Procedures

Teacher Notes

Step 4: Exploration Imaging -- Individual The students will: use imaging to enhance their learning (CCT).
The teacher asks the students to focus on the conditions of work during the Industrial Revolution. Sitting in a comfortable place in the room, they close their eyes and imagine that they live during that time. The teacher uses narration to describe what life and work were like during that period of history. She asks the students to choose roles for themselves as people living during the Industrial Revolution. They might be any age or social class, workers or employers. She asks them to make the following decisions: "What is your name? How old are you? How many are there in your family? What are your living conditions? How do you feel about your work, the people you work for or those who work for you?" She gives the students time to formulate answers to these questions. Interviews -- Pairs The students will: assume and sustain roles accept and respond to others in role develop commitment to their own roles and the roles of others C0-operate with others to plan and participate in drama experiences use questioning as a tool to further their own and others' understanding (C) imagine and manipulate ideas (CCT).
The narration used for the technique of imaging may be created by the teacher or read from an appropriate play, piece of prose, or poem. Imaging is only one way in which students can be prompted to choose roles. Another way is for the teacher to provide a dramatic context from which the students' roles would emerge. Other strategies that could be used to explore working conditions include storytelling, tableau, writing in role, parallel play and improvisation.
Students work in pairs. One member of each pair now becomes a journalist who is part of a team preparing a television documentary on working conditions during the Industrial Revolution. The journalists interview their partners, who respond in the roles they have chosen. When the interviews are completed, the partners reverse roles. Teacher in Role/Meeting -- Whole Group The students will: assume and sustain roles accept and respond to others in role develop commitment to their own roles and the roles of others co-operate with others to plan and participate in drama experiences initiate ideas in spontaneous improvisations accept ideas in spontaneous improvisations use questioning as a tool to further their own and others' understanding (C) imagine and manipulate ideas (CCT).	In these interviews, journalists of the present travel back in time to interview workers from the past. Such ambiguities often emerge in drama, as they do in life. They can inject the work with tension and compelling contrasts.
The teacher leaves the room for a moment and returns in role as the producer of the documentary. She conducts a production meeting with the students, who are now in role as journalists. Information gained in the interviews is shared, and the group decides that the focus of the documentary will be on the power of the factory owners over the workers and the deplorable working conditions of the time. The documentary will also deal with child labour.	This is an example of teacher in role, which is described in detail in Appendix A.
Reflection/Discussion -- Whole Group After the production meeting is over, teacher and students out of role discuss what they have discovered and how the work they have just done might contribute to the collective. The students briefly discuss the working conditions of the period and how these conditions have changed over time, at least in developed countries.	Teacher and students will make decisions about the content and presentational styles of the collective at any time along the way. These decisions are subject to change.
They agree that their collective should depict these past conditions and they propose various presentational possibilities.	As the students choose episodes to include in their collective, it is helpful to give these episodes working titles.
Based on personal research and that of some of the students, the teacher discusses with the students the development of the trade union movement. They discuss the need for unions in the early 1900's and the purpose and function of unions then and now. The teacher asks them to be prepared next class to participate in a meeting called by trade union organizers. Teacher in Role/Meeting-- Whole Group The students will: sustain roles for an extended period of time co-operate with others to plan and participate in drama experiences understand how improvisation can be used to explore characters and situations communicate character through movement and gesture communicate character through speech express thoughts verbally with eye contact, facial expression and speech to enhance the message (C).	An episode such as this one must be based on facts. The teacher should have a full understanding of the events and issues under discussion. Teacher research, as well as student research, is an essential component of the collective creation process, in order that the work be believable. Learning in other curricula, such as Social Studies in this case, can also be connected to drama experiences. These students have recently read and studied Black Powder in Drama class.
Before class the teacher puts on the door a sign reading, Coal Miner's Meeting Today. As the students come into class, the teacher greets them in role as a union organizer. Students respond in various roles: coal miners, wives of coal miners, representatives of management. The teacher addresses the students in role and speaks to them about the need for developing a coal miners' union. She invites several workers, students in role, to step forward and speak. Others volunteer to speak at the meeting. Most are in favour of creating a union; one person speaks for management but receives a very negative response. A vote is taken. The union is created. Reflection/Discussion -- Whole Group The students will: co-operate with others to plan and participate in drama experiences. The teacher and students out of role discuss whether their meeting can contribute to the collective creation. They agree that the meeting itself should be developed as an episode in the collective. The students discuss the need for a limited number of speakers at the meeting and the need for more energy and more impassioned speeches. Interviews -- Pairs The students will: assume and sustain roles accept and respond to others in role develop commitment to their own roles and the roles of others co-operate with others to plan and participate in drama experiences interview persons with prearranged questions to acquire information (C). The students come to the next class prepared to report on the interviews they conducted with their parents or other adults in the community. Working in pairs, they take turns assuming the role of the person they interviewed. Their partners interview them, using the interview questions formulated earlier and used in the actual interviews. The students reverse roles. Reflection/Discussion -- Whole Group The students will: discover relationships between one generation's experiences and its expectations for the next generation (CCT). Out of role, the students discuss their observations about jobs and working conditions based on their interviews. They discover that jobs and working conditions vary greatly, that some people are happier than others with their jobs, that some people are or have been unemployed, and that current employment situations affect the next generation's choices with respect to jobs and education. Some students raise parental expectations as an issue. Referring to the "Work Web", students discover that by interviewing people, they have explored a number of the issues outlined on the web. They're not sure how they'll use the information they've gathered, but they point to parental expectations and unemployment as areas they would like to explore further. Storytelling/Prepared Improvisation -- Individual/Small Groups The students will: work with others to structure prepared improvisations learn to maintain the focus of an improvisation understand the importance of tension in improvisations display clarity of movement and gesture keep movement open to the audience make relationships between their own experiences and their dramatic art. The next day, the students each share with the class a story about their own experiences with work. Their story might be about a job search, a job interview, something that happened on the job, or a personal dilemma regarding a career choice. The intention is to share a personal experience dealing with any aspect of "Work". If a student has no personal experience with work, he or she can describe the experience of a relative, a friend or an acquaintance.	Students who are experienced working in role will willingly step forward to contribute to a drama like this one. If the students are reluctant to contribute voluntarily, the teacher in role might call on one or two of the more confident students.
Moving around the circle, each student in turn describes a work experience. When all the stories have been told, the teacher assigns the students to groups of four or six, according to some common situations or themes which emerged from their stories. The students present their improvisations to the class, after which they discuss them, focusing on the clarity of the stories. The teacher and students discuss how to most effectively tell a story through a prepared improvisation. The discussion centres on the structure of a story, particularly on the importance of focus, tension and an effective ending. The students also discuss the need for clear movement that is open to the audience when presenting their improvisations. Flashforward/Tableau/Tapping -- Small Groups The students will: demonstrate an ability to freeze movement to create an image imagine and manipulate ideas (CCT) express thoughts and feelings both nonverbally and verbally (C).	The storytelling strategy used here is a variation of the strategy described by Smillie and Murphy in Story Circles. (See References for complete citation) Rather than objects, the students' work experiences provide the starting point.
The teacher asks the students if they will imagine that it is now 50 years later. The students agree and in groups of six or seven, they create tableaux of people at work or unemployed and present them to the rest of the class. Each tableau reflects a situation related to work. The tableau is brought to life as the teacher taps-in, one at a time, to individuals in the tableau and asks questions arising from the tableau such as, "What are you doing? What do you like about this job? How many hours per week do you work? What education do you have? How long have you been unemployed? How have you been able to support your family without work?" Reflection/Discussion -- Whole Group The students will: co-operate with others to plan and participate in drama experiences explore the two-way relationship between technology and society (TL) understand how technology influences occupational roles within society and impacts on the workplace (TL). The students discuss the various changes in working conditions reflected in their tableaux. They agree that advances in technology will have a significant impact on work in the future. They also predict that there will be increased educational requirements for employment in the future. Reflection/Journals -- Individual The students will: evaluate contributions of themselves and others to projects undertaken by groups identify their own interests and needs (IL) reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of democratic processes (C). The teacher asks the students to reflect on the issues and concerns that have arisen in their work by listing, in their journals, the aspects of the topic that they think should be emphasized in their collective creation. They also assess their individual contributions to the work so far and identify areas where they could improve in terms of their contributions to discussions and their commitment to the work. The teacher offers specific criteria for this assessment based upon observations of their work with the tableaux. Planning -- Whole Group The students will: work with increased competence in a large group to plan dramatic experiences develop abilities in group decision-making and problem-solving in order to reach consensus.	Imaging, interviews, writing in role, parallel play, or improvisation are other strategies that might have been used to explore the working conditions of the future.
At the beginning of the next class, the teacher lists on the board the ideas that arose out of the students' journals, and asks the students to make the following decisions: Who is their intended audience? What will be the focus of the collective? Considering the audience and the focus, which areas should be explored further? Which aspects of the topic should be included in their subsequent explorations? What will be the working title for their collective? After much discussion, the students make the following decisions: Intended audience: Grade eleven and twelve students in the school. Focus: Learning from the past, preparing for the future. Framework: Our past industrial revolution labour unions our parents' and/or other adults' experiences Our present job searches/interviews balancing work with school, friends, family, etc. discrimination in the work force Our future parental and societal expectations stereotyping on the job (working conditions) unemployment Our children's future work 50 years later Working title: Nine to Five Written and Spoken Monologues - Individual The students will: create characters from various stimuli create lives for characters that extend beyond the stimuli understand what motivates the characters they portray imagine and manipulate objects and ideas (CCT). The teacher gives the students the following assignment: Develop a character from the work we have done since we began. You might choose to develop this character from one of the roles that you have worked in already, or the character might be a new one emerging from any of the work in this unit. This character might be any age or social class, from the past, the present, or the future. Write and deliver a two to three minute monologue in role in which you describe an experience you have had with one of the aspects of work to be included in the collective. For example, the character might describe an experience involving a job search; working conditions; age, gender or race discrimination; etc. The students agree to present their monologues to the class in one week. Prior to that time, they will have an opportunity to rehearse with a partner, who will make suggestions to support their presentations. Interviews -- Pairs The students will: continue to develop commitment to their roles and the roles of others express thoughts and feelings both nonverbally and verbally (C).	This type of planning can occur at any stage of the process. If the topic is broad and multi-faceted, as is this one, it might be necessary to narrow the focus to accommodate the time allotted to the collective creation process, the intended audience and the length of the performance.
The teacher asks the students to think about job searches, particularly job interviews. She asks them to improvise, in pairs, a scene in which one person is interviewing another for a job. Students are to assume that they are qualified for the jobs. Whether they get the jobs or not depends on whether or not they make good impressions during the interview. When assuming the role as interviewer, students are to think about what qualities they are looking for in an employee. The pairs work simultaneously, conducting a series of interviews for positions as: salesperson, mechanic, race car driver, bank manager, elementary school teacher, factory foreman. After each interview, the members of the pair reverse roles; after every two interviews, they change partners. Reflection/Discussion -- Whole Group The students will: understand the diversity of work choices within an economic framework and the social structures which contribute to or restrict choices of vocation (PSVS) refine their understanding of stereotype, bias, prejudice, racism (PSVS). The students discuss how they tried to change the impression they made as they applied for each job. They discuss the differences between interviewing for part-time work and interviewing for full-time work. They also discuss stereotyping and discrimination as it might occur in job interviews. Prepared Improvisation -- Small Groups The students will: understand how improvisation can be used to explore characters and situations understand that theatre reflects the society that creates it understand that theatre can influence the society in which it is created. In groups of two to four, the students plan prepared improvisations of job interviews, dealing with a variety of interview situations. They present their improvisations to the rest of the class and choose three of the improvisations that they think are most effective. These will be refined for the collective creation. Prepared Improvisation -- Small Groups The students will: maintain focus in improvisations use contrast in improvisations. Working in groups of four to six, the students plan prepared improvisations dealing with the stress of balancing work with other aspects of their lives. They present their improvisations to the class. Reflection/Discussion/Refining -- Whole Group The students will: develop ways to evaluate creative processes (CCT). The students discuss the improvisations in terms of how effectively they conveyed their intentions. Two of the scenes are reworked by the class to clarify the focus and to develop effective use of contrast. The students decide that these two episodes will be included in their collective creation. Spoken Monologues/Directing -- Pairs The students will: co-operate with others to plan and participate in drama experiences.	The strategy is adapted from Lee and Grote's Theatre: Preparation and Performance, page 126-127. (The full citation appears in References.)
The students work together in pairs to rehearse their monologues, giving each other advice about content and presentation. Choral Speaking -- Large Groups The students will: explore various presentational styles in their dramatic work generate alternative forms of dramatic expression (C) discover relationships between one generation's experiences and its expectations for the next generation (CCT).	A strategy such as this one involves the students in a simple directing experience.
The teacher reads the class two poems, "Warren Pryor" and "The Average", both of which deal with parental expectations about career choices. The students discuss the intent of the poems, and some of the students choose to share the ir personal experiences with such parental expectations with the class. The students decide to prepare choral interpretations of these poems. Half of the class will work on "Warren Pryor", the other half on "The Average". They prepare their interpretations, present them to each other, and discuss ways to improve the presentations. They decide to include in their collective a choral interpretation of "Warren Pryor", involving the whole class. Reflection/Journal-Writing -- Individual The student will: evaluate the contributions of themselves and others to projects undertaken by groups identify their own interests and needs (IL) exercise choice in the focus of the collective creation process (IL). The teacher asks the students to reflect on their work so far. In their journals, they answer the following questions: 1. Assess your contribution to the work since you last wrote in your journal. Have you achieved the goals you set for yourself? 2. What goals do you have for further exploring our topic? 3. What aspects of the topic do you think remain to be explored? 4. What areas should be revisited for further exploration? 5. What is your opinion of how the collective creation process in progressing? Spoken Monologues -- Individual The students will: portray characters in monologues communicate character through movement and gesture communicate character through speech express thoughts and feelings both verbally and nonverbally with appropriate eye contact, facial expression and speech to enhance the message (C).	Alden Nowlan's "Warren Pryor" and W. H. Auden's "The Average" are included in the anthology Impact. (Please see References. for a full citation.)
For the next three classes the students present their monologues. After each presentation, the other students provide feedback about content and presentation. Reflection/Journal-Writing -- Individual The students will: critically respond to dramatic presentations.	Formal presentations such as these may be evaluated by the teacher or by the teacher and students as part of the overall assessment of the students' work.
The students record, in their journals, their individual choice of monologues to be included in the collective and the reasons for their choices. They also assess their own monologues in terms of content and presentation. The teacher reports back to the class the next day that six of the monologues have been listed by a number of students as being the most appropriate for inclusion in the collective and the most effectively presented. She asks these students to submit scripts of their monologues. Prepared Improvisation -- Small Groups The students will: use improvisation to explore characters and situations refine their understanding of stereotype, bias, prejudice, racism (PSVS) understand what it means to be exploited (PSVS). The students have indicated in their journals that they would like to further explore issues of stereotyping and discrimination. Referring back to the "Work" web, the students identify various types of stereotyping and discrimination, according to age, gender, race and disabilities. In groups of three to four, they plan prepared improvisations focusing on these issues and present them to the class. Reflection/Discussion -- Whole Group The students will: continue to develop commitment to their roles and the roles of others introduce tension to improvisations. The students discuss the importance of tension and of commitment to role in these improvisations. They discuss how tension can be created and sustained in improvisation. They return to their groups, rework their improvisations, and present them again to the class. Three of these improvisations are chosen to be included in the collective creation. Discussion/Scripting -- Whole Group The students will: understand the relationship of script to performance.	Because individual performances such as these are often very personal experiences for the students, they should have an opportunity to reflect privately on their work.
The teacher and students discuss the scripting of their collective creation. Each student agrees to assume responsibility for scripting a part of the collective. Beginning with the work they have just completed, one or two people from each episode chosen for the performance volunteer to script that episode. Previous episodes will be scripted as well. One student involved in each of the previous episodes chosen for the performance agrees to script that episode. Mime/Story Theatre -- Small Groups The students will: express themselves confidently through movement and gesture display clarity of movement and gesture use movement to communicate nonverbally express thoughts and feelings both nonverbally and verbally (C) explore various presentational styles in their drama work.	There are several approaches to scripting a collective creation, ranging from teacher scripting of the work to no scripting at all. Berry and Rinebold (1985) suggest several possibilities. The scripting process begins here because these episodes have been refined somewhat. The early scripting for this collective creation is rough and will undergo continual revision. Scripting becomes a larger part of the process during Steps 5 and 6: Refining/Scripting.
Following a brief discussion about the requirements of mime, the students work in groups of four to six to prepare mimed episodes portraying various aspects of working conditions. They present these scenes to the rest of the class. After some discussion, the students decide to use one of the story theatre techniques to tell a series of brief stories portraying various aspects of "Work". The stories will be narrated by one student while others mime them. Prepared Improvisation -- Small Group The students will: use improvisation to explore characters and situations recognize unemployment as a current social issue (PSVS). In groups of four to six, the students plan prepared improvisations dealing with unemployment. They present these to the class, and one is chosen to be refined for the collective. Two students in the group volunteer to work together to draft a script of this improvisation.	The teacher might take the opportunity here to teach some mime skills. The extent to which skill development is included in the exploration stage depends on the abilities of the students and the objectives for the unit.