The purpose of the presentation was tri-fold. First, we wanted our students to see how other playwrights have used scientists and scientific information as the basis for dramatic writing (and I use "see" deliberately -- plays are meant to be enacted; we didn't want them to just read something on the page. We wanted them to see these works brought to life!) Second, we wanted our students to be inspired by these works. Our students do not have the luxury of a long and deep education in science or in theatre. We hoped that exposing them to plays about science might jumpstart their interest in writing... well, plays about science. And, finally, we wanted to teach with these works -- this was a great way to expose our students not just to plays about science, but the science that's in these plays.
With that in mind, we discussed how to generate some excitement about this presentation. We knew we would ask them to write afterwards, and that they would be spending an hour or so watching the presentation, so we wanted to embrace another form of intelligence.
The four scenes from the four plays happened to each be set in a different country. Galileo by Bertoldt Brecht, takes place in Italy. Einstein's Gift, by Vern Theissen, takes place in Germany. Shelagh Stephenson's An Experiment with an Air Pump is set in England, and Caryl Churchill's A Number...well, we weren't quite sure where it was set [Churchill does not specify], so we decided to avoid another play in England [Churchill's homeland] and set it in America. The four different countries gave us the idea. This is what we came up with:
Kelli, who put together the majority of this lesson plan, divided the class, 11A, into groups of about 3 or four. She gave each group a print out of a topographical map. The kids had already been working on how to read and decipher just such a map. She also gave each group play-dough (which she made herself, being Super Teacher) in blue and green, along with a pie plate. Each group had to interpret the map and then create a landscape model of the project.
Here are a few photos of the class at work.
They went right to it, very enthusiastically. This was a nice opportunity to use multiple intelligences. Textually oriented students went right to the instructions. Visually oriented students enjoyed looking at and interpreting the map. And our kinesthetically oriented students had their hands on the playdough in seconds.
By the end of the first class, everyone's model was done. I have to say that I particularly enjoyed walking around and talking with the class. I do not know very much about topographical maps, and what I do know is from my own Earth Science class, 20 years ago. So, when I asked the students what they were doing and why they were building the model in a particular way, I was asking from real, not faux, ignorance. It was very cool to be taught myself, for a change, and I think the kids enjoyed that, too!
The next day, the kids got their models out again, and we presented them with a series of questions. Imagine that this map/model is of the setting for a play, we suggested. You've been comissioned by a local theatre company to write something that takes place in this setting. What genre of play would you write? Which characters might you put in it? (Some of the students who had received a map of Italy suggested Galileo, since they already knew he was from that area). What would the main conflict be? And, finally, we asked them to write the opening stage directions to the play. I modeled an example for them, and then we gave them time. After 15 minutes, we asked some of them to share out what they had written.
And we were thrilled with what we heard! Here are a few samples of what the kids wrote (I didn't correct grammar):
[Lake Italy, Italy. A teenage couple sits on a picnic blanket, staring at the stars. Then, his phone rings. It's the ex-girlfriend, and she stares at him in suspense.]
[In London, England. In a little orphanage, on a hill. Three orphans sat on a rickedty old bed, yelling and screaming and running around the room. The nanny approaches the orphans room and turns on the lights to see what the orphans are yelling about.]
[In Prince, England, in the 2000's, there was an abandoned house on the upper edge of the most known but unvisited stream, Freezetime Stream. In the house lived 3 little children, 2 8-year-old girls and 1 6-year-old boy. The house was so big that the two girls never knew that the little boy lived there too & vis versa. Until the two girls went to the 7th floor for the first time, and saw Little Benny. Little Benny ran to them and gave them a big hug.]
[Caro Valentino Cliff, Italy. A condominium where an adult couple lived happily until Isabelle found out that Paulo had been cheating on her with a girl down the block from them. So out of anger she plans a romantic date underneath Caro Valentino Cliff and plans to deal with the situation there...]
[The year is 2010 and two identical twin brothers are rivals of opposite rugby teams. They have a match between the Mighty Ducklins and the Crazy Crazers at the steep mountains by the river. They are playing to own the land and bragging rights, so the two brothers, Sir Alex, and King Alex will battle for the right to own what they believe belongs to them.]
As you can read above, our students used the features of their setting to make decisions about what the characters were doing. We also heard them use vocabulary from Science, ELA and Playwriting, as well as historical context from their Global and U.S. History studies, too. And, I suspect, they may have also used information from various horror films they've seen, and books they read as kids...
When we were at the end of the period, we revealed to them that the four places they had written about were the settings for the scenes that they would see that afternoon. They seemed to be intrigued by that idea, and we saw it pay off later in the day.
One student did say to me, "We'll see if that play is better than the play that I would write." Well, of course.
My next post will tell you more about the presentation! With photos!
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