Journal #6

Journal #6

Writing Aloud: Staging Plays for Active Learning

Moses, A. (8/6/08). Writing Aloud: Staging Plays for Active Learning. Edutopia, Retrieved 8/7/08, from http://edutopia.org

The arts are an integral part of learning, yet educators have been distancing themselves from it more and more. Teachers are under an incredible amount of pressure to teach to the standardized tests that all public school students are now forced to take yearly. The subjects that students learn about on these tests do not involve the arts, use of digital media, or other important tools they will need to be successful in our society. This article by Moses addresses the need and importance of these “extracurricular activities”. In this case, a group of middle school students write a screenplay in which a group of boys is swept in to a virtual environment where the witness racial discrimination, and a series of events unfolds in a well-planned, thoughtful script. Moses argues that participation in script writing as well as acting is a great way to enhance students’ linguistic development. In our digital world, students need to understand how to do a lot more than reading, writing and arithmetic. This type of thinking is archaic and students are suffering because their learning is not enhanced by inclusion of the arts and technology in their curriculum.

Question 1: How do you create time in an already busy classroom to do these types of activities?
Art and technology can be included in almost every lesson plan. For example, if a class is studying a novel and ends on a chapter that is a “cliffhanger”, the teacher might assign a writing assignment in which students create a short play that explains what happens next. Students could act out the plots that they like the most. Because of time constraints, the “play” doesn’t have to be longer than one act or one scene. Technology can be incorporated by video taping the performance and then using editing technology to edit the video. This could be transformed in to a lesson about communication media. Any lesson can be creatively transformed to include something in which the students are being innovative.

Question 2: Why are the arts and technology so important?
I began asking myself this question, because I feel like I am regurgitating a phrase that I know to be true, but don’t really understand why it’s true when I say that the arts and technology are important. After considering this, I think its’ important for a few different reasons. Firstly, it allows students a different form of expression and a different opportunity to be a stellar student. Not all students are good writers or test takers, some are more gifted in these other areas. Students should all get to stand out in some way as “gifted” because all students are tremendously talented in some way. Secondly, the arts allow students a way to discover who they are. The arts are a medium in which students will realize what is important to them, what their values are and why they live their life the way that they do. In other words, activities that are creative gives students to ask themselves important questions that they otherwise might not be asking.