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Understanding Literature through Theater

Understanding Literature through Theater. Teaching The Midwife’s Apprentice. Peter Laszlo & Meg Smith Ed 200 Project Fall 05 Curriculum Project Trinity College. Context. 4 th grade classroom, 16 kids, 60 minute classes, five days Teaching Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice

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Understanding Literature through Theater

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  1. Understanding Literature through Theater Teaching The Midwife’s Apprentice Peter Laszlo & Meg Smith Ed 200 Project Fall 05 Curriculum Project Trinity College

  2. Context • 4th grade classroom, 16 kids, 60 minute classes, five days • Teaching Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice • 4 main advantages of this method: 1) students connect to the story/characters on a personal level 2) students gain a deeper understanding of the themes/characters in the book 3) students will have fun 4) students will be creative

  3. Objectives • Students will discuss and bring to life the characters in the book, including their various personality traits, motivations, and actions in the story • Students will connect themes of the book to their own lives • Students will dramatize events and characters in the book and bring them to life • Students will work in groups to learn to compromise, to work together, to listen to each others’ ideas, and to share creative ideas with others to create something together • Students will gain confidence through expressing themselves creatively and presenting to the rest of the class

  4. Justification • Slavin’s cooperative learning strategy • The Connecticut State Framework, Language Arts goals for 4th graders: for example, to “interact with others in creating, interpreting and evaluating written, oral and visual texts,” “interpret the text by using prior knowledge and experiences,” and “engage in a process of generating ideas, drafting, revising, editing and publishing or presenting” • Bloom’s Taxonomy

  5. Monday: Review • Students will have read the book by this day • Structured more like a typical English class: discussion based with whole class • This will be the students’ chance to review/clarify/ask questions about the book’s themes, plot, characters, setting, historical context, etc. • We will also have them draw an element of the setting (ex. a specific house, landscape, etc.) to get them to begin to visualize the story • Students will be broken into groups (~4 students in each) for the rest of the week

  6. Tuesday: Character • We will assign each small group one of the main characters from the book • First half of class: talk about assigned character; we will provide them with specific questions to generate discussion (about their motivation, role in the plot, character traits) • Second half of class: students will assume the role of the character they have been assigned • Role playing question/answers with class • Improv scene with one member of each group so each character is represented

  7. Wednesday: Scene • Each group will pick a scene from the book (ex. a chapter) that they want to convert into a 5 min. script - Students decide how they want to approach this: can have narrator speak the narrative text and directly translate dialogue to a script/how much of the chapter they wish to present, etc….their creative and artistic choice! • Students will then present their scenes to the whole class

  8. Thursday: Skit • 2-day project: create a short skit that connects the book to students’ own experiences • Small groups will discuss what in the book reminded them of their own lives • Groups must then come to some consensus as to whose experience they want to develop into a skit • Each student is expected to contribute ideas to the skit, ex. add more details, or even a twist to the original story

  9. Friday: Skit/Discussion • Students will have time to rehearse their skits • Present the skits (roughly 5 min. each) • Discussion: did the students enjoy the week, discuss the group process, whether they felt comfortable doing all the exercises, which was their favorite part, how their perceptions of the characters and the book changed throughout the week

  10. Evaluation • Since theatre/creative expression cannot be evaluated with grades, we need to focus on our subjective impressions over the five days, give each student an oral evaluation • We will evaluate how much effort each student put in: whether he or she read the book, if they contributed in group work/discussions • Students write a graded response paper, reacting to the week

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