Lesson 6 - More Than Sad

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.

B1.3 Creating and Presenting: plan and shape the direction of the drama by negotiating ideas and perspectives with others, both in and out of role.

Drama

 I can:

• engage in drama exploration and role play to better understand the multiple perspectives and dynamics of R's relationship with family and friends
• negotiate ideas and perspectives with others in order to plan and shape the drama work and I am able to do this both in and out of role

Dance

 A1.2 Creating and Presenting: use dance as a language to communicate messages about themes of social justice and/or environmental health

A2.2 Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: analyse, using dance vocabulary, their own and others’ dance pieces to identify the elements of dance and the choreographic forms used in them

Dance

I can:

• use dance to convey the theme of emotional imbalance
• analyze my own and others dance work in the dance improvisation to identify elements of dance and choreographic forms that may have been used

Language 

1.2 Oral Communication: demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviour by adapting active listening strategies to suit a wide variety of situations, including work in groups 

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
 

1.9 Reading: identify the point of view presented in texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts; give evidence of any biases they may contain; and suggest other possible perspectives

Language

I can: 

• engage in active listening when my group is working on our dance and drama work
• use listening comprehension strategies to better understand the inferences being made through the you tube scene and the role-play work.
• make inferences about R based on an analysis of the journal page

Whole Group > Sharing Journal Responses

Invite a few students who have written thoughtful responses to Prompt #5 in Lesson 5 Consolidation to share with the class and facilitate a discussion about societal responsibilities.

Whole Group > Artifact From Her Life

To further the narrative of the drama, share the following information with the class:

R's friend has come across a folded up page from her journal, found near her locker on the floor. She is alarmed by what she is reading and given how disconnected R has been lately, she is really worried about her. She does not know what to do.

Small Group > Analyzing The Artifact

Distribute copies of the journal page BLM #11: Journal Page and invite students in small groups to closely examine the text and images, considering the following questions:

Key Questions for Discussion

What do you see? What word or image stands out for you? 
What can you infer about the text and images?
What new information do we have about R?
What new questions are rolling around your head?

Whole Group > Recording and Reporting Back

Ask students to talk around their circle, giving each person a chance to respond to each question. Invite one person to jot down the responses.
Invite one person from each group to share some of the group's recorded responses.

Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Observe, listen and record students responses in role from the various perspectives explored in this lesson. You may choose to focus your assessment on 3 or 4 students at a time.

Critical Literacy Focus (CL)

Use the gender based analysis discussions to assess what inferences students are making in relation to the characters explored.
Make note of students capacity for challenging bias and considering new points of view.

Collect and read student learning logs. Gauge level of interest and understanding, and check for emotional safety of participating students, as this content may be close to home for some students.

Assessment as Learning (AaL)

Ask students, in their learning logs, to reflect on their own learning and self assess their learning goals in the drama work.

Partners > Initial Reaction to Artifact

Ask students to consider what a friend might do in this situation.
Invite each pair to carefully consider and talk about the following questions:

Key Questions for Discussion

1. If you were R's friend and you found this what would you do?
2. Should the friend share this finding with R's mother or father?
3. Grade 9 is challenging but -  could her life really be this bad? 
4. Did R want someone to find this note?
5. Has R called the 1-800 number on it? what might this mean?
6. What advice would you give to R based on what you see, read, infer?
7. Should her friend call the 1-800 number noted on the journal page?

Whole Group > Review of Rubric Criteria

Handout BLM #10: Role Play Rubric.  Share with students that they will choose a partner and decide who is A and who is B. Review the rubric criteria with them. Teacher may wish to assess the last perspective only or assess more holistically based on all perspectives.

Partner > Role-Play > Friend's Perspective

Invite students to decide who is A and B.  Tell them that A will play the friend who found the journal page and is really worried. She has come to talk to B who will play another friend. B feels that there is nothing to worry about. R has always been kind of "'different'" and "probably just making stuff up to try to get attention." Invite groups to share 30 seconds of their scene with the whole group.

Partner > Role-Play > Help-line Perspective

Have half of the class, in pairs, improvise the conversation between R's friend and the helpline.

Have the other half of the class, in pairs, improvise the conversation between R and the helpline.

Whole Group Sharing > Listening In

Tap into these conversations by going back and forth between the two scenes. Each pair of students freezes in their scene until you signal that they should begin.

Whole Group > A Parent's Perspective

Introduce the following clip to students. Share with them that this is a scene between R and her mother. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiS02j3zt68

Whole Group > Hot-Seating the Mother

Invite a student to take on the role of the mother.  First model a think-aloud of what you would like to ask the mother and invite students to share their own wonderings and questions. Prompts: "You seem to be really frustrated with R. Why do you think she is feeling sorry for herself? How long has she been like this?" etc. Explore the mother's current perspective through this role play.

Pairs > Scenes > Sibling Perspective

Ask students to devise the scene between the mother and R's brother or sister. The scene takes place the moment after the mother closes the bedroom door. Prompt (mother to R's brother): "Do you know what is wrong with R"?)  Ask students to improvise this scene several times to generate some authentic meaningful material. Give students a few minutes to prepare and rehearse before they share.  Invite students to share their scenes with the group and allow time for students to respond to the unique choices each pair made.

Small Group > Critical Literacy: Gender-Based Analysis 

Invite students to gather in gender groups for this discussion. 

Key Questions for Discussion:
If the character lying in the bed were a boy, how might the scene have been different? 
Do boys and girls react the same or differently to stress or sadness? In what ways?
Are females more permitted to show sadness than males?
Which sex do you think would suffer more stigma for admitting to depression?  Why do you think so?  

Invite students to share their thoughts and impressions, first in writing, then as a pair-share and then with the whole group.

Whole Group > Corridor of Support

Invite students to first write (as themselves) two lines of text that offer support. One to R's mother and one to R's sibling. Prompts: If you could speak to them what would you say?
Instruct students to stand in 2 long lines, facing in, to create a corridor. As you, the teacher, walk down between the lines in role as her parent, invite each student to read their words of support to the mother beginning with the prompt.

Repeat the corridor, now from the perspective of R's sibling. This time, you may choose to have a student walk down in role as R's sibling while the other students share their writing.
Extension: Repeat again using movement and gesture instead of words.

Assessment of Learning(AoL)

Use BLM #10: Role Play Rubric to evaluate students role playing skills. Students have had multiple opportunities to practice their role-play skills, self assess and receive feedback. However, if they need more time, you can use this rubric again as a formative assessment piece.

Differentiated Instruction (DI)

Use a variety of groupings within the lesson and allow students choice with respect to the content of their scene work. Give students the opportunity to express themselves in movement rather than words in the Corridor of Support activity.

Critical Literacy Focus (CL)

Exploring the different perspectives through role will bring to light the social stigma associated with depression. Invite students to offer suggestions with respect to perspectives that may be missing. Build these new roles into the drama structure provided.

You may wish to set the Helpline Perspective up as a group of three where one person takes on the role as the professional and the other two are R and the friend. This grouping will nicely juxtapose the dialogue and the contrasting points of view.

If you want to share a similar clip of a boy, please see this link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBl-xQjcDLw

You may choose to take on the role of the mother first, to model appropriate language and to emphasize the complexity of the dynamics. (i.e., she is frustrated, confused AND really worried about R)

Variation > Forum Theatre

Use Forum Theatre to explore the sibling perspective.
This is a convention in which students collaboratively explore options or possible outcomes in order to shape a dramatic scene. A dramatic situation is improvised by a small group while the rest of the class observes. All students participate in creating the scene 
through discussion, by stopping the scene to make suggestions, or by taking over a role.The objective is to create an authentic scene
that fits the dramatic context and is satisfying to the whole group (The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8, Revised, 2009, p.168)

Variation on the Corridor

Individual > Learning Log

Learning Log Prompts:

1. Discuss a contribution you made to the role and scene development work that you are most proud of.
2. What would you like to improve upon? What support do you need to reach your goal?
3. Have you ever worried about a friend who seemed 'more than sad'? What did you do?
4. Where/who can someone go if they are need to talk about their feelings?