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Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

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Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

If you are like me, you like to make choices for yourself.  That’s one of the cool things about being an adult, don’t you think? We make a lot of choices for ourselves. However, our students don’t have the opportunity to make decisions for themselves very often.  Let’s help them learn how to do so while learning from the subjects that interested them.  Today I’m going talk about setting the Stage for Success: Middle School Drama Meets Choice Boards.

Middle School Students are the Best

Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

Middle school students are my favorite grades to teach.  In particular, they are vibrant, still curious and resilient.  Personally, I believe that teaching  middle school theater is the door to nurturing young talents. I find they are intensely interested in many subjects at this age.  Plus, creativity knows no bounds, and their self-expression takes center stage.

Middle school students can be engaged far faster than high school students.  They are just young enough to remember their beloved elementary teachers who they trusted.  Consequently, they quickly trust you when you propose an concept to them. Read this post, if you’d like more of my reflections about middle school students: Striking a Balance with Students in Their Middle School Years

In the heart of this theatrical journey lies a powerful tool – choice boards. Imagine giving your students the freedom to explore and make decisions in their drama education. First, let’s dive into how these versatile tools can breathe life into your drama classroom.

Setting the Stage for Success: Middle School Drama Meets Choice Boards

What Are Choice Boards?

Choice boards are visual organizers that present students with a variety of options for how they can engage with and demonstrate their learning. Consequently, they empower students to take ownership of their education by allowing them to choose activities that resonate with their interests, learning styles, and abilities.

Why Do Teachers Use Choice Boards in Drama?

  1. Individualized Learning: Middle school students are at an age where they’re discovering their unique talents and interests. Choice boards offer a range of activities, catering to diverse learning styles and abilities.
  2. Enhanced Engagement: When students have a say in their learning, they’re more invested in the process. Drama is all about passion and expression, and choice boards can ignite that spark.
  3. Creativity Unleashed: Drama thrives on creativity. Choice boards encourage students to think outside the box, explore different aspects of theater, and come up with fresh ideas.
  4. Differentiated Instruction: Drama classrooms often have a mix of skill levels. Choice boards allow the teacher to provide activities that cater to both beginners and experienced performers. Additionally, it’s effortless for the teacher to do so.

Did you know I have the secret to boosting student engagement?  My new book, “We’re Live! Radio Theater #101” explains my journey to implementing this unique tool in the classroom. Check it out here

Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

Benefits for Drama Students

Implementing choice boards in your middle school drama classroom can lead to:

  • Increased Confidence: Students gain confidence as they engage in activities that align with their interests and strengths. It is far easier to be successful when learning something new if you are interested in the subject.  What a plus!
  • Broadened Horizons: Exposure to a variety of drama aspects can help students discover new passions within the world of theater.  As a matter of fact, my Choice Board products receive many 5 star reviews. In addition, teachers express their excitement to have taught something unique to their students which they would not have the time to study in depth.
  • Ownership of Learning: Empowering students to make choices fosters a sense of ownership over their education. Here’s that choice thing again.  By making choices for themselves, students see themselves as independent and capable.  Aren’t those attributes we want for them?
  • Joy in Learning: Drama should be fun! Choice boards infuse a sense of joy and excitement into the classroom. I think we’d all agree it’s difficult to compete with fun, yes?

Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

My Choice Board Resources

I have three choice board resources ready for you to use.  One pertains to theaters around the world.  This low prep- high student engagement lesson gives students an opportunity to learn about various theater companies such as Mummenschanz, Deaf West, Trestle Theatre, Kabuki Theater,Marcel Marceau or what is means to be a Foley Engineer. Additionally, they are excellent for gifted learners or students who need independent study or an alternative assignment.

Got some introverted students in your class?  Check out: Drama Games for the Introvertive Student 

The resource includes:

  • Teachers Letter
  • 9 Choices on a colorful board which can be displayed on a white board
  • 21 Questions–no sets of questions are alike
  • Teacher’s Key–hooray! (many possible answers are included for each clip)
  • Live Links– ready to go

Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

Another choice board product concerns technical theater. This product is wildly popular!

This resource includes:

The third is brand new.  You know how your students become chatty when you are focused on a small group and their rehearsal?  This is the answer to your problem.  Students learn about virtually every aspect of play or musical production from designing poster, drawing a costume or creating a movement piece concerning one of the themes of the production.  Students can be assigned to complete every choice or only a few.

Play production choice board cover

This board has 16 engaging assignments to keep everyone interested and busy creating.  There is plenty of room for individuality and some group work, too.  You can find it at:  Drama Class Production Choice Board

Looking for something free?  Pick up this one.

Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

An Alternative Choice Board Format

If your students do not have I-pads,  access to the computer or WIFI, a teacher can use these resources instead. They are basically the same as the Choice Boards, however a student receives the link from the teacher. These are excellent for a substitute to use, too.

Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action        Middle School Drama Success: Choice Boards in Action

Students could vote on the subject they’d like to learn about and view the video clips which pertain to that subject.  Accordingly,  students are assigned to watch the video clips on their own at home.  You will find these products here.

Incorporating choice boards in your middle school drama classroom is like handing the spotlight to your students. It allows them to explore, express, and create in ways that resonate with their unique personalities. So, go ahead and embrace this dynamic tool to ignite the passion for drama in your middle school students’ hearts. The stage is set, and the choice is theirs!

Have you used Choice Boards in your classroom?  I’d love to hear how you have used them.  Feel free to email me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com
Woman behind DramaMommaSpeaks

 

A Writer’s Journey: A Really, Really Long One But Worth It

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People have asked me when and how the story of Bumbling Bea was conceived. To me, it feels like a really, really long story, but maybe it isn’t in the grand scheme of things. Here goes:

My grandparents, of whom I never knew, were missionaries in Japan in the 1930’s and 1940’s. My mother was born in Osaka, Japan and lived there until she was eighteen years old. Two years before the bombing of Pear Harbor, my grandfather was told it was not safe for Americans to stay in the country and urged to leave, so he did. My mother had all ready moved to the U.S. to go to college. She never returned to the country until my father and I visited with her when I was sixteen years old. It was an amazing trip and one that I still remember quite vividly.

One of the most memorable experiences of the trip was our attendance of a Kabuki play in Tokyo at the Royal Kabuki Theater. If you aren’t familiar with Kabuki Theater, my best description would be to compare it to an old melodrama mixed with a fairy tale and told in a grandiose way. The costumes are extravagant, the make up looks mask like, the sound effects are produced live and the actors use choreographed movement and facial expressions that are exaggerated.

depositphotos_4681233-Kabuki-Actor[1]

But here’s the real kicker: All of the roles are portrayed by men. What?

As a young woman, I was fascinated by this aspect. No women portray roles in the show? But the men aren’t considered dressing in drag? It’s part of the art form?

This is the primary impetus for writing Bumbling Bea. Initially, the book was titled Two for the Kabuki because it is a story about two girls–an American girl and a Japanese one. The title changed a year ago after attending a writing conference and talking with an agent who suggested I focus upon Bea’s impetuous nature.

I wanted to write a book for middle grade students because I have a special love for them. AND I thought that the fact that Kabuki Theater is only performed by men was an interesting idea that probably most students would not know. So, the original idea sat in my brain for twenty-seven years (no, honestly) until I finally gave in to my fears and worry and took a stab at writing the story.

But let’s rewind to the beginning of Bea’s journey.

When our oldest daughter was an infant, I enrolled in a beginning writing class with the Children’s Literature Institute. I had always been a writer, writing my first story when I was four years old (it was about a pig). I have a minor in English and I am licensed to teach Language Arts. But write a book? Other than my illogical fear of sharks, writing a book absolutely freaked me out! I had no idea how to go about writing a book, hence I took the writing class. I remember typing on my beloved Brother typewriter–no computers yet. I placed it on a towel, so my typing wouldn’t wake up our sleeping infant. I loved it. The writing gave me a creative outlet and something to think about other than diapers and feedings. Don’t get me wrong–I loved being a mother and I still do.

Being a mother has many challenges, none of which include having too much time on your hands. The more our daughter grew, the less time I had to write much less think. I put the book idea on the back burner of my brain, because of my family and teaching responsibilities. Also and probably most importantly, I had plenty of fear about attempting to write it. What if this, what if that, what if what if.

Fast forward several years….another daughter was born and I am still busy teaching and directing plays. No time for writing that’s for sure. Kabuki Theater would drift through my thoughts from time to time. When I became frustrated with circumstances in my life I’d weep that, “what I really need to do is write”! But still there was no writing accomplished and no faith in myself.

More time passed, except I began writing but I did’t recognize it. I adapted multicultural folk tales into plays and wrote arts grants for the community theater of which I presided. Heck, I even attended graduate school and received my Masters in Education in creative arts learning. There was a lot of writing in graduate school–papers, poems, lesson plans, etc.

But Bea and her story? Still not happening.

Zip. Zap. Twenty years go by in a slow motion instant. Our daughters are adults, we move, we have new jobs and live in an amazing place with mountains that tease you to be inspired. Another writing class (because I still don’t feel I know enough) and voila! Bumbling Bea was finally born.

So, the question should be: What changed that I finally felt equipped and ready to write Bea’s story? When one turns a half century (yikes), one begins to look around and think about the regrets that she has. I have always lived in the present, but I knew that I would really, really regret not writing Bea. And probably strangers, my friends and certainly my family were really, really tired of hearing about Bea. So, I did it and I’m really, really glad. Really. Tada!

Bumbling Bea

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image

Many thanks to Russ Brown for his expert illustration of the front cover.

Beatrice thinks she has no acting talent but that doesn’t stop her from auditioning for the annual middle school play. She has two missions-winning the role of Pocahontas (which guarantees her popularity with the cool kids, at least in her mind) and grabbing the attention of her estranged father. Easy! Except a new girl from Japan shows up and ruins everything! So begins Beatrice’s diabolical and hilarious plan to scare away the visitor. Beatrice is sometimes sarcastic, sometimes very funny and always honest. This is a great book for those who love theater and every part of it–the good, the bad and the crazy!

Kabukiza Theater re-opens and Michiko attends!

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Kabukiza theater

Okay, that statement isn’t really true.  The beloved Kabukiza Theater has re-opened after a huge renovation but Michiko didn’t really attend.  She is a fictional character from my book, Bumbling Bea’. However, if she could, Michiko would be there along with the thousands of other lovers of Kabuki Theater. I bet she would be first in line!

I don’t know if you know this, but Kabuki Theater is a really old style of theater in Japan.  It dates back to 1600s.

In the beginning, women played the roles.  It was very popular (kind of like Shakespeare and his plays) and people of all walks of life attended. But many of the women who performed in the Kabuki were…shall we say, “ladies of the night” and the government thought that it was inappropriate for them to be such a public sensation.

The men took over the roles and that’s how it has been performed since then. Figures…

The stories dramatized through Kabuki were very elaborate (like fairy tales or myths) and included male and female characters. The men portrayed everything from dragons to women’s roles.  You should see them! They are amazing.

So this “Michiko girl” as Beatrice first calls her– what’s the deal with her?  Whenever Michiko is in a play, she tries to put Kabuki theater into the show. You might say she is obsessed with it! Why is she so crazy about it?  Michiko wants to keep the family business alive.

Michiko’s uncle is a celebrated Onegata actor in the Kabuki.  Traditionally, when someone performs Kabuki Theater they have inherited their part from a family member.  Usually, Kabuki is passed from one family generation to the next. Except in Michiko’s family, there is no male in which to pass the art form.  (It is at this point that Michiko would stand up and say, “I will play the part! I want to be a Kabuki actor!”)

Things are a little more complicated than that, however.  Michiko and her mother argue a lot in the book. It isn’t for the usual reasons, though (like staying up late on a school night or going to the mall with friends).

They argue about BIG things. Michiko’s mother thinks performing in theater is frivolous and a waste of Michiko’s time. She wants Michiko to study more intellectual pursuits, like music and science. Michiko has two challenges:  wanting to perform in a theater that doesn’t include women and trying to follow her own dreams and not her mother’s.

Before you think you know all about my book, I must inform you:  Bumbling Bea isn’t just about Kabuki Theater.  In fact, it is only one part of my book. Next I’ll tell you about Flag Dinners.  Yes, you read that right. 🙂

Kabukiza theater