I recently stumbled across this and felt as though I had to share it here. Below you will find a video of what these two teachers did. They took both playwriting and science and made it work in the classroom. Maybe playwriting isn't dead after all. They also have a blog (Who knew blogs could be so useful). Finding this has definitely made me a happy researcher.
THEIR BLOG
Monday, March 31, 2014
Memo #3- To Whom This May Concern...
I knew this would eventually happen that my life would over flood me with things and make it hard to complete this I-Search successfully. I wanted to visit my old drama/ English teacher at my high school. I figured he knew me and working both with English and theatre at the high school I thought he could give me a true insight on my topic. Well, I have run out of time for that. I work everyday from 7-6 and lost his email some odd years ago.
Being an actor though I am always taught to think on my toes and make light of every situation and seize every opportunity. Recently I picked up another task to add to my list of things to accomplish. I am taking over someones part in a musical. I had two weeks to learn the role and he just opened this past weekend. As I got to know the cast I found out that one of the people in the cast was an English/ theatre teacher at a local high school. I was thrilled to hear this and I interviewed her in the middle of the show (talk about multitasking). Here is what I found out:
She has been teaching for 11 years. She first taught at Narragansett High School and now as Smithfield High School. She has taught grades 9-12. I first asked her what plays she taught in her classes. She answered that she taught Shakespeare, The Crucible, and Fences. I then asked her if she ever did any playwriting in class. She said that she does not do playwriting in her class or any type of creative writing for that matter. She went on to say that her students did mostly academic writing and that with the new Common Core standards she was unable to do this type of exercise in a classroom. She told me that she also taught a drama class. I asked her if she did playwriting in that class and she said that her students want to act out plays more than write them. I asked her if she thought their was any advantages to playwriting? She told me that it could expose students to another genre of writing as well as expose them to theatre all together.
Her interview was very helpful but I want to get more feedback from educators. I hope to ask my cooperating teacher in my FNED 546 placement since she also teaches a drama elective and is an Enlgish teacher. Hopefully since she works at a charter school her answers may vary from my first teacher who worked in a public high school. I will also hope to interview my students and see their thoughts on writing plays. I am also participating in the "Week of the Arts' at a school in Central Falls. I am helping the students develop skits so hopefully I can get some feedback from them to see if they enjoy this type of creative expression through playwriting.
Being an actor though I am always taught to think on my toes and make light of every situation and seize every opportunity. Recently I picked up another task to add to my list of things to accomplish. I am taking over someones part in a musical. I had two weeks to learn the role and he just opened this past weekend. As I got to know the cast I found out that one of the people in the cast was an English/ theatre teacher at a local high school. I was thrilled to hear this and I interviewed her in the middle of the show (talk about multitasking). Here is what I found out:
She has been teaching for 11 years. She first taught at Narragansett High School and now as Smithfield High School. She has taught grades 9-12. I first asked her what plays she taught in her classes. She answered that she taught Shakespeare, The Crucible, and Fences. I then asked her if she ever did any playwriting in class. She said that she does not do playwriting in her class or any type of creative writing for that matter. She went on to say that her students did mostly academic writing and that with the new Common Core standards she was unable to do this type of exercise in a classroom. She told me that she also taught a drama class. I asked her if she did playwriting in that class and she said that her students want to act out plays more than write them. I asked her if she thought their was any advantages to playwriting? She told me that it could expose students to another genre of writing as well as expose them to theatre all together.
Her interview was very helpful but I want to get more feedback from educators. I hope to ask my cooperating teacher in my FNED 546 placement since she also teaches a drama elective and is an Enlgish teacher. Hopefully since she works at a charter school her answers may vary from my first teacher who worked in a public high school. I will also hope to interview my students and see their thoughts on writing plays. I am also participating in the "Week of the Arts' at a school in Central Falls. I am helping the students develop skits so hopefully I can get some feedback from them to see if they enjoy this type of creative expression through playwriting.
Memo #2 "Art is a Personal Adventure"
When I dove into the scholarly world to find what the experts were saying about my topic, I found little to be discovered. Their were very few articles and essays written on playwriting in the classroom. I was able to pull up at least two sources that really spoke to the topic well and for that I was very grateful.
The first article I came across was cleverly named, "Playwriting in the High-School Classroom." I was thrilled I had found an article of good length that actually spoke to the topic I was searching for. I started reading the article and realized that the dates they were mentioning seemed rather old, but I kept reading. I was about half way through when I looked at the publishing date. The article was published in May of 1938! I couldn't believe it, one of my main articles and it was completely outdated being written 75 years prior to today. I figured I was half way through so I figured I would finish the article. What I found was astonishing. Although the article was outdated so much of what it talked about rang true to today.
The author is Caroline Power was a high school teacher at University High School in Oakland, California. She speaks the truth about the art of playwriting. She talks about dialogue: "Dialogue never bothers a beginner. He never sees any reason to be worried about talk. And on the whole-- if his characters are real to him-- is alive" (Power 404). She goes back to one of our concepts we brought up in class, that writing should be fun. When we stop thinking and just start doing is when we produce our best work. She mentions the writing process in her article saying, "Product is less important than the process that goes on inside the writer" (Power 406). Even back in 1938 scholars were aware that writing should be about the process more than the product.
The other article was titled: "Writing Plays in the Composition Classroom." This article was not as old as my first but still slightly out of date being written about 30 years ago. Gilman Tracy the author states that "One of the problem inherent in any composition course is the students' lack of feel for an audience" (Tracy 65). This speaks true to today in our writing classrooms. Teachers want students to develop this sense of audience. of "who are they writing for." Tracy goes on to explain how playwriting can helps students develop these understands.
So what I have found through these two sources so far is that playwriting, at one time or another, was important and being taught to some capacity. The decline seems to have happened around the time Ronald Reagan proposed his "A Nation at Risk." I would research this further to see if creative writing (as well as other forms of theatrical expression) in the classroom all started declining at the start of the Reagan era.
The first article I came across was cleverly named, "Playwriting in the High-School Classroom." I was thrilled I had found an article of good length that actually spoke to the topic I was searching for. I started reading the article and realized that the dates they were mentioning seemed rather old, but I kept reading. I was about half way through when I looked at the publishing date. The article was published in May of 1938! I couldn't believe it, one of my main articles and it was completely outdated being written 75 years prior to today. I figured I was half way through so I figured I would finish the article. What I found was astonishing. Although the article was outdated so much of what it talked about rang true to today.
The author is Caroline Power was a high school teacher at University High School in Oakland, California. She speaks the truth about the art of playwriting. She talks about dialogue: "Dialogue never bothers a beginner. He never sees any reason to be worried about talk. And on the whole-- if his characters are real to him-- is alive" (Power 404). She goes back to one of our concepts we brought up in class, that writing should be fun. When we stop thinking and just start doing is when we produce our best work. She mentions the writing process in her article saying, "Product is less important than the process that goes on inside the writer" (Power 406). Even back in 1938 scholars were aware that writing should be about the process more than the product.
The other article was titled: "Writing Plays in the Composition Classroom." This article was not as old as my first but still slightly out of date being written about 30 years ago. Gilman Tracy the author states that "One of the problem inherent in any composition course is the students' lack of feel for an audience" (Tracy 65). This speaks true to today in our writing classrooms. Teachers want students to develop this sense of audience. of "who are they writing for." Tracy goes on to explain how playwriting can helps students develop these understands.
So what I have found through these two sources so far is that playwriting, at one time or another, was important and being taught to some capacity. The decline seems to have happened around the time Ronald Reagan proposed his "A Nation at Risk." I would research this further to see if creative writing (as well as other forms of theatrical expression) in the classroom all started declining at the start of the Reagan era.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Memo #1- Theatre is my Life
I chose this topic because theatre is my life. I love
theatre and it is one of my many passions in life. Of course, we can never find
the answers that lie right in front of our noses so it took me a while to reach
this topic. I first wanted to focus on the connection between college writing
and high school writing. I was going to look at high schools that taught
classes that students would get college credit for. After I thought about it
for a while I realized that was not a topic I was extremely passionate about. I
delve into other topics that had to do with college writing. Although I love
working in an academic department within my college the idea of comparing high
school and college writing did nothing for me. Finally once I stopped thinking
so hard (and had a nice sit down with some professors,) I finally came up with
my topic.
I have been involved in theatre for many years now. I not
only perform in local community productions around the state I also, work for a
theatrical summer camp and constantly direct theatrical afterschool programs
around the state. We can easily say that theatre and children are not an
unknown realm to me. I direct a lot of these programs where our main purpose or
function is to put on a show. I am usually the creative mastermind behind the
show; so many times though I see students who want to contribute to the
creative process. Young people are very creative. My boss at Rhode Island Youth
Theatre where I do the summer camp had developed this program call “Young
Playwrights.” I remember growing up and always trying to write plays but I never
knew how. I had read many in classes (mostly Shakespeare) but we never once had
a lesson on how to construct a play. What a wonderful idea for students to
write plays and perform them for their class or even their schools or
communities. This “Young Playwrights” program is an outside affiliate to the
public school system. I want to see playwriting brought into the classroom. I
always loved to write, but as I got older my love of writing died but my love
of theatre grew and maybe if in school we had an assignment where we could
write a play I may have learned to love writing again. The arts are a wonderful
way for students to express themselves and I feel as though bringing playwriting
into the classroom is a wonderful way for student to creatively interact with
the arts through writing.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
I-Search Project Video Overview
Welcome All! Here is the first step in my journey to find out if schools are teaching playwriting in the classroom. I have created a short video to show you what my project will be about. Please enjoy!
Playwriting in the Classroom
Playwriting in the Classroom
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