A Bit of Drama Anyone?

So far this semester I have had more of a problem making the connection to a classroom community than I have in past semester at U of L. This is mainly due to the courses splitting the different areas of elementary and secondary. I must say I did not know as many of my secondary peeps as I presumed. With that intro I must say it has been even harder to establish communities within these classes because not as much time has been devoted to the development of those communities. No name playing games, talk soup or introductions of one another (oh, wait - there was in one class - but that it). Names were lost, homework is overwhelming and you find yourself not knowing everyone and picking the same safe partners.

540 be my savior of classes! When I hit the middle of my week (yeah, that's on Tuesday) and I need the knowledge that somewhere there is a beacon to look toward. The little book club where Wilhelm executes techniques on us from outside of the realm of the class. We blog and reflect on what he says but honestly it never hits as deep as what happens in the classroom. This class from the beginning of the semester has been the Oooo, what's happenin' tonight class, the I'm goin' even if I'm sick class, the have to know the opinions on the books class. The class I have to have to feel alleviated for the rest of the week.

I could sit and list all of the ways Wilhelm teaches his students (and may I say I see stories visually - I can't quite remember the last time a story was about sentiment... oh wait, that's not true.... Harry Potter... So I guess I see both female and male sides of reading a story). I remember writing letters to fictitious characters, not always as assignments either! I remember developing stories in my head creating an extended ending and prequels as well. These were hardly ever written down and never turned in for credit of any sort. The idea of literary letters are very exciting, I've never heard of it but would have loved it as a student. My idea for a class room is to have my students blog about the individual choice book they are reading. In doing this each book on my list will have a blog of collective opinions. It excites me to think about! Toodledoo though this chapter was about drama... to act it out!

How many of us actually had teachers that would let us act out lit.- oh that weren't the drama teacher. I know the usual we read Macbeth and took parts. No though- not plays, literature. Acting out literature. One of my teachers had us act out psychology terms and definitions. We loved it. After tonight's class I think this could really work well with students.

First off I loved the story we read tonight... it's called The Chaser. Really good and rather short-kinda' to the point. But I liked the letter to the old man (who in my mind looked like Jafar when he's the old man in the prison of Disney's Aladdin). Therefore my letter was addressed to Mr. Snaggle Tooth. The division of the letter into a striking phrase and then the arrangement of the phrases into a meaningful poem was really neat and created good outcomes. But my all time favorite of the night (and maybe it's because I got to be Alan in love with Diana) was the good angles/bad angels on my shoulder. The idea is someone takes the stance of the person trying to be convinced then the rest of the group is split into two sides. The good side and the bad side, each of the representing reasons as to why the person should or should not do what ever the argument if for or against. It was interesting and fun, generating a lot of conversation and good humor. Not only this but these little skits and sharing of ideas lend to a great overall environment in the classroom. As most of you probably assumed I am not a shy person, I never really have been, but in certain environments I shut down, I'm not as outgoing. The less I feel I know the people I am around the more likely it is that I will keep to myself. This activity finally had the feeling of the classroom becoming an active community that had to be involved with one another. I like it.