ESPrit de Corps

The myths are done! They are beautiful. My students had a good time doing this project and they learned about astronomy, history and storytelling. There were some bumps in the road as I was sick for a week and there were partnerships that needed some help. There was editing and revision, rewrites and retypes, but the books were published. Next week some students will read their myths to students in other classes.

We are now focusing on two other arts integrated projects in my classroom. City Center’s Encores program and an architectural residency with Howard Stern.

My class has been studying Juno (the play, not the movie!). I have been thinking about the play, which is not necessarily accessible to eleven year olds and about the enormous learning potential the Encores program provides. It has so much “meat” and opportunity that I find I have to be careful not to bite off more than I can chew. One of the most valuable opportunities that this City Center program provides is an inside look at the lives of artists who work in the theater. My students now know what a director does, what a musical director is responsible for and how a choreographer works with a cast of characters. Now I want to assess, evaluate and confirm how well they understand these roles. I also want to see how well my students understand the theme of “family values” and “immigrant struggle”. What do we all have that comes from our traditions? What do we hold onto from our past? What do we embrace that makes us American? How can we distinguish ourselves from our families? These questions are ones that I want my students to consider. (Essential Questions Anyone?!?) It took me a while to formulate the project in my head that would accompany the rich work of the Encored program. I wanted something that would help my students better understand this play and at the same time assess that they have learned the important roles of the director, choreographer and musical director in the theater.

So I turned to the internet and found a wonderful list of children’s books about the immigrants experience. I will ask my students to read a book and to create a theatrical character based on one from the book. This is something that my students have already done with Sophia, the director from City Center. Together with other students they will create a script and block a scene that tells the story of characters struggling with their identity as immigrants coming to a new place and/or leaving their homes. The students will then be challenged to write lyrics to a song to help tell their story. Again, this is something they’ve had experience in with Tammy, from City Center. But now, can they put this skill into action on their own? Have they learened enough from Karen, the choreographer, to choreograph their own dance number? In this project I am hoping to see that my students can understand motivation and “back story”. I also want them to appreciate how difficult it is to create characters, stage a scene, write a song and perform. Since this is the first time I’ve assigned this learning activity I am not sure how the students will tackle this project, but I am looking forward to watching them try.

While they are creating their own theatrical works, we will continue to perfect our scene and song from the play “Juno” and our original scene and song. We will perform these at City Center on March 26th when we share our work with students from Washington Irving High School. When I take my students to City Center to see Juno on March 26th, I think my children will have an experience they won’t forget.

The school improvement project with architect Howard Stern is just now starting. My colleagues and I met in the library today at lunch and had a working meeting to discuss how to raise the level of work. This will be the fourth year Marion, my colleague on the grade for 14 years, and I we have collaborated with Mr. Stern and we are hoping that the children walk away from this residency having a visual language - the ability to identify architectural styles, while at the same time, create something that will be installed at the school for years to come. Of course, there will be research for the children to do and more for them to write about. With these residency programs, I look forward to what I will learn, and what the students will learn and take with them. My hope is that when they travel the world years from now, that they will consider this their first introduction into art history.

It has been a pleasure to share with the ESP community a little about my class and the projects that we are undertaking. I look forward to seeing you at Summer Seminar!
Cheers!