Welcome back- How I organized my theatre classroom

theworldisurstage.blogspot.com How to Organize a Theatre Classroom

Well it's time to welcome back students for a new school year! I had a wonderful break from all things school related (including this blog) but I'm back and geared up for a new year. I am so excited about all of the fun adventures we are going to have with my students. This year I have 125 theatre students come to school specifically to learn theatre! That is the most I have ever had! I know we are going to have a great year.

For the last few weeks I have been busy setting up my classroom and I can't wait to share all of the fun changes I have in store.

The stage-

Some very nice men in our maintence department built me this a few years ago. My students love it! The dance teacher and I then took some PVC pipe and shower curtains to make curtains for our stage. I think it looks very cute now!

Tables- 

I always struggle with how to set up my class table. We do enough writing and project to need tables but I like to keep a ton of floor space for movement activities. I think this U shape gives me the most floor space. Also note I moved my desk to the back of the room. I've never had it here before, so we will see if it stays.

Word wall-

I have updated my word wall to include the word and definition. Since I teach all grades K-5 I am hoping this will help with a quicker review so we can get on with the business of learning new things.

Playwright of the month- 

In elementary school, I only see my students once a week for 40 minutes! That is not enough time to learn much theatre history (also many of the plays aren't really appropriate for that age). The solution- playwright of the month! Students get a basic introduction to different playwrights without delving too deeply into any one play.

Rules- I saw on Pinterest where a ton of art teachers had created rules based upon being an artist. Well I look it upon myself to create the theatre version of the rules. Make sure to visit my teacherspayteachers site to download a copy of the rules!

Become and Actor- Rules for theatre

Display Board/ Call Board- 

This year we are putting on the musical Seussical (I am so excited). My principal has agreed to use the musical as a theme for the entire school! The whole school will be using Dr. Seuss as a theme for lessons, parent nights, and student writings. My call board I am really excited about. My students are always needing to pick up papers (tech forms, audition sheets, scripts) This is a great place for me to put papers outside my classroom so that they won't interrupt my class. The kids love it! 

Well that is a short tour of my classroom. It is not quite Pinterest ready but it is getting there! How close is everyone else to having their rooms ready for students?

Tips and Tricks for a Great Kindergarten Showcase

Well the year is very quickly winding down. Last week we were very busy preparing for our first ever Kindergarten only showcase. We combined all 7 (yes we have seven K classes) to create this wonderful performance. Each class learned two songs and either a short dance or play performance. It turned out so well. In addition to the kindergarten show, we also hosted a school-wide art show. All 1,000+ students had an art piece displayed. We used a wonderful company called Artome that shipped us custom paper, students create their art then we ship the paper back. The night of the show, they show up with all the artwork framed, they set up the show, run the show then take it down. It is such an easy /awesome show.

Well after the kindergarten show/art show here are a few things I learned.

1. Practice the little things.

Kindergarteners know very little about performance routines. They need to practice walking on and off stage, sitting, standing, transitions to their speaking places and such. I know as directors we sometimes try to skip these simple things to focus on the bigger picture. Don't do it. Kindergarteners need this practice.

2. Use older siblings as ringers

As mentioned before, Kindergartners do not adapt well to change. When someone doesn't show up it, really makes it hard for them to perform. I enlisted a couple of my older theatre students to help fill in for kids who were no show. They followed the script and when someone wasn't there they said the line. This totally lead to the show's success! 

3. Your homeroom teachers are your biggest helpers

We only had a half an hour each day to rehearse the show. We had to rely on our homeroom teachers to help out. My teachers were awesome! They rehearsed in the classroom, helped during our rehearsal and communicated with parents about the show. We could not have done it without them!

4. Help teach the parents.

 Part of your job is to help teach the parents about your job and arts integration. Parents often don't realize the work and effort that goes into seemingly simple shows. I like to talk about how students work on memorization, blocking, and body control. I also like to point out any core integration that might be occurring. For example one of the plays focused on types of clouds and what they meant. This was a great integration piece to point out.

5. Sit back and enjoy.

The best part of a Kindergarten play is that they are Kindergarteners. No one expects the kids to be perfect. If they mess up crazy bad, it doesn't matter because they are so cute!  Simply enjoy the show, this is the one show with no pressure! Parents are always happy when they see their babies perform in their first school play. Enjoy it. They are soooo cute!

What successes have you had in getting Kindergartners to perform? What other tips would you add?

Creativity part two

Now it is time for part two of my creativity post. You can check out the first part HERE. Most of these tips are tips that can work either for a classroom teacher or ideally, for a specials teacher who sees the same children year after year. This is definitely a process for building creativity. 

Start early

If you are a core teacher, start fostering creativity early in the year. If you set a precedent that creativity is acceptable, then students will be much more willing to continue being creative throughout the year. Students are always more willing to try new things at the beginning. They like to please their teachers early on. If you wait until later they will be much more concerned with their friends and looking "cool". 

For specials teachers, begin fostering creativity in kindergarten. I am always amazed at what Kindergartners can come up with when given the opportunity. This also helps set a precedent in your classroom. Student know that they must be creative in your room. This year is the first year that my 5th grade students will have spent all 6 years with me (they started as kindergartners in my program). Their creative ability is beyond any I have experienced before this. The fact that they have been being creative since kindergarten has really given them the confidence to push their limits. Their improvisational skills rival some 9th graders. So PROUD of them!

Start easy

Just like you scaffold core subjects like math and reading, you need to scaffold creativity as well. When you begin teaching creativity start with very simple tasks. Check out my creativity brain breaks for some ideas. I love to start off with games because kids think of  it as "fun" and not "learning;" it makes them much more willing to try new things. Once they have had some success with creativity, start assigning small assignments for them to get creative with. Make sure you work with them and encourage students to go farther. After they are good at small assignments, try a huge project. I love the bunraku assignment we use. Check it out here. This is a great assignment for students to be creative both in their writing and art. 

Give lots of opportunities

the more opportunities and ways to be creative, the more likely students will try. When creativity becomes part of their daily routine, students are more likely to integrate creativity. Try to make sure every day/week has at least one or two creative assignments. This does not need to be intense projects. It could simply be a simple game or writing assignment. But practice makes perfect, even in creativity. The more often they are creative, the more creative they will become. 

Praise

Students need confidence. When you are creative, you are very vulnerable. Students want to make sure they what they are doing is acceptable. The more praise you can give, the more confident they will become, the more likely they will be to become more creative. Students love praise. When they are really creative give lots of praise. Let them present/perform for the class or school; they will get tons of praise from the people who matter most (their peers). Find creative ways to praise the students. Have them display artwork in the building. Praise them in front of other teachers. Let them go and perform for another class. Try to do anything you can to get them excited about creating.

Have fun

Creativity happens when you are having fun. Don't be so serious. Sit back and relax!

It amazes me how creative my students are. I love teaching creativity in my classroom. I firmly believe that the jobs of the future rely on workers ability to be creative. If we do not take time to be creative now, students will never learn how to stretch their minds and push their limits. Even though creativity is not a specific common core standard, it is still one of the most important things we can teach our students. 

How do you teach creativity? Link up to this post in the comments and we can create a database of the best creative projects for students! 

10 Ways to Foster Creativity in the Classroom part 1

Testing season is upon us which means more stress and less time to post. It also means kids are flopping under the weight of standardized tests. I always feel so bad for my students during this time of year, all the students have to sit still and quiet for hours on end bubbling in these bubble, worrying about if they are choosing the exactly right answer. It is enough to squash anyone's creativity. So to counteract all the b-o-r-i-n-g I have come up with 10 ways to help foster creativity in your classroom and get kids excited about learning during this very boring time.
I am breaking this post into two parts to last the two weeks of testing. Enjoy the first 5 ways to foster creativity and then tune in next week for part two!

Create a safe environment

The first thing you must do foster creativity is to create a safe environment. Students will not be willing to express themselves if they are worried about being made fun of laughed at. They need to feel very very safe in order to be creative. 

-teach good audience behavior

 If you are doing any in class performances you must teach audience behavior. Everyone knows how scary it is to get up in front of people. If those people are your friends, and they are not being respectful, learning shuts down completely. I plan on writing a whole post about teaching audience behavior but for now I will just say this. Students should be seated, still, quiet, and always applaud afterwards. No talking and No teasing are musts!

-do not allow rude behavior

If students are rude to each other they will not be creative. If students are worried about being made fun of they will not be willing to try new things. Shut down rude behavior quickly and effectively at the beginning of the year. In my class rudeness (including boo-ing is automatic time out). Typically it only takes one or two examples for a class to get the picture that rudeness will not be tolerated.

-no sarcasm

This is directed primarily at teachers! I know that I can be guilty of it sometimes. When we interact with our friends we use sarcasm. Sometimes that sarcasm can leak out into our classroom. Unfortunately students do not understand sarcasm.  Try not to use sarcasm with your students. They take it as you being mean and it can make them afraid to try new things.

No wrong ideas

-try to make all reasonable suggestions work

At the beginning students will give probably weak answers. Accept and encourage students. They are trying out to see if answering is safe. If you automatically shut down an answer because it isn't that creative or its a little silly, kids wont try again.  Accept and encourage all responses.

-encourage students to go farther

We play a ton of creativity games in my class. During these games students are encouraged to push the boundaries of creativity. Once kids get used to being creative encourage them to go farther. Don't just accept the first answer, have them try again. You can check out a few great creativity games here. I love the silly statues!

Don't give an example/answer

- set the ground rules then step back

One of the hardest things that I struggle with as a teacher is letting go of control. However, if we want our students to become more creative they have to have control of their learning. When you are ready for your students to get really creative, give them an assignment, tell them the rules and then step back and let them work it out for themselves. Don't explain every detail of the project. It is ok if doesn't turn out exactly like you plan. This happens a lot to me when we do improvisation. Students know the basic rules but they are free to create within the rules. I can promise you that the way I think an improv will turn out is almost never what actually happens and that's ok!

- don't give the exact same supplies and materials to everyone. 0ffer some choice

This suggestion will lead to some amazing projects. I do this when we create our puppets and make up designs in class. Every student gets the same basic supplies but the specifics are up to the individual. When creating our puppets students first must create an original character, after they have a character they have a huge variety of supplies to choose from. Then end results turn out spectacular. 

As you can see from the picture, the puppets are all the same but each child got a ton of choice in the actual creation. Check out how to create these puppets here!

Offer problems that have multiple solutions

When creating projects, allows for students to have multiple solutions. Try not to have only one right answer. One of my favorite projects is go divide students into groups and allow them each to block the same scene.  When then get together and talk about how everyone had different interpretations of how to present a scene and why each idea was valid. Helping the students get comfortable not "Copying" off of each other is a huge struggle. Encourage and praise students who find new and different solutions to the project. If you want to start encouraging students to find multiple solutions, give them an adaptation of the  circle test from the torrents gifted test. In this test students are given a page of circles and told them to turn it into something. Having students find as many different solutions as possible will really help stretch their creativity. The game "What could it be" Is great for this!

Let the groups struggle

Group work allows students to be more creative then you ever thought possible. When you set up group assignments make sure that you give very specific guidelines and rules. You want to eliminate arguments about procedural items.  Once the groups get started try not to settle arguments regarding the creation or implementation of the project (obviously settle any disagreements regarding rule breaking or meanness). Encourage students to compromise (I hate the complaint- "They are doing my idea" ). Having students find a way to incorporate all ideas will help foster creativity. 

Well I hope you enjoyed part one of my 10 ways to foster creativity. Make sure you stop by next week for my last five ideas! What are some ways you use to foster creativity? Leave me a comment and maybe you will see your idea on the next post!

A funny Thing Happened on the Way to Rehearsal

As a director you need to be able to have a sense of humor. Today is not a day to give advice or great insights today is a day to celebrate the silly. Last week we wrapped our final performances of the year. It was a whirlwind week of rehearsals and performances for everyone. (this is also why there was no blog post last week.) Performing every night in a week is just too hard. As my final show of the year wrapped I looked back and remembered all of the fun my students and I had. Some of the things were crazy, some were huge mistakes, but all were well worth the effort. I love the rehearsal process and I am always amazed at what my students come up with.

Jasmine and the microphone

For our major musical we produced Aladdin Jr. My students did an amazing job, but it was a huge adjustment learning how to be on a big stage. One of the funniest things that happened was watching the kids learn how to use la-viler mics. My kids love to help, and often if someone didn't know a line they would try to whisper the lines to each other. This does not work with a microphone on. We always heard. Jasmine was great, she knew all of her lines and everyone else's. I was always "reminding" her not to whisper lines with a mic on. Well one night she was trying to whisper lines to Aladdin so she proceeded to try and be slick and cover up her microphone. I then told her that i could hear her through Aladdin's mic. So the smart girl she was grabbed the mics and took them both off and then whispered the line. I couldn't hear her whisper then! Success! except for the fact that we then had to break and spend five minutes repositioning the microphones and explaining why that might not be the best solution for not knowing lines.

Pecos bill and the lion

My fourth graders recently finished producing a show on Tall Tales. In the play about Pecos Bill, Bill is attacked by a lion and decides to try and ride him like a horse. Now I often let students help me block their shows. They are allowed to try what they like and then we modify as needed. As we were working on this show Pecos Bill and the Lion were working through the scene. At the end Bill jumped on the Lion's back and rode him off stage. It was the most random yet perfect blocking to end the scene. We ended up keeping it in the show and the audience loved it. This definitely reconfirmed my desire to let students help block. I would never have thought of it any other way. 

5th graders meet Shakespeare 

My 5th grade students performed Macbeth for their showcase. We had a wonderful adaptation that kept a lot of Shakespeare's traditional language in the play. The first day I had students try and guess what different words meant. They had such fun with the thees and thou's. Their favorite part though was reenacting the witches scenes. They loved to "double double boil and trouble" It was great watching them learn how to speak the language. But We did have several mispronounced words and misunderstandings, "What Ho" means something very different today then it did back then!

How old is 60 year old

So I made the "mistake" of allowing my third grade students complete character analysis on their characters. They learned a ton about their character and their play through this experience. The problem, i learned a lot about how they view "old" people. One of the characters in the play was 60 years old. As soon as the little girl found this out she immediately started playing her like she was a 90 year old women. The girl developed a limp and hunchback over night. When I asked her why she was so old the girl responded Well my character is 60 so I have to make her seem really old... Gee thanks kid

I love the rehearsal process. I love the chaos and experimentation that comes with working with young students and trying to create theatre. Directors of adults would not believe the number of times I simply practice lining up on stage and walking to microphones. Rehearsing for live theatre is always a fun creative event that keeps me loving my job. I hope that a few of these stories put a smile on your face. What crazy events have you ever had rehearsing? Do you think mistakes add to the process or hinder it?

How to Gain Administrative Supprt for your Fine Arts Program

Fine Arts Teachers are in a precarious position.  Every year as contracts come out, FA teachers worry about if their contract will be renewed. It is a sad state of affairs when budget cuts at the school often mean cutting the Fine Arts Department. Sometimes these cuts come in form of a non-renewal but more often these cuts come from the FA budget being decimated. As a Fine Arts teacher, you must advocate for your program and ensure that your students have the program and supplies they need to succeed. This is often a difficult task. To help make this task easier you must gain the support of your administration. A supportive administration will do wonders to help your children succeed. I have a wonderful working relationship with my administrators that I have worked very hard to create. Now this doesn't mean that we always agree or that I get an unlimited budget (oh man do I not get an unlimited budget) but it does mean that I have a working dialog with my administrators that helps make my job easier. Read on to see what I did to gain support.

Fundraising

It is the sad truth that money makes the world go round. Schools that are strapped for cash will often cut the fine arts programs first. This is especially true if your program is constantly needing money and never contributing to the general fund. Your department needs to become financially independent. If you are constantly going to your administration for money they are going to start thinking that you aren't adding value to the school. Your first goal is to simply raise enough money to run your own program. You should be able to cover your supplies, travel expenses and rights to performances. Check out my five creative fundraiser ideas if you need ideas on raising money. After you are able to raise enough money to maintain your own expenses you then need to start making a. "Profit" for the school. We contribute to our school through out major musical. This year we produced Aladdin jr. We made several thousand dollars for the school! If you are making money for the school, the principal will not want to cut your program!

Community performance

With the new leadership evaluation system that most principals are on, community outreach plays a large in the principals overall score. Going and doing community outreach is great for you and your principals' evaluation scores but it is also great for the students. Kids learn so much when they go and perform in their community. They learn how to adjust to different performance venues. They learn the importance of preparation and also being able to adjust on the fly. Most importantly, student learn about giving back to the community. I will never forget when out students went and sang for a nursing home. They came back talking about how happy the people were that we came and visited. They wanted to go back and see them again!

Be flexible but firm

As we all know in schools, things happen. You can't always avoid the last minute things that pop up throughout the school year. Being flexible with your administration can come in very handy. Principal asks you to put together a performance for a principals meeting "sure I would love to" is a great response. I once knew a theatre teacher who refused to be flexible ever. Her administration had accidentally scheduled the Winter Showcase over one of her early blocking rehearsals (meaning she had several months to make this rehearsal up). She refused to cancel/reschedule her rehearsal and threatened to not excuse students who wanted to perform in the showcase. This caused a lot of animosity between her and administration. Administration still made her cancel her rehearsal and both her and the principal were upset over the exchange. All of this could have been avoided with a little flexibility. If it all possible be flexible when your principal asks for something. If it is reasonable and you can reasonably accommodate them, always say yes.

Not only will flexibility help you create good will with your administration, it will also help you have good standing with your Principal when you need to say NO. My principal and I have a very good working relationship and she trusts me. She knows I will not say No to her unless I have a very good reason. Once we had a disagreement about how many students to put in a dance class. She wanted to let every student who had a desire to take dance on a grade level, take dance. I disagreed. I wanted to cap the class so that the teacher would not be overwhelmed (45 first graders in one classroom is just too many). She and I had a discussion, but I was firm. She could not put that many students in the class. It would hurt the program and that teacher's performances. She finally agreed and we were able to move on. I firmly believe that you need to be firm in your beliefs on what is best for the children. Say yes when you can, but when you feel like you must say no, do so firmly and have very good reasons ("I don't want to" is often not a great reason).

Get parent support

Parents can be your most valuable asset when it comes to gaining support from your administration. Keep your parents happy, and you will keep your administration happy.  Parents love to see their students perform and succeed. They love the opportunities you provide their child. Lets be honest, very core teachers have students performing and competing as much as Fine Arts Teachers do. Use this to your advantage. Give students the opportunity to perform. It always amazes me that no matter how many performance opportunities we give our students to perform (4+ a year), parents still want more. Parents will love you and it will create good good will with your administration.

Parents can also be your biggest support if your position is ever cut. I know of so many stories of Fine Arts teachers being re-instated at schools because parents went to the school board and complained. Parents hate it when the Arts get cut from a school. They really hate it when a fabulous arts teacher gets cut from a school. Sometimes going to the school board often enough will actually help save your job. Keeping parents happy is well worth the effort.

Put on awesome performances

The most important way to gain support is to put on quality performances. Do not throw a performance together at the last minute. Do not put on a performance that you are not proud of. Yes there is always more you can do to  improve your shows, but you need to first put in the effort. Choose quality material that is appropriately challenging. Encourage the students to go beyond their limits and then throw in a small amount of flash. Students love to perform. This is why you became a Fine Arts teacher in the first place. To teach students to love the arts and performance. Enjoy the process and do what you do best. For more tips on how to direct an awesome performance visit my Director's Corner. 

How do you gain support for your administration? Did I leave off any ideas? Do you think it is important to have support of your administration? What do you do if you don't have the support you need? 

Using Reader's Theatre to Increase Students' Creativity and Inference Skills

I love Reader's Theater. When I am looking for a short play for my class to perform. I often will choose a royalty free reader's theatre piece. For those who don't know Reader's Theater is a great addition to any classroom. It is a great way to engage the students and have them increase their reading fluency and creativity at the same time. Reader’s Theatre can be as simple or as complex as you want. Students can read from their chairs or create a full production. 

Reasons I love Reader's Theater

1. Easily engages all students- most students will pay more attention if they know they must speak at a certain time.
2. Easily differentiates for  different learning styles/levels- the same script can have advanced parts and easier parts so that all students feel successful.
3.  Easy group work- My favorite scripts are ones that have 4-6 characters. You can easily divide up your groups into different plays and have heterogeneous mixture of ability levels and all engaged.
4. Easy whole group instruction- Most plays can either be adapted to fit a whole group or just naturally come with enough parts for everyone in class. This way you can easily assess all student's level of engagement and understanding of a topic. 
5. Increased reading fluency-To be able to perform a play students must practice and rehearse. RT forces students to read their material multiple times. The more often they read a script the more often they see words, the better they will become at reading. 
6. Increases inference ability- Scripts very rarely state things explicitly, instead students must learn to infer emotions, costumes, feeling, props and all other aspects of the story based on simply dialog. Students who become proficient at RT become great investigators who are able to easily infer meaning from texts. 

Hopefully I have convinced you to give Reader's Theatre a try. If you are always using Reader's Theater in your classroom, read on to see how you can use RT to increase student's inference skills.

Character Analysis

Have students create a character analysis of their character. This is a great time to talk about internal vs external traits. I often like to have the students draw a picture of what they think the character's external traits are, then answer some questions on their internal traits. Be very careful not to let any students "off the hook" about character analysis. There are character choices you can make about even the smallest of characters.  You will often things like "my character only has one line I dont know anything about him" Have the student analyze what the character said, where the character lives, how old the character is etc. If they cannot find explicitly in the play an answer, have them make an educated guess then back up their reasoning "I think this character is 27 because they have one small kid". I would also warn you to be aware of the narrator trap. Most RT scripts contain a narrator. You can still do character analysis on a narrator. Look at if the narrator is biased, how intelligent the narrator is, if the narrator enjoys telling the story etc. 

Technical Analysis

Technical elements of theatre include the props, costumes, sound, lighting, and sets used in a production. Often times a playwright does not explicitly say what these elements look like. While they might give suggestions, "this play is set in a one room school house" they often leave the logistics up to the director (how many chairs you want, if you need a blackboard, etc). Allowing students to begin designing the technical elements for a reader's theatre production forces students to use their inference and reasoning skills. For example we recently completed a RT about Tall Tales from the Wild West. In the play John Henry, Pecos Bill, Sally Ann Thunder, Annie Oakley and Paul Bunion all get together to swap stories. Students had to infer the setting (a campfire) the time of day (night) and the costumes. Students did research of the costumes their characters might wear by looking up information on their character. They had to design a nighttime campfire scene to set the play in. We discussed how to make the room look dark without completely turning off all lights because the audience had to see them. They choose to use blue and purple lights to give the effect. Having students create a technical analysis of a play is a great way to build inference and creativity. Keep in mind students can simply propose ideas if you do not have the time/money to actually create props and costumes.

Program Design

Program design is a great way to engage and asses your more visual learners. If you have students who love to draw and create this part of the project is perfect for them. Students create a four page program (front cover) cast list, play synopsis, and back advertisement.  The cover must include the Title, Playwright, and Performance time/place. It also must include a picture that captures the essence of the play and makes people want to see it. Students then write up the cast list and a play summary. The summary is obviously a great way to check for understanding of the key plot points. On the back cover of the program I let students design an add for an upcoming performance. If you aren't holding any more performances let them create an add for a play they would love to perform. Once again this can either be a simple classroom assignment that all students complete, or you can have students design your actual programs for the performance.

Ticket Design/ Poster Design

Another great way to engage students in RT is to allow them to create the posters and tickets for the performance. If you want this to be a classroom assignment you can but I would encourage you to perform the play for someone (even if it is just another class that wants to come watch). Students can create posters and actually hang them up around school to advertise their show. They can also take posters home to parents to display on the fridge. Tickets are another great design piece. If you decide to do this production for parents, letting the students take handmade tickets home to give to parents, then collecting those tickets at the door, really adds a since of flair to the productions. Students get a huge kick out of putting on "a real performance" with tickets. As with the program design students must use their inference skills to find an important scene to display. They need to find a scene that is engaging and important but doesn't give to much away. They need to be able to infer what will make the audience come and see the production.

Reader's Theatre Unit

I love Reader's Theatre. If you are interested in using RT in your classroom, make sure you check out my Reader's Theatre Unit on teacherspayteachers. It has worksheets for all the items discussed in this post. It is a great packet to use with any RT production you might choose. If you need any help coming up with ideas of how to run RT in your class or simply need ideas of plays that might work for you feel free to contact me or leave me a comment. I am always willing to help fellow teachers who are trying out a play!

Have you ever use reader's theatre in your class? What were the difficulties? Did you find that RT engaged your students?