Final Project
Thus far I have discussed how to use informal dramatization to reinforce literary concepts for early childhood students. When I say informal I mean that the students do not rehearse the dramatization and the audience is primarily made up of members of the class. These informal dramatizations usually take a short amount of time and the planning is primarily the responsibility of the teacher. As a final project of either a unit with a few stories or the examination of one story, a more formal dramatization of the story is a wonderful way to culminate children's hard work and learning.
When choosing to have a real play based on a story used in the classroom, there are some important things to consider. It is important to decide whether the story is one which lends itself to this type of production. All of the students should be involved in one way or another, and I think that early childhood teachers more often than not will find that their students want to participate as actors. If you are going to invite parents as audience it is imperative that all students spend a substantial amount of time on the stage. You also need to think about the script. Although it is not completely unacceptable to be the "narrator" or to have another adult act as narrator, the production will be more meaningful to the students if a large part of the dialogue is theirs. Therefore look for stories with simple, repetitive dialogue that the students will have any easy time remembering. Books like those in the Jamaica series are wonderful for connections, but rather difficult to use in dramatization. Books that will be most successful will be ones that allow for large numbers of students playing roles as choral characters that also speak, and are crucial to the story line. A few examples are Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, where a large portion of the students can be the Wild Things, and Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, where a large group of students can act as monkeys. Stories like these allow students to participate and be important, and can accommodate any number of students you may have.
Deciding where, when and how the performance or performances will take place is up to you as the teacher. You can decide whom to invite according to how much space you have. Students can help with preparation by helping to design costumes, scenery, props and invitations. The more students become involved in the process, the more they will have invested in the performance.
Before the performance(s) take place make sure you rehearse the students. The stage is a site of extreme emotions, where a success can be exhilarating but a failure can be devastating. Do not set the students up for failure by not allowing them enough time to be prepared. A formal dramatization to be seen by administrators, other classes, and parents, is not the safe atmosphere that the informal class dramatizations are. Therefore, for this to be a positive experience for students, give them plenty of practice time to make mistakes. Make sure that you allow time to practice on stage and in costume and show them exactly how to enter and exit.
I once had my students perform the song Chicken Soup with Rice, which we also had in the form of the book by Maurice Sendak. The performance was in December, and because it was my first year teaching, I didn't realize how much practice time was needed. We had been singing the song all year, so I thought translating those occasions into a performance would be easy. We began to rehearse with two weeks to go, and I saw that that was not nearly enough time for my students to be comfortable with the their movements and costumes. I realized I was setting them up for failure. I postponed the performance until March. A week before our March performance the students were groaning about the excessive amount of time we had spent rehearsing, not only the song but entering and exiting the stage and taking final bows. But when the performance came they were able to do exactly what they needed to do despite performance jitters, and not only were our audience members incredibly impressed with their performance, but the pride my students felt in the outcome of their hard work was priceless.
I include this anecdote to emphasize how crucial the rehearsal process is for success in performance, and to show you how overdoing practice time far outweighs underdoing it. Once you have rehearsed, made sets and costumes, have your space ready and have invitations sent out, the performance should take care of itself. In addition to having parents act as audience members, having them help with the performance can be a wonderful way to involve them in the classroom community. Have parents help students into their costumes, talk to students who are feeling nervous, or usher. Including parents is a wonderful experience for both students and [the] parents themselves, and can really help parents to realize the crucial role they play in their children's education.
In this age of data driven education, it is important to remember that learning can be joyful. In fact, it needs to be a joy for our students if we are to create life long learners. This unit is an example of how I find ways in my classroom to teach the concepts that are required while keeping the activities engaging and enjoyable for my students. If we continue to find ways to make assessments meaningful and relevant to what we teach in our classrooms, we will not only empower our students as learners, but ourselves as educators.
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