Competency 006

The teacher understands strategies for creating an organized and productive learning environment and for managing student behavior.

Secondary Methods Assignment Cover Sheet

Title of Assignment: Instructional Decision-Making

Name: Katy Wood Date: 11/4/11

q Competency 006 – The teacher understands strategies for creating an organized and productive learning environment and for managing student behavior.

Justification Statement:

This artifact was created on November 4^th, 2011 in order to discuss how I would handle my classroom when my lesson does not go as planned. This artifact was created to discuss a Theatre 1 classroom in a high school setting. I will reflect on this assignment during my future classroom when I plan my lessons. In order for me to create an organized and productive learning environment, I will need to plan for when my lessons do not go according to plan and how I will respond and react to those situations. I believe this will be effective in my classroom because it is important to plan for the unexpected in the classroom, and by being prepared, my classroom will flow smoothly while still being productive and organized.

Instructional Decision-Making

Incident #1:

During the very first day of the unit while the class was participating in the areas of the stage activity, I realized that a good eighty percent of the class still did not understand the areas of the stage. While I was assessing their participation in the activity, I also concluded that because the majority of the students thought they were correct, the minority of the students that were actually correct were being persuaded incorrectly. I realized that my original lecture on the areas of the stage was not clearly instructed, and I would need to go back and review the lesson one more time to make sure that they understood. I decided to take a different approach in teaching the students this time around. Instead of teaching them on the board with a drawing, I stood on the stage and physically showed them the different areas of the stage, providing the same rational for why stage left was stage left…etc. I then assessed the students not by pointing to the white board and asking which area of the stage I was pointing to. Rather, I stood in the different areas of the stage and asked them where I was standing. I would then ask the students, “if I were going to move to up-stage right, where would I need to go?” The students responded very well to this type of teaching by getting excited to tell me the correct place to stand. Because so many of the students are visual and tactile learners, I felt this approach would appeal much better than a picture on the board since the stage looked completely different when you weren’t looking at it from above. After I re-taught that part of the lesson, I would play the same game again, but with less people in the groups. This would require more individual thinking as opposed to blindly following the group to the correct space.

Incident #2:

As I started the game left right switch, some of the students became very animated and created wonderful characters with the scenario they were given. However, many of the students appeared to be not trying as hard as the other students. After analyzing the situation in my head, I came to the conclusion that the students that were having a hard time were the ones that were given a place as opposed to a person or occupation. When I realized this, I stopped the game and we gave everyone a new scenario that was more specific, like an occupation or a nursery rhyme. This seemed to work well for the first group, but things changed when the second group came up to perform. I gave the second group the same type of scenarios, and they responded well to those, having lots of ideas of physical movement to characterize the situation. However, none of them changed their voices when they went to their other scene. Again, I stopped the game. I re-explained to the students that the name of the game was more focused on character voices than physicality, however, physicality was important. I then went around the circle and asked the students to give me a different character voice for their two scenarios. When they were having trouble, I told them they could change their speed to create a different voice, as well as pitch and dynamic. After giving them these examples, they seemed to grasp the concept more clearly. I believe the students just needed to hear an actual example, as well as a description of what makes a voice sound different. They then continued to play the game and perform quite well.

Competency 005

The teacher knows how to establish a classroom climate that fosters learning, equity, and excellence and uses this knowledge to create a physical and emotional environment that is safe and productive.

Secondary Methods Assignment Cover Sheet

Title of Assignment: Design for Instruction

Name: Katy Wood Date: 11/4/11

q Competency 003 – The teacher understands procedures for designing effective and coherent instruction and assessment based on appropriate learning goals and objectives.

q Competency 005 – The teacher knows how to establish a classroom climate that fosters learning, equity, and excellence and uses this knowledge to create a physical and emotional environment that is safe and productive.

q Competency 008 – The teacher provides appropriate instruction that actively engages students in the learning process.

Justification Statement:

I created this design for instruction on November 4, 2011. This design for instruction plan is created for any grade level in high school Theatre I. This design will be used in my future classroom to assess my students’ knowledge levels based on appropriate learning goals and objectives. The specific games discussed in this design will be used during my lessons to assess my students during the lesson that actively engages students in the learning process. This artifact will be very effective in my classroom because I have witnessed the assessment strategies listed in this design for instruction, and I know that they are effective means of assessment.

Design for Instruction

Results of pre-assessment:

The pre-assessment of the first learning objective included a picture drawn on the board of a proscenium theatre stage, with nine squares drawn on this stage to represent the different acting areas. The students would be required to draw this exact picture in their journals and attempt to label the different acting areas using their own previous knowledge, without the help of their fellow classmates. This pre-assessment was constructed solely to judge what the students knew prior to teaching this unit. A grade was not recorded in the grade book for correct completion, just completion of the warm-up. However, after looking through their journals to record a percentage correct for comparison purposes, only two of the twenty five students in the classroom got any other parts of the stage labeled correctly, besides center stage. However, all but two students got the center stage area labeled correctly. After analyzing this information, I have decided to use other strategies, along with lecture, to teach the students. By using a physical activity as well as a picture and lecture, the students should be able to grasp the concept of stage areas fairly quickly. The second learning objective pre-assessment includes a warm-up on the board asking the students to think of a type of voice they’ve heard in movies or in their homes that was unique and discuss why it was unique. They would then be required to share their thoughts with the class. Their pre-assessment would come with actual participation in class, as well as how well they were able to imitate or describe another person’s voice. Using this as a pre-assessment will help to decide which students are willing to participate as well as which students have talent. Knowing this information will be beneficial later when I go to form groups for acting activities, keeping in mind which students performed well so as not to keep them all in the same group but rather spread them out to different groups. The same reasoning will be applied for the pre-assessment of objective three, which is another journal entry asking the students to describe an interesting walk by person they know or someone on TV.

Unit Overview:

This unit begins with an introduction to the stage and the different parts of the stage and progresses to making physical characterizations while moving on the stage. Students will learn the different stage areas, how to move to those different stage areas, develop characters using different types of voices and character walks. There will be a variety of activities to allow students to express their creativity in their walks and voices, so they have plenty of opportunities to solidify their knowledge and master the objectives. In the end, the students will need to use their knowledge of all three objectives to create a scene to perform for the class at the end of the unit. These scenes will require the students to write a scene with everyone in the scene playing two different characters. They will be required to exit at some point during the scene and come back into the scene as a different character, using a different walk and voice. An outline below includes the time span of this unit and where each objective falls throughout this timeline.

Day	Learning Objective	Activity
Monday, November 7, 2011	#1	Pre-assessment Areas of the stage: Game of moving on stage
Tuesday, November 8, 2011	#2	Pre-assessment Improvisation: “Left-right-switch”
Wednesday, November 9, 2011	#3	Pre-assessment Improvisation: “Walk-the-walk”
Thursday, November 10, 2011	#1, #2, #3	Written Scene: Write and memorize lines
Friday, November 11, 2011	#1, #2, #3	Written Scene: Rehearse scene with props
Monday, November 14, 2011	#1, #2, #3	Written Scene: Rehearse Post-assessment

Activities:

Learning Objective 1: Moving on stage

This activity is based off learning objective one, and the students will learn the different areas of the stage by moving on an actual stage to the different locations. This activity will require some previous set up. I will go to the stage, or the center of the classroom if the stage is unavailable and tape off the floor to create a tic tac toe pattern on the floor, including nine clearly defined spaces. I will then ask the students to come up to the “stage” in groups of four or five. The name of the game will be to stand in the proper square. I will ask the students to move to down stage right…etc. After about five or six different requests, I will ask that group to sit down and have another group come up. I will continue with this process until all of the students have participated. After everyone has gone, I will assess which students were doing poorly and have them come up again. I will act as though I’m picking students randomly, but they will be the students who need more practice moving on stage. At the end of this activity, there will be a quick review on the board and the students will be given a short quiz to assess their knowledge.

Learning Objective Two: Left-right-switch

This activity is based off learning objective two. The students will be in groups of eight or more. They will be asked to stand in a circle facing outwards. Then the rest of the class will need to come up with various occupations or scenarios for each pair of students in the circle. One individual student will have two different scenarios to act out, one with the person on their right and one with the person on their left. After all the scenarios are decided, the first group goes, then the instructor will yell out “left or right”. When that happens, the circle of student will move one step in that direction and the next scene will be acted out with the newest person facing front. This will go on until everyone in the circle goes at least twice. Then the next group of students will play the game. This game will force students to create a different character voice for the two roles they have to play in their scenarios. I will assess the students on participation and willingness to perform.

Learning Objective Three: Walk the walk

This activity requires the entire class to participate at one time. Everyone in the class will walk around the classroom as they would normally walk. Then I will call out a place, such as a room full of bubble gum. Then the students would immediately have to walk as if they were in a room filled will bubble gum. I would go through about ten different places and watch the students as they walked. The students are doing this activity all at once so they do not feel pressured by standing up in front of the class and performing. It’s a way for them to loosen up without feeling anxious. The students will use their creative thinking to walk in different ways. This creative thinking will be used later for the scene they will write as a group. I will assess this activity based on participation as well as boldness to explore unique styles of walking.

Technology:

The only type of technology I will use during this unit is the projector. I will show the students a short clip from a SNL skit to show the students different character voices and movements. Otherwise, because this unit is based on characterization and movement on stage, the students will be doing just that, as opposed to watching a movie or even using an overhead. In this unit, it is very important for the students to physically do the work, as opposed to discussing it or reading about it.