Kailey N. Smith
Abstract
Theater Education is the ideal place to experiment with practices that give more autonomy and ownership of learning to the students, ultimately leading to deeper understanding of materials and content. In this lesson, reluctant theater students design their own learning experience utilizing communications, collaboration, and critical/creative thinking skills to solve real-world problems. The article includes a student-led rubric creation process, for assessing their achievement.
For the last 10 years I have taught a variety of theater courses in performance, design, technical and practical application, theory, and critical analysis. I have had many opportunities to explore a variety of teaching methods that focus on student-centered lessons that build inquiry skills, and result in deeper, more well-rounded learning.
I had a group of students in my Theater for Social Change class who were not interested in theater nor performing...
One particularly memorable unit on playmaking was especially successful. Several years ago I had a group of students in my Theater for Social Change class who were not interested in theater nor performing. They needed an art credit, and their guidance counselor told them they would not have to draw, sing, play an instrument, nor perform for an audience – so they took the class. The first week was challenging and discouraging, as I struggled to adjust all my grand plans and lessons to find something that engaged these students enough for me to communicate any content at all.
One day, as students were milling about waiting for the bell that signified the beginning of class, I overheard a group of students debating an article they had found on Twitter. This article was about a bullying situation in another state’s high school that ultimately had led to the victim taking his own life. My students were angry about the inaction of the school in that situation, feeling the tragedy could have been prevented, which led them to a more intense conversation about bullying and administrative inaction they had experienced in our school.
I chose not to interrupt. I listened quietly, sometimes letting them argue, sometimes filling silences with follow-up questions. I asked questions like “What do you think would have been a better response from that principal when presented with that information?” and “If you were a parent who had a problem with that, what might you say? How would you respond?”
Other students listened and chimed in, until they all realized I had let this conversation continue well into class time. They took their seats and apologized, and when I encouraged them to continue I received confused and skeptical looks. I explained that this was the most engaged I had seen them since they came to my class, and I was eager to see them continue to unpack their thoughts and feelings about such an important topic. Before we knew it, the bell rang and students once again apologized for wasting the class period as they filed out.
As the debates progressed in these classes, the students were flushed with excitement, finally asking “Smith, I know this stuff is kind of off topic, but can we do this in class all the time?” Finally, I confessed that I had slowly been incorporating more and more theater related skills into the conversations and debates they were having. By asking the students to empathize with the people mentioned in the articles, try to view the situation from their perspectives, and develop a response to the situation, I was actually having them create and expand characters based loosely on real people. Once they got over their initial shock that they had been “tricked into liking theater” as one of my students so eloquently put it, they were excited to continue.
We began exploring concepts like playmaking, devised theater, and docudrama as well as artists like Anna Deavere Smith and Moises Kaufman, the methods they use to develop material, and which of those methods students wanted to explore more. I sat in the back of the classroom and watched my students develop the criteria and rubric for a devised piece of theater, based on three articles found on Twitter. Once they chose the articles to use, they determined that their final grades would be based on participation in development of the script, weekly journal entries with prompts developed collaboratively, a final performance of the material, peer evaluation, and a final self-reflection.
Rubric Creation
We started with a very general brainstormed list of expectations and how students would like to be graded. This original list included everything from “no fighting or just be nice to each other even when you don’t agree,” to “use complete sentences and proofread,” to “memorize your lines.” From this general list we began grouping statements into larger categories. We had discussions about where their grades would actually come from and what skills or products were measurable and attainable, eventually coming up with Development of the Script, Weekly Journal Entries with Prompts Developed Collaboratively, Final Performance of the Material, Peer Evaluation, Final Self-Reflection.
While it was my choice to create a rubric for them to follow, the students were responsible for creating it. I provided examples, and some students offered examples from their history and English classes. The students split into small groups and each worked on the language for the different sections. When they finished the first drafts of a section, they switched with a group to get some feedback. For example, the group working on the language for the Development of the Script, would switch with the group working on the criteria for Peer Evaluations and make suggestions. We worked together as a class to edit and finalize the document, thoroughly analyzing each line. I think the students were more careful about the specific language in the document because it would have a direct impact on them and their grades for the project. The students had chosen to use a 4-point scale and they were focused on making sure the “4” ranking of each section was attainable to every member of the class.
My goal during this process was to primarily provide structure, answer questions, and ask probing questions to keep them moving forward. I may have played devil’s advocate many times, but I really wanted to make sure the students had as much ownership of this as possible. For most of them, it was the first time they had any say at all in how their learning was being measured. Though, in the moment it felt like it took forever, it is so important not to rush this process and I did not regret taking extra time to ensure the students were happy with their results. I have also found it is equally important not to force the students into this creation, but rather encourage as much input as they are willing to give.
These particular students were very invested in the rubric creation. If they had been less invested, I would have offered more options or examples for them to choose from, provided language samples so they didn’t have to develop the sections from scratch, or even used their brainstorming session to create the rubric myself and then allowed them to edit it. If it becomes just another chore or they see it as busywork, it will be less impactful.
The first article they chose to dissect was the one they had been discussing that first day about a student who had been bullied relentlessly, until finally taking his own life. We proceeded through a series of long form improvisation exercises requiring students to characterize real people introduced in the article, as well as to create fictitious ones in an attempt to recreate a scenario where the situation was successfully rectified and the tragedy prevented.
In her essay Power and Community in Drama, Bethany Nelson (2010) describes the method we used, in-role drama: “In-role drama refers to work in which students in role as experts, stakeholders or problem-solvers are confronted with a real or fictitious problem and are asked to question, debate, discuss, consider, and come to a resolution of that problem” (pp.81-82). In one exercise students were given the roles of the guidance counselor and a friend of the victim, both of whom were quoted in the article. They were asked to create the conversation of the student coming to the counselor to express concern for his friend, in which the counselor reacted poorly (as the students felt she did in the article). Then other students were given the opportunity to step into that role to present a version they felt would have been more appropriate. Next, students were asked to take the roles of the principal, and the two primary bullies after a particularly nasty incident, where they repeated this process.
Later, these students interviewed their own principal and guidance counselors, told them about the article, asked how they might handle a similar situation, and incorporated their responses into dramatizations (with their explicit permission). Other dramatizations involved exchanges between the victim and friends or parents, parents and administration, bystanders, school board members, and even news reporters. While not every interaction made it into the final script, they used these moments to explore school policies, mental health services in schools and communities, and even case law relating to a school’s responsibility to provide safety for its students.
While some students were engaged in the drama, other students were observing, providing feedback or advice, and working on a shared script documenting every word and action presented in each drama. Some took pictures, some recorded to transcribe later, but they developed a live, working document of their process, that every single student had ownership of. In her 2010 essay, Nelson argues, “In the safety and community of the drama situation, students have time to strategize, consider options, and experiment with solutions” (p 83). As a result, they are able to develop solutions to real world problems that many students don’t have an opportunity to contemplate in a typical general education classroom.
Through this process, and similar methods students learn skills to collaborate fully and effectively, use critical thinking, empathize with others – even those with vastly different experiences from their own, communicate clearly and effectively, disagree respectfully.
None of these students went on to be the lead in the school play, but the performance was never the goal of this work (though the final script they edited and performed was impressive, particularly for a group with no theater experience), nor was it my goal to “trick them into liking theater.” Through this process, and similar methods students develop skills to collaborate fully and effectively, use critical thinking, empathize with others – even those with vastly different experiences from their own, communicate clearly and effectively, disagree respectfully, and perhaps most importantly, they are given the opportunity to think about how they learn best, what they would like to learn and why, and how to demonstrate that learning to others.
The most difficult part is being willing, as the teacher, to relinquish the majority of your power and control over to your students. In this type of student-centered learning, the teacher serves primarily as a facilitator and a coach and allows the students to take the wheel and determine the direction of the ship. When the students understand the broad targets and objectives, they will often design more rigorous expectations and lessons for themselves. It can be scary to toss all those intricate lesson plans with every second of class time scheduled with tasks, worksheets, and activities, out the window, but it is necessary to truly allow students to autonomy over their education.
Reference
Nelson, B. (2010). Power and community in drama. In S. Schonmann (Ed.), Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education (pp. 81–83). Sense Publishers.
Kailey N. Smith is the Theater Teacher and Auditorium Manager at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport, ME. She graduated with a BA in Theater Education from Emerson College and served as the theater teacher at Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine for nine years. She is the president of the Maine Drama Council and more recently, the president of the Maine Forensics Association. Kailey Smith can be reached at kailey.smith@fivetowns.net