gives them the opportunity to see where interpretations differ, and help them think, analyze, and critique. Both classes worked very hard, and we had so many people come, parents and faculty included, that there wasn't even standing room available. I was very proud of each student and the hard work they put in to make the production so successful in a minimalist fashion. 

This first set of pictures is from one of the Drama II classes. I will post the other class as soon as I am able to have a few minutes to find and upload.

 Drama II- SNL Skits & Original Comedy

Drama II Class Learning about hanging lights

Student learning to change gels

Drama = English = Drama

When you teach Drama, you are also teaching social skills, playing parental roles, dealing with emotions, building, creating, and teaching from core subjects. I know a lot of Theatre Teachers who do NOT include core subjects into their curriculum, but I find it a necessary task. It helps the students learn your material, but it also helps them look at their other classes from a different perspective.

A large portion of Drama entails being able to read and infer from the text given within a play. If a student is unable to do this, or decode correctly, then they are most likely doing poorly in their Language Arts class.

While I was student teaching, I noticed that with each test I gave there seemed to be one consistent problem from all of the students (who were mostly juniors and seniors). They could not write essays. Some wouldn't try at all, others would draw pictures, some would put their heads down, and a couple would just draw a big X. As I was administering the second test of the semester, I was walking around the room and noticed that the same thing was happening again. At this point, I knew it wasn't just one student, but an entire classroom that had been left behind. I immediately stopped the test and took them all up. They all thought they were in trouble, but instead, I pulled up a chair and said we were going to have a town hall meeting. I explained that I noticed that there were some issues with the tests that I was giving, and I wanted some honest feedback so we could fix the problem. It took a little prodding at first, but finally one young man raised his hand and said that he was fine with the T/F, Short Answer, and Multiple Choice, but he didn't know how to write a 5-paragraph essay. I was absolutely stunned because he was a Senior. This opened the door to a conversation where I realized that I had a duty, not only as a teacher, but as a human being, to teach all 37 kids how to write an essay. I told them to finish the test up to the point of the essay, and to attempt to write it, but that I would not grade that portion. Meanwhile, I went home to figure out how to fix this problem. I knew that they could not go to college and not have the ability to write a simple paragraph, or even spell simple words.

I decided to do the next and final unit on Playwriting. I made up a PowerPoint, which I will attach here and explained how to write a short scene, which they were required to do. They also learned vocabulary and other terminology that should have been taught as a freshman, possibly earlier. 

Here is a copy of the PowerPoint that I made for that Class

After teaching this, I started a conversation about what was causing the problems of writing essays. Some had anxiety, while others simply didn't know what to do. I took the time to stop and show them how to write an essay, avoid being anxious, and tricks to rely upon when they got stuck. It was a couple of long, sticky weeks, but the next test I received an essay on every single test. Some of them had a way to go, as far as writing style, spelling, sentence structure, etc., but they ALL tried and I knew that they had been listening because I saw some of the strategies I had given them over to the side, or by the way they constructed the essay. I had no doubt that as they continued in other classes, they would now have the confidence to improve with each and every essay they wrote. I was able to leave that experience knowing that I had made a difference, and that each of these students now had the tools they needed to succeed in this area. 

I Learned To Read At The Age of 3

I am one of the lucky ones in this life. I learned to read at the age of 3. While some people have a hard time believing this to be true, I felt that I didn't have a choice. Ever night at bedtime, my mom would let me pick out books for her to read to me. I had bookcases full of books with literally every type you can imagine. I, however, was a stubborn, fiery child who had at approximately 12-15 books picked out each evening. Plus, we always ended with a story that my mother had made up about a blue bird and her nest. 

You can imagine that reading that many books each night tended to get tedious, especially when she had another 1 & 1/2 year old, and one cooking in the oven. She decided to start skipping sentences, sometimes pages, until sometimes the stories were so short they didn't feel like stories at all. She knew that I would refuse to go to bed unless every single book had been read, plus the blue bird story. My Dad was traveling with the 1982 World's Fair, so he wasn't there to help with the mayhem each evening.

One night she decided to cut the blue bird story short. She thought that I didn't notice because I didn't say anything, but when she left the room I remember laying there and thinking about the parts that she left out. I made it a goal right then and there that this could not happen again. What if she was leaving out parts of Cinderella?

I started paying attention the next night by having her use her finger to guide through each sentence she read. I don't think she really caught on at first, but I was memorizing what the words looked like. And with the help of Sesame Street, I was able to catch on pretty quickly. Then the gig was up. We laugh about it now, but I'm thankful that she did that, and that I was so stubborn, because it has instilled a lifetime of reading appreciation and literacy promotion for me, my brother, and my little sister. 

Peace and Love!