April 3rd, 2008

The first part of class took place at Apache with our groups. We kind of all did our own thing with each of our groups. Frances handed out a guided imagery activity to help with ideas if the students needed it.

I worked through getting my students into story mode by dictating a story that they made up together. This seemed to spark their interest and I continued with a discussion on actors in movies and how movies are stories. My group seemed to like making this connection and began talking about some of their favorite movies and characters. We then got into Chautauqua mode and focused on drawing a story about our characters. After talking about our stories, we made lists of characteristics for each of our characters and thought about how we could incorporate these characteristics into our Chatauqua presentations. I was surprised to see how engaged the students were with helping eachother during this process.

We talked about various problems and solutions during our discussion. Some of the problems discussed involved one student distracting others, students having trouble getting into character, students having trouble writing, the Village Square can be distracting, a student picking a character that doesn't fit, and other discipline issues.

Some helpful tips mentioned in the discussion for overcoming these adversities are as follows. If a student is having problems writing, let them verbalize their ideas and dictate them. If students are struggling, be sure to differentiate levels of support accordingly. Also, think about each student's Zone of Proximal Development, and try to work within it in order to give the most to each student. If a student doesn't fit his/her character, allow time for practice and see how he/she feels about it. Try to get the student to look at the problem from another perspective.

When it comes to discipline, be stern, don't waste time, encourage good/productive behavior, and promote group awareness and well-being.

Additional ideas mentioned were to record students with a digital camera and allow them to critique themselves, present Chautauqua characters to another group and offer constructive criticisms, connect the idea of performing to movies with an emphasis on actors and directors and what they do to produce characters, and having students roleplay while in groups, as well as modeling this by roleplaying right along with the students.

Next week we will watch a few minutes of a movie in order to get the creative juices flowing, then meet for thirty minutes and work on our characters, then conference with another group, presenting rough drafts of our characters to be critiqued.