I promised my creative drama class...

that I would write my blog about that class this week.  Creative Drama class is an enrichment class.  The students who are in there are put in there in a random way, and they go through a rotation through the year, from drumming class to my class and then to other enrichment classes as well.  The students in the class this quarter are all boys.  There are twenty-four of them.  They would not have chosen to be in a creative drama class if they had been asked what they wanted to learn.  No- these boys are more interested in hockey, in video games, in outdoor activities, in hunting, fishing and the like.  However, I have known these young men since last winter, so they have learned that I take the course and my work with it very seriously, even though I can have fun too.  I have taught them about the growth mindset, about resilience, grit and determination, and they have shown this throughout the quarter.

This class is all about speaking and listening skills.  We have spent a great deal of time working on speaking alone in front of the class.  They began by reading poems that they had chosen.  For example, there were poems about sports, hockey, lacrosse and soccer.  There were poems about animals and insects as well.  I enjoyed listening to the students and helping them to put more expression into their reading.  We discussed how this might help them later on.  One person said, "It could help us if we had to give a toast at a wedding. " "or a speech at a funeral" someone added.."or if we were to ask someone to marry.."  I loved that one, of course.  They thought about how they could use this skill when they were talking to a class if they became teachers, administrators, heads of companies.

The next speaking and listening work we did was to create a story together, "fortunately, unfortunately"- You sit in a circle, and the first person begins the story and then says, "fortunately.." and adds something that happened that would be fortunate, then the next person adds an "unfortunately" situation, and so forth.  We played other interesting games, and then began to work on monologues.  Now we are working on taking a subject: your room, your family, your favorite sport, your possible career path, your first experience doing something, something you are knowledgeable about, and I give them the subject as they are approaching their audience, and they have to speak about that subject for one minute extemporaneously.  We will add more time as they get better at it, and I will give them more difficult and complex themes as they get more schooled in this exercise.

At the end, they will have had a lot of experience with speaking and listening, and if they ever decide to get involved in theater or drama clubs, or anything of this kind, they will have my class and their work in this class to fall back on.  Talk to you all next time!  Enjoy your winter break!