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.
Christopher-It is a shame that the woman you interviewed in under the restrictions of Common Core and cannot make time for this valuable writing experience. I wonder if the schools which work with the RI Writing Project have been able to make time for this. It does seem, from my small view, that they bring a certain "anything is possible and worthy of consideration" attitude to teaching ELA.
ReplyDeleteChristopher, your first interaction with a primary source seems like it gave you some good information. I am not sure if that was the answer you were looking for, but at least you were able to get something. Hopefully the sources you are planning to interview will be able to tell you how playwriting has helped their students' writing.
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