Transcript aiken county

LEADERS IN LITERACY
CONFERENCE
Theatre and Literacy
Aiken County Public School District
January 13, 2017
Christian Sturgis-Edwards
Theatre Teacher and Arts Grants Manager
East Aiken School of the Arts
[email protected]
Essential Question
• How can theatre be used to improve student
achievement in literacy?
• How can the lesson examples provided in this
presentation be adapted to teach my content area?
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Presenters Meeting Outcomes
• Develop a common understanding of arts
integration.
• Develop strategies and discuss theatre activities to
integrate into multiple subject areas.
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A little about me….
• I graduated with a B.A. in Theatre education from Winthrop University.
• I began teaching theatre at the middle school level and then went on to
teach high school theatre for six years. Now I am teaching elementary
theatre in Aiken!
• I am the grants manager for East Aiken School of the Arts. We are
recipients of the Distinguished Arts Program grant (DAP), as well as the Arts
in Basic Curriculum grant (ABC).
• I am an advocate for arts integration and believe in the power of the arts!
• Who are you? What do you teach?
• What do you wish to gain from this presentation?
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A Quote…
• John Keating: We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We
read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.
And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law,
business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to
sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay
alive for.
• Dead Poets Society (1989)
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Arts Integration
• Arts integration is an approach to teaching that integrates the fine
and performing arts as primary pathways to learning.
• Arts integration is using higher level thinking.
• Arts integration is about connecting ideas and subjects.
• Arts integration is creating.
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Some Examples
• Using visual art to aid in organizing sequence of events.
• Using music/rhythm to teach equivalent fractions through musical
notations.
• Using dance to understand the movement of the solar system.
• Using theatre to understand the science of light reflecting and
refracting.
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Theatre
• Theatre teaches:
• Communication – both oral and written
• Understanding/ Empathy
• Speech
• Creative thinking and problem solving
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Self confidence
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A Tool for Literacy
• Theatre is a great tool to aid in teaching the following components of
literacy:
• Reading Comprehension
• Fluency
• Composition
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Comprehension
• Story Dramatization – Student actors enact scenes or a simple scene
from a story using their own words.
• If all else fails…. Act it out!!
• When studying literature or reading passages, assign roles/characters
to students and have them re-create the scene in their own words.
• This activity is great for student engagement!
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Comprehension Continued
• Character interviews – Role dramas in which student actors portray
characters from a book and answer a series of interview questions.
• Character Walk – A free roaming, individual “walk” that is guided by
the teacher to enhance character motivations.
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Fluency
• Reader’s Theatre - A style of theatre in which the actors do or do not
memorize their lines. Actors use only vocal expression to help the
audience understand the story rather than visual storytelling such as
sets, costumes, intricate blocking, and movement.
• Cold Reads – A type of audition in which actors have very little or no
time to prepare for a reading.
• Puppets – Using puppets can be a great tool for working on fluency
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Composition
• Monologues – A long speech by one actor in a play or a movie.
• You can have students write and perform monologues as a
composition teaching tool or even an assessment.
• One Word Story – An activity in which each member of class
contributes a word to create a story.
• Variations of this activity include one sentence story and one word
story using grammar.
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Tableaus
• Tableau – A silent frozen picture made by student actors striking
poses to represent a significant moment in a story.
• Human Slide Show – A sequence of tableau presented in
chronological order
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Tableaus
The Vacation by Wendell Berry
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In Closing
• How can you modify any of the lessons to be used in your classroom?
• Have the lesson ideas in this presentation inspired you to incorporate
theatre in your classroom?
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Essential Question
• How can theatre be used to improve student
achievement in literacy?
• How can the lesson examples provided in this
presentation be adapted to teach my content area?
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Questions?
Thank you for choosing this session!
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