Serge's Observation Letter

Dear Serge,

All Drama students at Runnymede are beginning their work on their class production for the Drama Showcase. The Showcase will be taking place on April 12^th 2012 in the Western Commercial-Technical School auditorium. My entire practicum at Runnymede will be in preparation for this performance.

The Grade 8 students are to create a theatrical piece for the Drama Showcase that is student written and acted – this piece must be linked with a social justice or history theme. This lesson is the 2^nd lesson in a series of 3 lessons that will decide what the overall theme/idea will be for this performance.

Drama Showcase Guidelines (As given to the grade 8 students):

1)   Your class’ piece can be no longer than 3-4 minutes long

2)   Must have a theme of History and/or Social Justice that is relevant to you

3)   Can incorporate dance, movement, choral reading, poetry, song, tableau

4)   The piece MUST incorporate the whole class

5)   Must have a Beginning, Middle and End. Who, What, Where must be clear.

In their last lesson (Feb 28), this class began brainstorming their ideas in groups. In this lesson we will review the Guidelines as well as introduce the Elements of a Dramatic Performance. In their groups, students will boil down their ideas to one main idea and then develop that idea further.

In the next lesson (next steps), the groups will present their idea to the class and answer any questions that students may have. They will then complete a democratic voting process in which each student can make a 1^st and 2^nd vote choice. The idea with the most votes will be chosen for development as this class’ Drama Showcase Performance.

Hope you enjoy the lesson!

Sincerely,

Vivian Thomas