About half of the students in this grade seven class have prepared entries and appeared at a recent school Air Band contest. The contest was held in the school gym over one noon hour before an audience of students, teachers and parents.(Note) The winners of the contest are to advance to a division-wide Air Band competition.
Within days following the competition, the school is abuzz with rumours about the contest at the school of one of the neighbouring towns. It is said that a group of parents from there have issued a formal complaint to the Division Board about the Air Band contest in their children's school. They have apparently stated that a number of the entries, including the winning one, contained material and language that they consider offensive and inappropriate for inclusion in a school-sponsored event and they have made two requests. The first is that the second place winners advance to represent their school at the division competition; the second is that, in future, all entries in school Air Band contests throughout the school division be screened.
Unit One: Teaching A Drama in Context
Students throughout the school are presently quite pre-occupied by the unexpected controversy in the neighbouring community. The grade seven teacher observes that the comments of the students centre on the issue of the parents' unexpected involvement in the Air Band competition.(Note) In drama class, she says she is aware that this incident is on their minds and asks them if they'd like to discuss it. Early in the discussion, she steers the students away from comments about particular personalities and the discussion evolves into a consideration of general views about parents/guardians and ways in which some of them seem to respond to the desire of adolescents to make their own rules and assert their independence. She asks whether they would like to pursue some of these ideas in their drama work. They say they would.
Working Within the Drama
Imaging/Storytelling/Journal Writing -- Individual/Pairs
The students will:
As the next class begins, the teacher asks the students whether they can identify a recent situation in which they felt that an adult unfairly disagreed with, or stood in the way of, something they really felt they should be able to do. Many students nod their heads. She tells them that in a moment she will ask them to close their eyes as she puts on a piece of recorded music. She says she would like them to try to allow images from that recent situation to form in their minds, as the music plays quietly in the background.(Note) She asks them to please keep their eyes closed and to concentrate on those images until the song is over. She asks them to sit comfortably and, as there are no questions, they begin.
When the song is over, the students are asked to choose and sit facing a partner.(Note) The teacher asks them to take turns thoughtfully describing the scene that developed in their minds as music played. As the students work, the teacher circulates among them listening and observing until she believes that all of the stories have been shared. As the period is about to end, she asks each pair to consider and record, in their journals, what the similarities and differences are between the two stories.(Note) She tells them that they will continue from here next class.
Storytelling/Prepared Improvisation -- Small Groups
The students will:
As the class begins, the teacher assigns the students to groups of four, ensuring that the partners from the previous class are together. The students are asked to briefly relate their stories to the others in the group.(Note) As the students work, the teacher moves from group to group distributing chart paper and non-toxic markers. As each group completes the storytelling, they are asked to brainstorm for similarities among the stories and to record them on the chart paper. The teacher has observed, during this and the previous class, that the focus of their stories has been adult's lack of understanding of the lives of adolescents and that this should also be the focus of their brainstorming.
The teacher asks each group to set its chart aside for the moment. She says that as the groups seem to be working very well together and because several of them have requested doing so, they may now each prepare a short improvisation. These improvisations may represent either one of the stories told in their group or a new, fictional situation that the group creates out of the most common similarities found among the four stories heard in the group. The students set to work. The teacher tells them that they will continue to work on these prepared improvisations in the next period.
(Note)
When all of the groups
are ready, those who wish to do so present
their improvisations for the others.(Note)
When in the
audience, the
students are asked to sit with their group and to have their chart
paper close by. After each improvisation is presented, the class
discusses the ideas contained in each one and each group has an
opportunity to add to their brainstorm list. Before the class has
ended, the teacher asks the students to hand in their group lists
and tells them that they will all have a homework assignment for
next class. She says she will compile one list out of all the
group lists, so that they can see clearly the ideas that have
emerged from their work. They will each write journal entries
which complete these two statements.(Note)
Even though some adults can be too controlling of teenager's
lives, I know we couldn't get along without them for the
following reasons: (Please list as many reasons as you can
think of.)
Sometimes adults seem to exercise too much control over the
lives of teenagers. I think they do so because...
She asks them whether they want to continue this work. They
indicate that so far it has been fun and that they are willing to
explore these ideas further. The teacher promises they will
continue next period.
Teacher and Students in Role/Meeting -- Whole Group
The students will:
Before the next period, the teacher compiles one class list out of
all the group lists prepared by the students and posts it on the
classroom wall.(Note)
The list, entitled
Parents of AdolescentsThey enter the class and sit in chairs that have been arranged in a circle. As soon as all of the students are seated and settled, the teacher joins the circle in role as the facilitator of the discussion group.(Note) She welcomes them all by saying that she was pleased to be invited to lead their discussion group this afternoon and that she is happy so many of them are in attendance. She says that she is a social worker who also happens to be, as each of them is, the parent of an adolescent. She says she knows from both personal and professional experience that being the parent or guardian of an adolescent can have its ups and downs and that often it is helpful to be able to discuss one's situation with others who are in "the same boat".(Note) She says that when she works with groups such as this one, she always does her best to ensure that the participants will discuss the delights as well as the problems that can arise in a household inhabited by an adolescent, and that they have ample opportunity to give one another advice and encouragement about any situation that is shared with the group. She says she knows that all parents want their relationships with their young teenagers to be good ones and she asks whether any of them is willing to begin the discussion by describing a behaviour of their son or daughter that they'd like to be able to handle with more understanding.(Note)Discussion Group Meets This Afternoon
1:30 p.m.
(All parents and guardians of
adolescents are welcome.)(Note)
One of the students
in role agrees to begin. She says that her daughter's room is a disaster area and that no matter what she says she cannot seem to make her daughter understand that she must take responsibility for the tidiness of her own room. She says she knows she does nag on about it, which doesn't seem to do much good, and she wonders if her daughter ever will smarten up about this.(Note)The teacher in role
asks the others whether this sort of thing has been a problem for any of them. Several nod in agreement. She asks if any of them has come up with a solution to a similar situation. One student in role says he and his daughter made a deal that he wouldn't nag her about the mess in her room from day to day as long as she shovelled it out once a week. Another says that she takes deductions from her son's weekly allowance if he doesn't keep his room tidy. Another says she has offered to help her son clean his room on a number of occasions, but that he doesn't really seem to want her in his room at all. As no one offers anything further, the teacher in role asks the student who initiated the discussion whether she has any further thoughts on this and she says perhaps she will try to make some kind of deal with her daughter that would make them both happier.(Note)The teacher in role
presses the group to raise other issues. Another of the students in role says that he presently has a very big problem with his son. Last week two policemen showed up at his door and announced they were investigating a series of break and entries into small corner stores situated in the area of town where he lives. Two of the kids involved had been picked up and had named his son as someone who had been with them during one of these incidents. Following questioning at home, his son had admitted being with these kids earlier on the evening in question. He said he heard them talk about what they intended to do, but he hadn't believed them and as it was getting close to his curfew he went home and forgot about it. The student in role says that the police seemed satisfied with his son's story, but that he was a bit uncomfortable about the whole thing because his son had been told not to hang around with those particular kids and because he was having a real hard time believing that his son could just simply "forget" such a thing. He and his wife had decided that their son should be grounded indefinitely and at the moment everyone in the household was very unhappy. Several of the students in role offer advice and question "this poor man" further about his problem. Some of them support the action he and his wife have taken, while others say that they wonder why he doesn't trust his own son more. They say that if he did, he would believe his son's side of the story.(Note)They continue the
discussion in role as adults by responding to a few other stories told by members of the group about the setting of curfews, about needing to know at all times where their sons and daughters are and who they are with and, generally, about having their motives for their concerns about their adolescent children misunderstood by the very children they are seeking to understand. The teacher in role facilitates the discussion by asking questions and making comments that clarify the issues raised by the students in role and serve to elicit response from as many of them as possible. When the teacher senses that the discussion is losing steam, she looks at her watch and suggests that they are running out of time. She says she hopes they have all acquired some valuable ideas out of the session and that they will attend the next one. She wishes them a good afternoon and steps out of role.
Reflection Out of Role -- Whole Group
The students will:
The teacher asks the students what they thought about the parents'
discussion group. One student says that at first the situation
wasn't clear to him but after a couple of the students had spoken,
he got the idea and was able to say a few things in role. He says
it wasn't very hard to think up things to talk about because he
just imagined that he was his father talking about him and his
sister.(Note)
Another student says she remembers that when they first
started doing dramas in grade five, she didn't like saying anything
in a drama because she was afraid she would look stupid. Now, she
says, she is always curious about what the dramatic situation will
be and she thinks trying different roles is fun. Another student
says he still feels a bit uneasy about speaking out when the whole
group is working together, but that he always likes watching what
the others do. Another says that the meeting part of the drama
wasn't that great, except for the bit about the police, and that
acting as if you are a parent isn't really very interesting.
Writing in Role -- Individual
The students will:
The teacher says that, as the period is almost over, she would like
to remind them to hand in their journals. She says that for next
class each of them is to write, on looseleaf, one or two paragraphs
in role as the parents or guardians from the discussion group
episode. They will each write in the first person and describe
their thinking and feeling about the "ups and downs" of being a
parent or guardian of an adolescent. In response to questions from
the students, she says that they can write either about what they
spoke or thought about in role during the whole group episode or
about any other situation that has occurred between them and their
fictional adolescent child. Of course, she says, any situations
they describe can either be absolutely imaginary or based on a real
experience.(Note)
Spoken Monologues
The students will:
Before the next class, the teacher "sets the stage" for a
presentation of an oral reading of the monologues written by the
students in role. She has set up a few wooden boxes of different
heights and some chairs. As the class begins, she asks about half
of the students to arrange themselves around these and to read
their monologues one by one. She asks them to read with clarity,
with expression and with enough volume that they can be heard by
their audience. The other half of the class is audience for the
presentation.(Note)
When the reading of
Discussion about the
Prepared Improvisation
The students will:
The teacher asks the students whether they would be willing to
spend a little more time on this drama by preparing improvisations
about the age old struggle of teens for independence from the
adults' point-of-view.
One of the students says it might be a good idea to go back to the
improvisations they'd developed a few periods ago from their own
stories and to rework those same improvisations, only this time
from the perspective of adults. The teacher says that would be a
good idea and it would mean that they would have to work in those
same groups.(Note)
She asks the students
to sit in those groups and
tells them that they may either rework the same improv from the
adults' point-of-view, as suggested, or come up with a new improv
from that perspective.
As students work, the teacher moves from group to group observing,
listening, side-coaching and facilitating. She is pleasantly
surprised that they are having no problem and seem to enjoy working
through a situation from the perspective of adults. Two of the
groups have decided to rework their previous improvisation, two
have developed somewhat different versions of the "break and entry"
story, four are developing new situations. One of the groups has
adapted a rather effective technique from, the teacher learns, an
old black and white movie that one of them has recently seen on
television. Of the four students in the improv, the first is in
role as the mother; the second, as her inner voice and conscience;
the third, as her adolescent son; and the fourth, as his conscience
and inner voice.(Note)
The students say they
Reflection Out of Role -- Whole Group
The students will:
When all of the work has been shared, the class discusses the ideas
presented in the prepared improvisations. The teacher compliments
the students on their willingness to stand in adults' shoes and to
express adults' points-of- view. She says that she notes they did
it, in most cases, with fairness and, in some cases, with good
humour! She says that a couple of weeks ago, when they had first
talked about parents, following the complaints about the Air Band
contest, she wasn't at all certain that some of them would be able
to transcend their irritation and look at adults' perspectives
objectively. She says they've done a good job.(Note)
She tells them that they