Kathryn and I had Jo all to ourselves for this lesson due to a mysterious public holiday virus outbreak!  Kathryn filled us in on all her current experience which made me feel like a bit of a dud because I haven’t done any acting in years.  This lead into a discussion about the pros and cons of musical theatre (Kathryn vs us)! 

Jo explained previous lessons that have been designed by her students (the lighthouse keeper conundrum/alien scenario/creek development proposal).  They all sounded really original and fun (I hope we can match the standard that has been set).  I was especially impressed with the detail that went into researching and making the props for the creek development proposal.  It reaffirmed how exciting it can be to use authentic props for stimulus in these types of exercises.  I suspect that the better the stimulus, the better the quality of learning will be.  I know this was the case when Jo held the immigration workshop last year because I took a lot from that experience.  I really got to “feel” what it might have been like to live back in the 1800’s and the pressures associated with making such a huge decision.  The amount of detail that was discovered by myself and others during that workshop was amazing and aptly demonstrated the true potential of co-learning.  I certainly think it is true that rich tasks lead to metacognition. 

The first reading for this week (Morgan & Saxton 1987) suggested some interesting activities but I know as a kinaesthetic learner I would have benefited further from actually running through these in class.  If I don’t “see” or “do” activities like the ones mentioned I often find it hard to imagine how they will work.  It seems to me that it would be difficult to begin my “Dramathinking” without first attempting the “thematic networking” to brainstorm ideas and possible directions, so I am going to begin with this exercise. 

My source/theme is some lyrics in the song Our Velocity by

Maximo
Park. 

I’ve got no one to call
In the middle of the night anymore

I’m just alone
With my thoughts 

I think this could begin an exploration of loneliness and aloneness with Year 9-10’s and would be integrated with health and civics and citizenship.  I’m thinking this may lead onto an examination of depression (and drug links) which often becomes an issue in teenage years (a boy at our school committed suicide).  I’m going to draw this exercise by hand because it will take so much longer to work out how to do it on the computer! 

(10 mins later) I’ve never been particularly good at brainstorming.  I only came up with four starting arms of thought (and connected ideas).  I think I need to go away and come back to it later because I am a bit stuck now.  As the reading suggests, it would be helpful for the teacher to brainstorm ideas from the class as then she will be made aware of their areas of interest in the topic.  I definitely need some input here so I think I will take my beginning to show Jo in class next week and check that I’m on the right track. 

LONELINESS

Aloneness, dependance on  other people, marriage/partnership (mating for life?), happily ever after (questioning fairytales)

Sadness (emotions)

Finding direction

Monks/nuns, devotion to a higher cause, the meaning of life? (Monty Python!)

Depression/mental health, drugs, addictions

Suicide, how this affects others (the Virgin Suicides novel and film).

* This doesn’t really translate but I hope you get the picture. 

 

The A-Z of drama conventions and techniques (Neelands 1998) is a fabulous resource that I’m sure I will return to again and again. I found this second reading much easier to digest because the activities were concisely explained (plus I have done many of them at some stage and so it served as a reminder of techniques I could employ as a teacher).  I could apply just about all of the listed techniques but the ones I found most interesting were “unfinished materials”, “private property” and “mantle of the expert”.  I haven’t seen any of these done before, but I think they hold a lot of potential for learning through the drama. 

With a class (after the brainstorming session), I would like to try “teacher in role” (possibly mother talking about her child’s depression).  Then I would use the “private property” activity to develop the main character of the child (a school bag with diary, cigarettes, letter, clothes, etc).  Then next I would employ a circular drama to see what ideas students come up with about how the main character acts in different situations.  These scenes could be analysed and a central story could be constructed as a group.  Then I would ask the students to go away and research different themes that have emerged (possibly depression, drugs, suicide etc) and ask them to present their group findings as “mantle of the expert”.  After this the “gestus” exercise could focus on what is loneliness/aloneness?  Finally, I would like to finish with a “documentary” or “come on down” exercise to thread the entire story together.  This unit could run for at least four lessons.