Explorers and Script Writing at Williamston

I teach at Williamston Elementary in two classes. One class is a fourth grade with around 25 students and the other is a fourth and fifth grade split with about fifty students. Both of these classes are very different and each have their own challenges. I have really enjoyed teaching the same lesson, with different adaptations clearly, to both of the classes and seeing the different ways they respond in each of the classrooms. I am lucky enough to have an amazing teaching partner this semester, Jena, and have found that we work so wonderfully together. Not only do I feel a constant support in the classroom, but outside of the classroom it is amazing to see how rich our lesson planning sessions are.

This week we decided to begin a lesson on explorers and script writing that will continue into the next couple of weeks eventually leading to final skits. We chose this type of theatrical lesson because in the past although we include mini dramatizations, pantomimes, etc. the students have made many requests that we focus on theater so we were eager to get started on this with them because of how interested they were in theater. We wanted to base our lesson on the students recent knowledge of European explorers. Therefore, we started out by having them immediately take out a sheet of paper and free write for 2 minutes about explorers: what is an explorer? What explorers do you know of? Why do explorers go exploring? etc. We then had a short discussion with the students about their thoughts. We chose to have them do the free writing so that our discussion would be more effective and everyone had thoughts on their paper to contribute if they felt comfortable doing so. This was very effective! I found it was a great way to start the lesson off instead of having blank stares and no hands raised, all the students seemed more engaged in our introduction discussion.

Next, we explained to the students that they would have ten minutes to write a journal as if they themselves were explorers. They would be coming to a new land on earth that they had never been to. We encouraged them to think about the following:

How did you get to this new place? What type of transportation brought you here? What supplies did you bring? Who are you traveling with? Why are you on this journey? What does the new place you have come to look like? What is the climate/temperature? What types of animals do you see? What types of nature and plants are visible? Are these new species or ones you have seen before? Are there natives here? If so, how do they act towards you?

We encouraged the students to be as creative as possible while still making sure that the story/journal was realistic. We also asked talked a bit about how the explorers that they have learned about might have felt during their journey and encouraged them to include at least four emotions in their journal entries. We gave the students ten minutes to do this writing individually. We notices that most of the students seemed to get writing immediately and many didn't want to stop however, there was a small handful of students who were struggling to get started but after some brainstorming help and a minute of personalized attention they had gained enough confidence to start jotting down their ideas. I was very impressed with some of the stories and how imaginative the students were wit their imagery and descriptions. One student in particular called me over and was so excited and proud of his story he had to share it: he discussed how he parachuted in from a plane to his new land and described in great detail the natives and animals that he came in contact with. He really seemed to connect with this prompt and you could tell that he was proud of the journal that he had written.

From here we had the students work in groups of four reading their stories aloud to each other and working towards a final idea for their script and skit. We encouraged students to pick a story that they in particular liked, or chose elements from both that they could combine for their script. The students did very well with this task and both Jena and I were impressed with the amount of maturity and respect in which the students worked together through their ideas. We gave them about 15 minutes with their groups and then asked each group to turn in a final sheet with the plot and their ideas for their script. Next week we will continue working with the classes to formulate scripts with characters, movements and eventually work towards having the students rehearse and perform the skits that they have written to their peers.

Today went very smoothly. I know Joni Starr has given us some great advice after observing our teaching that we sometimes take on lessons that involve too much for our two 45 minute class periods. Therefore, this lesson we really tried to make it simple and manageable. I personally found this to be great advice! Keeping this in mind and spreading out our idea over multiple class periods seemed to allow today to run much more smoothly and I felt less pressed for time and more at ease. I think that both Jena and I were emanating these calm and confidence feelings more so today than ever and it was transferred to our students because they also seemed calm and we dealt with less behavioral issues. Overall I am really proud of the creative expressions that the students showed in their individual journal writing and group work. I feel like the students seemed very proud of the imaginative explorer stories that they created and are really looking forward to the scriptwriting extension next week and the eventual performances!