The Art of Teaching Children, page 24
Once, after our hot seating, one of my boys named Simon asked if he could sit in the hot seat and be me! At first I said no, but the kids begged, so I gave in. Simon jumped into the chair and introduced himself in a low, stern voice. I cut through the chuckles. “Wait a minute,” I said, pretending to be offended. “Do I sound like that?” All the kids answered, “Yes!” The children asked several questions of their “teacher,” including: “What’s your favorite song?” “What’s your salary?” and “What’s your favorite movie?” Here were “my” answers: Favorite song: “I’m a Little Teapot.” Salary: Ten thousand dollars a week. To that, I let out a laugh. Favorite movie: The Little Mermaid. To that, the children let out louder ones.
Tableau
Tableau is a highly effective strategy for incorporating creative dramatics but is not widely used. To create a tableau, children make still images with their bodies to represent a scene. Start with all your students seated in their chairs or on the floor. In front of them, leave an open space. One by one, ask the kids to stand and enter the space in a freeze-frame, until the tableau is complete. The children must stand completely still. Take a photo when your kids are finished creating the scene.
Tableau can be used when teaching a variety of subjects, including literature, history, and art. One way to use this strategy is to have students re-create a scene from a book they are reading in class. For example, when reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, ask your kids to form a tableau showing how the five golden ticket winners must have looked when they first stepped into the Chocolate Room in Wonka’s factory. When creating this scene, students will assume freezes with dropped jaws, wide eyes, and hands on their heads. Some will look like they’re ready to sprint. Another way to use tableau is to project a historic photograph, illustration, or painting onto the screen, then have children stand in front of it to mirror the image. When I taught grade five, I’d project an image of the signing of the Constitution. While wearing wigs made out of construction paper and cotton balls, my students would assume the same positions as the figures in the painting. A nice photo op. An art teacher I know uses tableau to have her students re-create famous paintings. Before standing still in front of the projected images, the kids grab what they need from the teacher’s prop box: wire-rimmed spectacles for the small-town farmer in American Gothic, a handkerchief for Whistler’s Mother, a globe for Vermeer’s The Astronomer, and a stuffed animal for da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine.
When your students are standing in a tableau, you can ask questions of either the audience or the frozen figures. Walk around the tableau, tap the children on the shoulder, and interview them like a reporter. One day, when my kids were standing still in front of the famous painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware, I asked the soldiers in the boat how they were feeling. Their responses: “Scared,” “Nervous,” and “Got any whisky? I’m freezing.”
When teaching history to my fifth graders, I would show images of a more serious nature as well. These included civil rights heroine Rosa Parks sitting on the segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama; Norman Rockwell’s painting of a young Ruby Bridges escorted by US marshals on her way to desegregate an all-white elementary school in Louisiana; and US Marines raising the American flag after the Battle of Iwo Jima.
One year, after talking with my students about Japanese internment camps during World War II, I found a haunting photo from that period of a Japanese family, including children, waiting to board a bus bound for a camp. Each person was wearing a coat and holding one suitcase. That was all they were allowed to bring. I told the children that these families had lost everything: their homes, their businesses, their livelihoods. Before having the kids replicate this image in a tableau, I turned off the lights, asked the class to not talk and to think about how these people must have felt. Then, using some suitcases and coats I had brought from home, I invited a few students to echo the scene in front of the image. No one spoke. The children took it seriously. When the kids in the tableau sat back down, I saw one girl wiping away tears.
Wax Museums
This popular activity is highly effective for teaching biographies. In a Wax Museum, students pretend to be famous people in history. It’s sort of like the Hall of Presidents attraction at Disney World, but the children are the animatronic robots. Wax Museums work with any grade, are nice to put on with multiple classes, and are accessible to English language learners of all levels. To prepare for a Wax Museum, first let your kids pick a famous person they’d like to research. It’s okay if more than one child wants to study the same person. Next, have students find out why the people they chose are famous and learn some highlights about their lives. After the children have gathered their information, ask them to write it in a paragraph and commit it to memory. Select a date for the event and invite other classes and parents to attend. Additionally, encourage the kids to come dressed up like the famous people they’ll be portraying and, if they’d like, to also bring props.
On the big day, your classroom will be full of little Amelia Earharts in goggles, Shirley Temples in tap shoes, and Harry Houdinis in shirts stuffed with newspapers to look like big muscles. Before opening the museum, have the children spread out so that there’s plenty of room between them. The performers should have chairs in case they get tired. Tape paper “buttons” onto their shoulders. Allow students to keep their notes close by in case they need them. When the guests arrive, your kids should be frozen like statues. During the event, visitors go around the room and listen to the famous people speak. A figure comes to life when someone presses the “button.” When the figures finish speaking, they resume their freezes. From the moment your Wax Museum begins, you will be busy listening to speeches, taking photos, watching parents record their kids, and telling your little Albert Einsteins that they may take off their fake mustaches that are too scratchy.
Teacher Reader
This strategy is one that teachers don’t use much, but children really enjoy it. Select a passage from a book that lends itself to being performed and let your kids act it out as you read it aloud. To give an example, when reading an abridged version of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to my students, I’d set up a fake laboratory on a desk with candles and beakers full of colored water. As I read the scene where Jekyll drinks the potion and turns into Hyde, a child would stand in the “laboratory” and act out what I was saying. If you do this kind of activity with kids, give everyone a chance to participate, of course. Also, allow for plenty of time. Once, when reading that scene from Dr. Jekyll, I ended up watching a child drink the “blood-red liquid” (Kool-Aid), convulse wildly, then collapse onto the floor—twenty-seven times.
Bringing Lessons to Life
When planning your lessons, ask yourself, Is there something here that my kids can act out? Imagine you’re studying rain forests. Have your kids pretend to trudge through jungles and wade across alligator-infested rivers. Throw in some quicksand too. They’ll pretend they’re trapped in it. Learning about explorers? Take your students outside and let them climb onto the jungle gym and make believe it’s a ship. Tell them that they’ve just spotted land and let them shout, “Land, ho!” Teaching children about the Boston Tea Party? Turn off the lights and ask them to creep silently to the “ship” made of desks in the center of the room. Once they reach the ship, allow them to throw crates of tea (banana boxes) off of it.
In teaching, we don’t often think of combining creative dramatics and science, but if you put on your thinking cap, you’ll find that drama can be used to represent all sorts of phenomena. Say, for instance, you’re teaching kids about red and white blood cells and how the white blood cells attack germs. Have all your students stand up. Assign some kids as red blood cells and others as white ones (the favorite). Ask a few children to be germs. Then let ’em go at it.
If you’re teaching kids about gravity, go outside and pair them up. Have one child in each twosome be the Earth and the other the moon. Give each pair a jump rope and tell them to hold on to it. The rope represents gravitational pull. When you say “Go,” the moons orbit the Earths. After a while, have the moons and Earths switch. As the moons are orbiting, it won’t take long till they start picking up speed, and one of them breaks off and flies off into space. When this happens, it is time to bring all your little moons and planets back inside.
The three states of matter can be acted out too. To start, divide children into groups of three or four. Ask them to stand close together and pretend they’re water molecules in ice cubes. The water molecules can move a little but not a lot. Next, tell the kids that you’re going to turn up the heat so that they will transform into liquid molecules. Now the children may move around more. Lastly, announce that a few days have passed and the liquid molecules have evaporated. They’re all gas molecules now. Watch your gas molecules run around the room and bump into the walls. At this point, you will need to remind them that they are molecules, not bumper cars.
One year, when my third graders were acting out solids, liquids, and gases, one of my little gas molecules named Trevor flew out into the hallway. (I’d left the door open.) I followed him and shouted, “Trevor, what are you doing?” Beaming, he answered, “You said gases can escape, so I escaped!” I just laughed. To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I receive a message from Trevor like the one I got from Caleb. And when I do, it will probably say something like this: “Mr. Done, remember when I was a gas molecule? It was my favorite thing we did all year!”
Putting On a Play
All children (and adults) remember their school play. It’s one of the truly special moments in a child’s education. And I believe that every student should participate in one. To me, being in a school play is part of being a kid—just like licking ice cream cones, playing in the mud, and building forts. There is enormous value in it. When children participate in a play, they develop responsibility and accountability. They learn to work with others toward a common goal. They experience a great sense of accomplishment. Putting on a play helps shy students become more confident and wiggly ones get the wiggles out. Preparing for and performing in a play engages and motivates kids like nothing else. If you’ve ever directed one with children, you know what I mean. The second you say, “Okay kids, time for play practice,” they jump into action. The energy in the room instantly changes. If you could measure the room’s voltage on a machine, the needle would swoop all the way to the right.
I understand that some teachers could be intimidated by the idea of mounting a play, but it’s really not as difficult as you might think. One of the first things you will need to decide is where to perform it. You can present it to another group of kids in your classroom or to a larger audience in the multi. If you’re new at this, I’d suggest keeping it simple. After you’ve chosen a script or written one yourself, it’s time to cast the parts. Make sure everyone who wants a part has one. If you have more students than parts, just create a few more. One year, when getting ready to do Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I had to rename it Snow White and the Seventeen Dwarfs. (Director’s note 1: If you put on Snow White, most of your students will want to be Dopey. And if you choose to do The Wizard of Oz, all your boys will ask to be flying monkeys.)
If your kids don’t wish to perform, let them be in the stage crew. The stage crew is very important. They set up the scenes, call the actors to their places, and put everything back after the rehearsal. My stage crews also included lighting technicians. The lighting technicians were coveted positions because they got to stand on the chairs, hold lamps (without their shades), and point them at the performers during the show. (Director’s note 2: During rehearsals, give each member of your stage crew a clipboard with a script and a pencil. Some will try to balance the pencils behind their ears. Most will give up on this after a while because their pencils keep falling.)
When preparing for your play, you’ll need to practice a couple of times a week. I’d usually have my rehearsals in the second half of the day after teaching the core subjects. To cut down on taking too much class time, sometimes I would hold rehearsals at recess. In the weeks leading up to your performances, let your students paint the backdrops and some posters advertising the show. Hand the kids masking tape and send them out to hang the posters around the school. Have them make and deliver the invitations too. (Director’s note 3: If you’re doing Hansel and Gretel, tie your invitations to lollipops. If you’re putting on The Elves and the Shoemaker, deliver some in shoes.) For costumes, send a note home asking parents for help. It’s a good idea to get a mom or two to assist with coordinating the costumes so that you can focus on other things. As the costumes come into your classroom, hang them on a rack where the children can see them. This adds to the excitement.
On the day of the performance, after your audience is seated—and your stage managers have called “Places!” and your lighting technicians have turned on the lamps—welcome your guests. Then take a seat in the front row and hold the script so you can cue the performers who forget their lines or miss their entrances. Don’t worry if your students make mistakes. It adds to the charm. When the performance is over, make sure you leave plenty of time for a curtain call. Kids like to bow. A lot.
After the final show, have a popcorn party in your classroom and watch a recording of the play with the whole class. As you watch it, your room parents will stand in the back of the classroom and smile and laugh while they pour juice. Your students will smile and laugh and cover their faces with both hands when they see themselves on the screen. And when they’re covering their faces, a few kids will peek through their fingers so they can see.
Enrichment
I hesitated writing this chapter. In fact, I considered asking my publisher to make the font size on this page so small that you’d skip over it like people do when reading documents with too much fine print. You see, I’m sure some readers are going to disagree with what I say here. How do I know this? When I wrote my first book, I expressed a similar opinion to the one I’m about to share, and some people got pretty hot under the collar. One woman went so far as to hunt down my unlisted home address so she could send me a letter expressing her disagreement. In her letter, she also scolded me for using the word damn. Well, sometimes in life you just need to say what you believe in even at the risk of being unpopular. This is one of those times. Actually, right now I feel like Kathy Bates in the film Fried Green Tomatoes when she purposely smashes her car into a younger woman’s vehicle in the parking lot of the Winn-Dixie supermarket. When the young car owner screams, “What are you doing?” Bates famously replies, “I’m older and have more insurance.” Well, I’m old now, and my insurance is pretty good. So, here goes.
The issue I want to discuss is pullout enrichment programs, also known as gifted programs. I’ll just say it: I’m not a big believer. Before you start looking for my home address, please understand me here. It’s not enrichment that I’m against. I’m all for enrichment—when it is offered to everyone.
Let me explain how enrichment programs work in many schools. In grade school, when children are identified as “gifted,” what often happens is that they leave their regular classrooms and go to the enrichment class. This isn’t a problem for students who are pulled out. It’s not good for the children left behind. In fact, it’s detrimental. If kids see their classmates leave for enrichment, they feel bad. They don’t understand why they do not get to go too. They don’t feel smart. To children, if they were smart, they’d also get to go. In my career, I witnessed this many times. It breaks your heart, and I think it’s terrible that we do this to children. In education, we like to say that all students are gifted. It sounds nice. But our actions don’t match our words. If we really believed this, then why do we only send a select group of children to the pullout class? Why wouldn’t we send them all?
So why do we offer gifted education anyway? One reason is that there is a huge lobby behind it. It’s extremely well funded. Another reason is that it inflates self-importance. Moms and dads can say, “My child is gifted.” Throughout my career, I listened to many an upset parent when their children didn’t get into the enrichment program. I knew parents who spent a lot of money getting their kids tested outside of school when told that they didn’t qualify. I had parents beg me to put their children into the gifted classes after they didn’t get in. One mom brought me food as a bribe.
Not all parents feel this way, of course. My friend Susan has three kids. A successful educational consultant, she was once a huge proponent of gifted education. In fact, she spoke all over the country about the need for it. Her two older children had been identified as gifted and benefitted from enrichment classes. But then something happened. Susan’s third child did not qualify. Suddenly Susan saw everything differently. Her third child would not receive the same extras that her first two had. “It’s discrimination,” she told me. And after that, she started speaking out against it.
In schools, children typically qualify for enrichment by performing at a certain level on a test. Sometimes this is coupled with teacher recommendations. But we all know that tests are flawed and that some children don’t test well. Everyone knows that tests can’t measure giftedness in music, art, dance, and athletics. One year my principal asked me to make a list of the students in my class who I thought were gifted. Based on my recommendations, these children would be considered for the enrichment program the following year. I listed all thirty-two of my students. The principal called me in and said I couldn’t do that. I told him how I felt. He made me change it, but I felt good about standing up for my kids.
