Final Chapter

             Students in classrooms are not given enough time to process information presented much less enough time to discuss and analyze the information collaboratively.  Research on classroom talk shows not only the importance of talk to learning but also how little substantive talk actually occurs on the classroom. (Nystrand, et al., 1997.) Within the last few years the professional development at my school has focused on student involvement.  One major strategy used to engage students in learning is a 10/2 model where teachers talk ten minutes and students are allowed to talk and process this information for two minutes.  This is usually done with small groups or “elbow partners.”  Using this model, every student is given the opportunity to discuss their thoughts and ideas with a peer, but they are not forced to share their thoughts with the whole class.  It is a safe environment for students to practice voicing their opinions and challenging others.      

                This chapter offered examples of Continuums where students are asked to take an opinion on a certain subject.  They have to physically place themselves on a continuum where they can then argue and discuss their reasoning for their decision.  Such questions that can begin a continuum is, “Friends are often the ones who are the first to betray you or let you down.”  Or “Dangerous and harmful prejudice is expressed right in our classrooms, and many students are unaware of it.”  Students then stand at the designated areas in the room or in-between if necessary that has been assigned to fit their opinion on the subject.  The designations would range from strongly agree to strongly disagree.  Teachers can then pair students up with a goal of convincing the alternate person of their opinion.   This example is an excellent way of getting students involved and engaged.  This is a great way to open a lesson about friendships.  This activity accesses their background knowledge so that students can understand the characters or situations that will be presented later in the lesson. 

                Quoting one of the students in Whilhelm’s class, “I don’t like to talk in class.  I get mad if a teacher tries to make me.  But I don’t mind talking in a drama.  It’s easier for me to do and it makes me think harder.  In drama it seems like you want to be involved, and you always learn something new.”  Getting every student involved within the classroom should be the goal of all teachers.  These enactments that I’ve presented throughout these posts are great ways to initiate this student involvement.

Chapter 8: Writing in Role

Writing is a powerful way to learn.  Students need different experiences in order to process information, and writing needs to be one of these experiences.  Up to this point my posts have been about student’s enacting using drama and body movement, but enactment can be just as powerful though writing.  Correspondence enactments are powerful because they provide the student writer with a persona, a purpose, meaningful information, a situation, and an audience—all of which help him or her compose.  Plus, writing in role requires careful reading.  Students know they need information from the text to advance their point of view.  It also develops students’ awareness of how texts are constructed, since they are to write formal letters, newspaper articles, memos, and so forth.

            Here are a few examples of correspondences that can be utilized:

1.       From a character in the text to a character in another text, situation, or era.

2.      From real people to characters

3.      From you to a character

4.      From a character to an author

One thing that I learned while reading this chapter is that teachers have to specific about their expectations during these enactments.  These are some steps to ensure the enactment is successful.         

 Decide:

1.       From and to whom the correspondence will be.

2.      The purpose of the correspondence

3.      What form the correspondence will take, given your purpose (a formal letter, business letter, informal letter, thank-you letter, bill, postcard, advertisement, public service announcement, memorandum, business contract, invitation)

4.      Whether your correspondence will be handwritten or typed. 

5.      The kind of stationery and envelope.  How will they reflect the character of the letter and writer.

6.      The address for each correspondent and why the address is appropriate

             

             Every year, I do a unit on explorers coming to the “New World.”  During my unit we touch on Christopher Columbus as well as many other explorers.  We discuss the difficulties of leaving their home and families to make the journey across the ocean.  I provide students with a list of job and job descriptions for Christopher Columbus’ ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  They have to chose a job that they think they qualify (in character) for, then they have to write a letter of interest to Christopher Columbus.  Once their letters are complete they are encouraged to bake their papers in the oven to make them appear old.  They present the papers to me (Christopher Columbus) and I then question their intentions, qualifications, and expectations.  Once they have all presented I attach a note on each paper commenting my need for them on the ship.  Some get hired while others are encouraged to stay home and tend to their kids.  I use these writing as a bulletin board, and students rush in the following day to see if they have a job.  During this activity, kids have to enter their role in both writing and drama.  They love this activity because there is a purpose to their writing. 

Chapter 7: Reenactments and Interventions

              Reading can be a very complex activity.  The reader’s first responsibility is to understand the text as it is written.  Once we have worked to understand a text the way its construction asks us to, we have other things to do:  play with the text, see what other meanings may be hidden or suppressed, and decide whether to embrace, adapt, or resist the authorial vision we think is being offered.  Wilhelm argues that it’s very important that reading comprehension happen in this order.  Out of author respect we should first ask ourselves:  What does this text mean to the audience for which it was written?  Then we can go deeper and ask: How do we feel about that? And What do I want to do about this as a result?

            There are different types of reenactment strategies to help students find the text’s literal and implied meaning.

1.       Telling tales:  One person tells a story and the listeners pose questions, playing stranger in the role, trying to piece together the details.

2.      Mime:  Students are asked to act out a scene silently as it is read aloud.

3.      Guided Imagery:  Ask students to close their eyes and listen as a passage is read aloud.  The teacher asks guiding questions like:  What are you seeing now?  Where are you now?  What else do you see and feel? 

4.      Scene Writing:  Students write a script for a scene to be performed

5.      Dance/Movement Reenactments:  Students dance to show a specific scene in the text they read.

6.      A Day in the Life/Magic Schoolbus:  This is based off the children’s show the Magic Schoolbus where students can pretend they become microscopic and analyze things at this perspective. 

7.      “What if?” Scenerios::  Where students ask What if? Questions and then reenact them. 

8.      Alternative Ending:  Students can enact different endings and discuss their meanings.

9.      Tunnel of Time:  Students characters that go forward or back in time to see how the past or future might impact the story. 

10.  Scrooge Looking Down:  Looks closely at what in the character’s past could explain the current status.

            I do an activity similar to Guided Imagery in my classroom where I have students go back to a memory they have that is very vivid.  I have them close their eyes and imagine that they are there.  They are lead through different guiding questions to recreate that moment.  Periodically they open their eyes and write what they saw, heard, smelled….  Then we use these writings to make a poem that highlights their memory.  The kids love this activity because it gives them time to think.  The lights are off and they have an opportunity to consider what’s important to them.  These reenactments can be very powerful.

            As a closing to this chapter, Milhelm quotes a letter one of his previous students wrote him, “I don’t want to be taught what to think but how to think, and I liked how you tried to do that in really active, fun ways that made the things we read really come alive.”

Chapter 6: Tableaux

A Tableaux is a visual presentation in enactment that can be done in a various of ways using the body.  A Tableaux can help students visualize and explore both the text and the subtext of a narrative, including setting, scenes, situations, characters, relationships, and meanings. 

            To help plan a Tableaux, students need to be taught about the journalist’s five W’s and H (Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How).  Then you need to follow specific steps:

1.       Chose the story, text or part of a text that you wish to depict visually and share with each other as an audience. 

2.      Identify central concepts (informational texts) or events (narrative texts) that are crucial to understanding the whole.

3.      Review the important ideas, events, and/or details that an audience will need to know regarding each concept or scene.

4.      Work with your group to consider how to present these scenes visually in a way that will communicate the important details to the audience.

5.      When you are done with your Tableaux, be sure the audience has help in “seeing” and understanding the whole story or the importance of the concepts explored.

Last summer I took a class where we were all expected to read the same text.  When we had completed the book, we got into small groups and were first asked to discuss the book, but then we were expected to brainstorm major themes the book portrayed.  Once we had listed about five themes, we were told that we had to use all our bodies to make a statue symbolizing this theme.  The other groups job was to guess what our theme was based on our representation and their background knowledge of the book.  This was a great exercise that helped us to understand the book more clearly. 

Wilhem offers many Tableaux techniques that can be used in the classroom.

1.       Gestos- The ideas is to get the students to summarize the relationship between characters quickly, with simple gestures and expressions.

2.      Snapshot- When students are reading, ask them to stop and imagine a snapshot of the action. 

3.      Slide Show- Students put together several Tableau to tell the coherent story of how several events relate to each other.

4.      Talking Statue/Talking Portrait- Students can become statues or portraits that come to life and give their views.

            These Tableaux are a great alternative for students who are very shy and do not like to have many talking parts in drama.  They can be positioned and not expected to talk, while students who enjoy the attention can choose another type of Tableaux where there is more dialog.  This strategy can work with every student and is a good alternative to discussion and summarizing the text.

Chapter 5: Mantle of the Expert

“School is about facts---mostly boring facts---drama is about making facts exciting because you add the feelings….drama takes facts and asks how they might have been different or how the facts might affect you or someone else and how all that would feel.  That’s why I like drama.”   ----Mike (p.100)

            Students are bored with school’s everyday curriculum.  Teachers across the nation, and across my district, are presenting information from a textbook with little scaffolding on comprehension and relevance.  According to Wilhelm, “The point of all reading, and of all learning activity, is to change our understandings and, as a result, our ways of thinking and being in the world.”  Imagine if all reading done in the classroom would have this purpose and relevance for students.  I believe dropout rates would be significantly lowered, and there would be less disciplinary problems within classrooms. 

            This chapter talks about having students put on a mantle of an expert.  A mantle is like a cloak.  They get to become an expert for the day.  This expert can be, but not limited to, a counselor, lawyers, author, psychologists, social activists, historians, movie producers….  The point of having students assume these roles is so that they can look at situations (texts) from a different perspective.  Students are expected to step out of their comfort zone and put a cloak of an expert on in order to understand the situation and the possible outcomes from another’s perspective.  This is a powerful tool in order to help students understand the text, and also to understand choices and cause and effect relationships. 

            In order to plan Mantle-of-the Expert work, there are twelve steps you are encouraged to follow. 

1.       Teacher sets (or students and teacher negotiate) the curricular topic or text, and frames it by articulating a thematic issue to explore.

2.      Teacher, perhaps with students, brainstorm experts who could deal with the issue, and what they know and do.

3.      Teacher asks:  Who could use the knowledge offered by the experts—and for what purposes?

4.      Teacher asks:  In what form would the expert knowledge be created, shared, and applied?

5.      Teacher introduces the situation:  The purpose, the roles, the audience/clients, and the task to be performed.

6.      Teacher explains what students are to imagine and what they are to produce.

7.      Teacher and/or students choose specific tasks.

8.      Teachers and students plot out a time line.

9.      Students plan how to manage the task

10.  Students assume a role—or multiple roles.

11.  Teacher assumes a role.

12.  Groups, in role, engage in a series of tasks.

Because of the significance of entering a different role, many mantles can lead to social-action projects.  This is when it’s important to have students reflect on what they are doing and what they are learning.  You can help guide this conversation by asking WHAT?, SO WHAT?, and NOW WHAT?.   Student, looking through different eyes are able to see things that are unjust.  These are the conversations that lead to deeper growth and understanding of the world we live in.