Lesson 4 - Introducing a character/Building context

Drama

 B1.1 Creating and Presenting: engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on examining multiple perspectives and possible outcomes related to complex issues, themes, and relationships from a wide variety of sources and diverse communities.

Drama

 I can:

• explore the character R and people from her life, in role, by focusing on examining different perspectives related to her struggle with losing balance
• share my thoughts through role on the wall, hot-seating and tableaux and connect the work to themes of depression and emotional imbalance
• make personal connections to the drama and roles

Dance

Dance

I can:

• use dance to help convey the message of emotional balance in the tableaux with transitions work

Language

1.3 Oral Communication: identify a variety of listening comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after listening in order to understand and clarify the meaning of increasingly complex and challenging oral texts

2.1 Writing: write complex texts of a variety of lengths using a wide range of forms

Language

I can: 

• use listening comprehension strategies to better understand what's going on around me
• use  role on the wall to generate statements about the character and write questions I may still have about her
• consolidate my learning through written responses in my learning log

craft paper - Role on the Wall -prepared
BLM #8: Elements of Tableaux

Whole Group > Role on the Wall > Recap of Character From Poem

Post a life size representation of the character from the poem. On the inside of the figure ask the students to generate a list of things we to know about the character from the poem. (e.g. lost balance, used to dream of flying, gripped by fear, looking for something to hold onto etc.)

On the outline of the figure, record what we think we know or can infer about the character based on the text.

On the outside space, surrounding the figure, record questions that reflect what we want to know about this character. (e.g., Why has this person 'lost balance'? What does he/she want to 'hold onto to'? Who else is involved or knows about his/her struggle etc.  Do any of these characters perceive her as she perceives herself?)

Invite the group to think about word placement, colour, and text style and size as they add the words to the image, (e.g., the word fear may be written across her head, in bold text with black marker OR the word searching could be written coming out from behind her eyes, travelling across the image and off the page)

Finally, name the character and collectively negotiate the age and gender of the character. (Please note: for the purpose of this unit we will refer to this character as R, girl age 13)

Notes

Post the poem in the class for easy reference.

Naming the character will help build a sense of interest and personal connection. However, it is important to emphasize that this character is fictional, and must not be seen as an extension of someone in their classroom or school community.

Whole Group > Preparing Roles

Invite students (pair-share and then whole group) to generate a list of people in R's life who might be able to answer some of the questions generated from role on the wall and offer their perspectives on her (e.g. father, mother, childhood friend, teacher, neighbour, guidance counsellor, sibling etc.).

Encourage students to think about people who may have known her for a long time as well as those who may have just met her.

Partner > Generating Questions

Adding to the questions generated in the role on the wall, invite students, in pairs to come up with one question that they would ask each character. Tell them that the question must help us to understand more about why R has lost her balance. They must find a question that elicits as much information as possible from the character.

Hotseating > Teacher in Role

Allow students to question you in role as several of the people from R's life. You can also invite students to take on one of the roles.  It is important at this stage to keep the information you are giving as 'speculative' and somewhat ambiguous, allowing time to build an authentic understanding of this character's situation. 

Whole Group > Debrief > Talk Around

Whole Group > Sample Narrative Link

Help students re-cap what is known so far by feeding a short narrative back to them that summarizes the key information from the role-play activity. It is important to build the narrative by incorporating details that were generated by the students in role. The following is an example:

Teacher Narrative

Small Group > Building a Theory

Invite students in small groups to create a 'theory' about what may be contributing to R's current state of of mind. It will be important to guide this small group work based on the narrative that is developed from the role play. (e.g., based on above narrative there is mention of - grade 7 a big change, missing school, not feeling well, grades dropping, wanting to spend time alone.)

Small Group > Tableaux with Transitions

Ask each group to distill the essence of their 'theory' into one short phrase or word (e.g., exclusion, body image, family conflict, deep sadness etc.) Using this word, instruct each group to create 2 strong tableaux that shows the effect that the feeling, occurrence, self-perception has had on her. The image should begin in stillness and on a signal slowly transition into the second image.

Whole Group > Performing and Reflecting

Invite each group to perform for one other group and then have each group respond to the following questions;
Which image stood out for you in the tableaux?
From observing the other groups images, what do you think their theory about R includes?
How is your theory the same or different?
Did your theory change after observing the other theories?

Whole Group > Collective Understanding

Invite students to reach some consensus about R and her situation before moving on to Lesson 5.  Extracting what was common to each theory is one way to reach consensus, combining some of the ideas together. 

Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Use Role on the Wall, Hot-seating, and Role play work to inform your knowledge about students' capacity to to make inferences and use high level thinking and questioning. 

Review the elements of tableau. See BLM #8: Elements of Tableaux. Circulate and provide specific feedback to the students.

Collect the student learning logs, and respond to each student.

Assessment as Learning (AaL)

Use the Talk Around activity to gauge what students are comprehending and inferring so far about the character.

Use the whole group collective understanding to gauge students capacity to synthesize information and negotiate with peers.

Use the Learning log responses to track what connections students are making between the drama work and their personal life experiences

Differentiated Instruction

Use flexible groupings and pre-determined groupings.

Provide multiple opportunities for students to use kinesthetic, and verbal modes of expression. 

Tips and Considerations

Asking Better Questions by Norah Morgan and Juianna Saxton is a valuable teacher resource for refining questioning skills.

Individual > Learning Log

Invite students to respond, in a short burst of writing, to one or more of the following questions.

Learning Log Prompts:

1. In your opinion, what are the most important factors that contribute to your sense of belonging and happiness? (think about who, what, where and why?)
2. What do you feel R might be missing in her life that has brought her to this place?
3. Do you feel there was one significant moment that led her to feeling the way she does, or do you think there were many factors over time that have contributed to her current emotional health? Describe why.