We worked this week on writing and improvisation for skits in class. I used the technique of creative erasure that we worked on the first day of class. Each group has a skit and each member had to find something trite or repetitive and erase that and revise. That in combination with Hugo's idea of the triggering town for specifics on setting and other calisthenics, junkyrading and skiving are producing some very interesting skits this year.
My goal is to have the best two skits from each class perform at Drama Night this year. This class has been very encouraging where implementing writing into the Drama curriculum is concerned. Before taking this class I never managed to help students produce something they felt ready to share with an evening audience. Generally speaking they had given up on skit writing by this time and moved on to performing published pieces. I am certain the students are getting more out of the class this year, and certainly it is helping to improve their writing skills.
In addition to the skits, I am thinking of incorporating poetry reading with the usual dramatic monologues this year for Drama night. I hope that the majority or entirety of this work will be student produced.
In the meanwhile Drama Club is trying to find a way to showcase some of this work earlier on certain mornings while the students wait to enter the school building.
Jeff,
This is one area where your job really has some advantages over some of the other spots in a school. I think it's important to let students have an outlet for their creative ideas, and having them write and preform a skit is something that many students probably want to try their hand at sometime.
I was thinking about areas where English teachers can do the same kind of things. I think there should be some kind of partnership between the arts and academics, so some students might be able to get their work showcased in new arenas. This is something that could encourage students to participate more in creative areas, while trying out new things at the schools. Good job and keep up the work.
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