#5 Drama

What: The drama lesson plans were a lot of fun. I learned that you don't have to read the entire book then do one activity. You can read just a page or two and then do a great activity to help reinforce the text. At the end of the book you can do an activity such as alphabet challenge or jigsaw stories to see how well the students understood the story. I also learned that lessons don't always go as planned. For my part of the presentation I did "painting with words". I thought the students would add detail to Big Mamma such as the color of her hair, the way she sat or the sound of her voice. I also thought the students would add detail to the type of day it was, bring up even what time of year it might be. But they all seemed stuck on only adding detail to the type of quilt. If I had to do it again I think I would add more prompts. Before I even read I would ask them to visualize what time of year it was, how Big Mamma sat and sounded and how did Sonnie fit in to the picture. I loved the presentation with the campfire but instead of having it on the computer screen I think I would have them at first close their eye and imagine the fire, what it looks like, smells like and sounds like, then I would play the sounds of the fire and with their eyes still closed have them imagine the people around the fire with them.

It’s also very important when you are reading aloud to children to use a lot of emotion and intonation in your voice and if you can add an accent. I paid more attention to the readers that did this. I feel that the teacher’s voice is part of what draws a student into a story.

So What: I really liked the adverb game you played with us but as we learned we need to be careful of the words we let our students choose. We don’t want the people in the center of the circle to feel unsafe or be made fun of after words. I really like the painting word pictures and I will definitely try that one again. I ones saw drama used in a PE class. I can’t remember exactly how it went but the students pretended to be any animal they wanted to be, and then I asked for a few volunteers. Those students were then given a sanario such as at a wedding or grocery shopping, and then they had to be that animal in human form doing the task I gave them. Another volunteer had to guess what animal they were. It was a lot of fun. We can get some great ideas from the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway.

Now What: I think for me the best way to integrate creative drama in my teaching is to start small. I will start with an activity that I am comfortable with then as I learn how my students operate and they have come to trust me we can work on bigger projects. One way to instill drama would be at the fifth grade level social studies. At my children’s school the fifth graders choose an important historical figure. They spend several weeks researching this person then at the end of the unit they do a wax museum. The students dress up in costume as their famous person, they can also add props. They stand frozen until someone comes by their desk and pushes the button on their desk. Then they come to life, telling the audience some interesting or important facts about their person. It is a lot of fun for everyone.

I will also watch veteran teachers that I know use art integration in their classrooms to get ideas and ask questions of.

This was a really fun unit.

Reflection #4 Drama

I have a hard time following the what, so what, now what formula. Tonight I am just going to write about what I know and have learned.

I don't remember drama ever being used in the classroom when I was a child. What I do remember was getting very much involved in drama in Jr. High. I know that this was what the book called product oriented drama and not process drama,but it really helped me to gain confidence and self esteem. I was very shy all through my elementary, Jr. High and High school years. Drama "gave me a voice." I remember when I was in 8th grade the most popular boy in school tried out for the school musical, he was a ninth grader. It was the first time ever that a "jock" tried out. The play was Annie Get Your Gun. I played a saloon girl, he had the male lead. In one of his songs we were suppose to flirt with him. I went for it. I kissed him. I never would have done that in real life and I never did talk to him. But I could honestly say that I kissed the most popular boy in school. In real life I was timid, shy and reserved. On stage I was free. I could be anyone or anything I wanted to be.

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to see drama used in a few different ways with students. As a Cub Scout leader, every summer we take the boys to day camp. The first thing they do is learn the camp rules. The older boys act out the rules, both braking them and keeping them. I thought it was just a fun way to introduce the rules. I didn't realize then that it was a way to help the boys learn. Two years ago I substitute thought a class that had an Autistic student. The teacher left a lesson plan for me, to read the book " I Feel Silly and Other Emotions" by Jamie Lee Curtis and she wanted me to discuss emotions with the students. As I read the book I noticed that the Autistic child didn't seem to be paying attention. I figured that the purpose of this lesson was to help him. Children with Autism have a hard time reading peoples faces and understanding emotions or how to control their own. I know this because I have a son with Aspergers syndrome ( high functioning Autism). The teacher didn't leave any guide lines for the discussion so I took some liberties with it. First I had the students show me the different emotions with their faces. I noticed that the Autistic student was now watching his fellow classmates from a distance. After that I had the students stand up and show me using their whole bodies what each emotion would look like. Now the Autistic child was completely engrossed in watching his fellow classmates. Then we discussed how everyone has felt everyone of those emotions some time or another and how it's OK to feel angry, sad, scared or frustrated. The important thing is how we deal with our emotions. Then we discussed what would be some expectable ways to handle anger, sadness, fear or frustrations. It was a lot of fun and it was exciting to see the Autistic boys curiosity peeked.

Last year when I was doing my field work for my intro. to education class. I twice got to see drama used in the classroom. The first time was for literature circles. The students are put into groups of five students and assigned a book to read, they are each given assignments that they rotate through such as connector, vocab, artist and summery. The teacher has several individual activities for them to do for her to make assessments. One of the activities is for a student to convince the rest of his group to act out a seen from the book. The student leads the group, assigning parts, costumes and props. Then they put on a performance for us. It was great. The second time there was also another student from BYU doing field work. I was not there the day before so I'm not sure of the objective of her lesson but she broke the class up into groups then assigned each group a scene from a Shakespearian play. The students then had a certain amount of time to come up with costumes, props, decided who was doing what parts then practice. They performed the next day. That's when I was there. I was very impressed by the performances, especially when I found out that they had only started the day before. One group was particularly creative. It was a scene, I think, is from Macbeth. Were three witches our making a potion or a brew. The girls were leaning over a cauldron that had homemade root-beer and dry ice for special affects. After their performance everyone got a cup of root-beer.

I have always thought of drama as being an important part of learning. It gives students a chances to come out of their shells and explore other people, emotions and situations. What better way to learn about oneself and others.

#3 Visual Arts

What: In class we learned to look at art a different way. We learned to look at different pieces of art by proportion, balance, variety, rhythm, emphases, and unity. In the past when I have looked at art I have always noticed the use of light and there seems to be one color that is different than the rest to draw your eye in. But I never gave much thought to the other principals. I am going to go to the exhibit on campus and I am going to see if I can find the different principals and elements that the artist used. Also, after reading chapter seven and getting some wonderful ideas for teaching art I want to see what emotions the art brings out for me. I liked the activity in 7.2 for the landscapes. Thit is the activity I'm am going to do when I visit the exhibit.

I love children's picture books and have several in my home. Some times I will look at a book and think, I can't believe this illustrator has never won a Caldecott. When I was a child I didn't always enjoy museums. A matter of fact, when I was in 10 grade the drama club went to New York city for spring brake. We saw a play or musical a day, but in between we took in as much of the city as we could. Our chaperons wanted to go to several museums but all we wanted to do was hang out in Central Park and people watch. Both are beneficial. Picture books are a great way to introduce children to a verity of amazing art forms by artists from all over the world, even if they can't go to a museum . There are all kinds of medians used form woodcuts to collage to water colors. Children become exposed to great art and artists and they get to hold the art and take as much time as they want to explore it.

So What: The best way for me to effectively prepare to teach about art, artists, and their techniques and styles is to learn about them my self. I can take classes like the Arts in Education conference that will be on campus Oct. 1, visit local museums and art exhibits, and find out more about the life and studies of famous artists.

Now What: I am terrible at drawing and painting and so I have steered away from visual arts, but after reading chapter 7 I remembered the wonderful art teacher I had in fourth through sixth grade. We did things like puppet heads out of paper mache, clay statues that we sculpted, she fired and we painted and she refired. I always looked forward to her class. As a scout leader one of the favorite activities of the boys is to go up the canyon, collect leaves, pine cones and anything else they can find. Then we come back and make shadow art. We take a regular piece of paper and arrange our findings on the paper to make a picture. Then we slide are picture into a manila folder that has a piece of blue print paper in it and slide our regular paper out, we open the folder and let it expose to the sun for a few minutes, we roll up the paper and place it in a jar that has some ammonia in the bottom. The fumes bring the picture to life. When the picture is done we glue are original findings onto the first blank paper. We now have two pieces of art.

When we were doing our art project in class I was a little frustrated at first because I couldn't think of anything to draw that I was later going watercolor paint. Final I saw the picture of a canyon that my teacher had out that inspired me. When it was all said and done I really liked my picture. As a teacher I will have different kinds of art displayed through out my class room to help inspire my students.

As I read the section on clay I was thinking about my oldest son. The section said that kneading the clay helps to develop finger strength. When my son was in seventh grade we had an IEP. One of the things that both myself and his English teacher noticed was that he had a difficult time writing for long periods of time. It became painful for him. His teacher said that over the years she has notice, especially in her male students, that writing was physically painful for them. She said that boys tend to develop the large muscle motor skills but lack in the fine motor skills. Working with clay could really help with this problem. I might have the students sculpt with clay while I do teacher read aloud. They can sculpt something that comes to mind from the story. I also really like the idea from the yarn activity. I could have students make their own spring baskets (Easter baskets) then we could fill them with dirt, plant grass seed and observe what happens.

As I read chapter seven I had so many ideas of what I would like to try in integrating art into some of the core standards and I wrote those ideas down in my book for future reference.

I have a fail proof recipe for play dough that I love. It is different than the ones in the text. If you would like it let me know.

#2 Visual Arts

What I have learned so far in class is it's OK if you'r not good at visual art as long as you try. At my first station I was concerned about what my picture should look like or fallowing the directions exactly but as I got in to it I wasn't worried and ideas started coming to me. All of my own children are very artistic and I know that the best way for them to learn is visually and hands on. I have always planned on using art of all forms in my teaching. So What: Two of my children have learning disabilities. One has communications disorder and the other has aspergers syndrome. One of the things I discovered with them was when they read they do not form pictures in their heads of what is being read. Through my research I learned a technique that I tried on them and it really worked. I would read a poem or a short story, as I read they would draw a picture of what I was reading. This seemed to really help them develop the skill to see what is on the written pages. This worked so well with my children that as I have substitute taught I have done it with the classes I have gotten to work with during teacher read aloud. I feel this helps the students stay focused on the book and shows off awesome works of art. Now What – Last semester when I did field work for my intro to ed. class I had the privilege of observing a wonderful sixth grade teacher. The students were working on science. She gave each student a map of the starts with the constellation Orion the most prominent. They were also given a paper that had the distance of each of the starts on it and a conversion chart of centimeter. She gave each of the students a long string, ruler, and several beads. The students measured the string for each star in centimeter,cut it, tied on a bead and then put it on the appropriate star. When they were done , the teacher had them tape their star map under their desks. Then they laid under their desks and looked at their picture. After some time they wrote in their science journals about their observations of the star map. The teacher was trying to get the students to realize that even though the stars may look like they are right next to each other, they are actually thousands of miles apart. For this activities the students worked on science, math and art. When I was in second grade, we were learning about Hawaii I remember making a salt play dough replica of the islands that we stuck to a piece of paper to put in a book. Another time I remember in about sixth grade doing a report on the winter Olympics and making a collage. I still have these items in a box. The lessons that have stuck with me the most have been the ones that I got to be creative in. This is the kind of teacher I want to be. The best things I can do to prepare to be that kind of teacher is to read our class book and refer back to it in future years. Also I need to observe teachers that are already doing arts integration in their classrooms and lastly with the internet we have access to information world wide to help us. We are not alone.