A Common Mistake Teachers Make In Teaching Theater to Students
There is a common mistake teachers make in teaching theater to students. I made it too.
I’ll explain.
It’s the time of year, when I’m beginning to read posts of graduating students accepting their first teaching position. They are so excited and this brings me great joy. We need them and not just for the obvious reasons.
I’ve experienced this excitement myself. It’s thrilling to know someone thought you were employable and would be an asset to their school staff. At the same time, you are a little anxious because you aren’t certain you know what to do in certain situation.
That’s okay. No one else does either. If you’ve had an opportunity to see the new, very popular television show, “Abbot Elementary” you’ll watch the main character grapel with her feelings as well. She’s a fairly new teacher and spends quite a lot of time second guessing herself. (Pssst- so does everyone else.)
A Common Mistake Teachers Make In Teaching Theater to Students
This post is for those of you who have been hired to teach theater to students in elementary and middle school. I can’t count the number of times someone has asked me, “What do I teach them? The principal said they have no set curriculum. She just told me to teach what I thought was of value.”
Here are my questions back to you, “How many times do you see them a week? How many minutes is allotted to your class? Do you see them for a semester, quarter or the entire year?”
Irregardless of the answers, I know where you should begin. Bare in mind, your job is to encourage your students to learn more about the art form, work cooperatively with their classmates, appropriately express their feelings and leave your class feeling more confident and comfortable speaking in front of others.
A Common Mistake Teachers Make In Teaching Theater to Students
There are many ways to go about this, but I don’t want you to fret as I did. Let my thirty-eight years of teaching experience help you. You probably won’t believe this, but when I studied for my masters in education (creative arts learning) a terrific teacher finally explained why these particular aspects should be taught first to your students. Aha!
Boy, did he save me a lot of time. Like many teachers, when I began teaching about a 100 years ago I taught like my high school teacher which was far too difficult for young students. Except I was teaching middle school students. I didn’t know better. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I learned over time that they needed to study creative dramatics before anything else.
The Necessary Components of Theater to Teach
If I were you in this situation, these are the components you want to teach:
- tableau–Tableau is something nearly every student will understand. Using a frozen stage picture, like a living photograph is something students can accomplish easily and with immediate success. Plus, students aren’t expected to speak which helps reluctant performers.
- chanting–We use chanting in many ways–either repeating a word several times or phrase or peppering a play or musical with it. Once students study chanting and try it out for themselves they will hear it used everywhere. Awesome sauce.
- storytelling–Again, telling a story is an easy skill for students to learn and use. Once you enlighten your students to the reasons a person needs to have this skill, it becomes much easier for students to accomplish.
- movement–If you haven’t won your students over to your class yet, instructing about the use movement will do it for you. Educating your students about the different kind of movement and how to use it is fascinating to them. I mean, who hates trying to create the movements of a kitchen blender with your friend?
- sound effects–Students love hands on learning. Sound effects do a great job of satisfying this need. Trying your hand at creating the sound of a train chugging down the track or creating a scene of white water rafters paddling on a roaring river is so fun and exciting. Reluctant students love studying sound effects, because again they don’t need to speak.
- set design–When teaching set design, I always found my most artistic ones. This was fun, because being artistic isn’t something one can show of themselves on the outside. A teacher can assign designing a rendering, building a model or simply making a powerpoint of their ideas. Usually, my students used fairy tale settings for their set designs and they loved it!
- costume design–Honestly, I can’t think of a time when my students didn’t enjoy studying costume design. Teach them the basics of color, silhouette and texture and let them take off with their ideas. Want to engage them even more? Teach about super heroes through costume design. They will LOVE you for it.
- improvisation–A day or two spent studying improvisation and how we use it in theater is a good choice. Once students understand its uses and how freeing it is, even your reluctant students will participate.
- stage properties–Stage props are easy to understand and create in one’s classroom. Once a teacher points out to the importance of this components, students are eager to make one. I’ve had classes create all the props for another class’ musical or simply make plaster of paris items. What do they enjoy the best? Making food!
- stage makeup--Stage makeup intrigues students. I suppose it’s because its readily accessible and they are as familiar with it as a Halloween costume. Teach them the basics, use a student in a demonstration and you are good to go.
Finally, it’s time to put all of these components into a short play. It isn’t enough just to teach the components, applying it to a particular play or even short musical will help them readily and easily retain the information. Plus, when student reads a play many times it helps their fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and many other skills. You can take a short book or story the students enjoy and dramatize it yourselves. Or you can select a published play if you want a different perspective.
My Store Can Help You
You may be familiar with my store, Dramamommaspeaks. I have created lessons for each component listed above. Here are few of them. In fact, I have a bundle of all of them at a discounted price. No need for you to waste your time putting these lessons together when a trusted source can help you out. Remember: Confident people ask for help. None of us got where we are by ourselves. 🙂
So be of good cheer! I’m here to help you if you need me. If not, maybe you just want to pick up some FREE lessons. Click here: Creative Dramatics Lessons
If you’re looking for theater vocabulary lists, click here: My Theatre Vocabulary List for the Classroom
Need some posters? The Importance of a Drama Word Wall for Secondary Students
Do you have a question of me? Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net
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