Walker+2013

Is Spring of 2013 Theatre Artist Joel Gori worked with Ms. Dianna Walker's Life Skills classroom at Union City School District.


 * Reading and Writing** **Learning Goals**: Write with detail. Identify and use beginning, middle, end, setting, character, problem and solution.


 * Drama Learning Goals:** Create a character and act out an original story in sequence. Identify character problems and invent solutions


 * Reading and Writing Assessment:** Student interview and classroom check in.

The children worked with Joel on adding details to their story. Joel taught them how to improvise a scene with a beginning, middle and end, using the terms posted on the wall from writing class. He emphasized that stories and plays have characters, setting, problem and solution. Then when the children acted out stories they were encouraged to add detail using pantomime. Next the children wrote stories. Joel and Ms. Walker would prompt them to create characters, describe the settting, have a clear problem and solution and write with detail. All the while in drama they were being asked to do the same thing as they acted out stories Joel told them. Finally, the children acted out their own stories. It quickly became clear when a story was missing detail, needed more characters or a clear problem. The children's writing blossomed.

Here is an example of a typical story written by the children by the end of the residency, after practicing acting out stories and improvised scenes.












=ASSESSMENT- Drama/Writing Checklist Assessment =

Student 1st yr in drama __2nd yr in drama__

Does the story have it? ||  Can the student recognize it? ||
 * Literary Element ||
 * character ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||
 * setting ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||
 * problem ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||
 * solution ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||
 * beginning ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||
 * middle ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||
 * end ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||  ___ Yes__ _No  ||