Volume 1 Number 29


Hi Folks,

Kim's Drama Blog  

Well, the final week of term has passed...  do other people face the challenge of keeping students focussed in those last few days of term?  I wonder about the post-compulsory students who seem so willing and ready to abandon everything the minute the final siren sounds - and it becomes absolutely obvious they are not going to consider the possibility of even thinking about doing any work or study of the class free break.    Always a quandary - especially as my students have a significant performance component to be completed as soon as school resumes.. oh well, their results not mine!

The highlight of the week I suppose was the written exam for my senior students.  They all face their practical Tertiary Entrance Exam for Drama Studies next week... and I'm supposed to be away at the Coming Home conference in Brisbane.   I suppose they all have to leave the nest sometime.

Also this week I spent some more time with the EDWA reference group looking at the new Curriculum Council Course of Study (CoS) for Drama.   While I am happy with the overall shape of the course I was a little disappointed to find that the original model that would accommodate a more integrated approach in schools has been watered down.  And I suspect this is largely due to a belief that schools will not make significant shifts in the way they envisage education, and the way administrators structure systems of work.   I hope this belief is misplaced as once again I can see an idea full of potential and excitement being scaled down to the lack of imagination that exists within educational systems.  I was reminded by colleague yesterday to notice just how CONSERVATIVE teachers and administrators in schools really are.  At least with the new Drama CoS I feel we have made suggestions that will give it a forward-looking impetus, and it will need this because of the VET (Vocational) and AQTF focus that it must accommodate.    I'm hoping when this CoS is implemented that I'll be able to start the Level One units with Year 10 - think about how that will lend itself to improved retention rates!

We got our results back from YOHFest - we didn't get through to the finals.  Nevermind, there's always next year, and that has never been my focus for my students involvement.  Congratulations to the schools that did get through, and thanks to all the YOHFest crew, especially Ann!  I'll probably be down with our Dance entry in October.  If you don't know YOHFest check it out at http://www.yohfest.com.au/

Job Hunting

Still applying for promotional positions - if you have a job to offer me I'm willing to hear the details!!!  

Discussion List Issues

Still a bit of activity this week, despite many people focussing on term break.   A few announcements came through about student workshops.  I think though that we need to be a little careful about our posting habits - I made the mistake myself of replying to a message and leaving a pile of irrelevant material attached.  So did a few of you.  We lose subscribers that way...  their email starts to back up - especially for those using webmail services with a quota on their mailbox.  

As ever I'd like to call on volunteers to offer material to be published in this newsletter.  Especially lesson ideas and activities.  They needn't be fully fledged ideas, I'm confident our readership can extrapolate and modify the ideas to suit their own needs - but we all need to have the grey matter stimulated regularly else it begin to atrophy.

LESSON/ACTIVITY IDEA

STARTING TO STRUGGLE FOR IDEAS - PLEASE SUBMIT SOME LESSONS AND ACTIVITIES I CAN SHARE WITH THE READERSHIP!!!

A quick idea this week.  I seldom use games exactly as described in the large collection of books that I own.  Almost always I find ways of adapting and modifying the games so that they are more relevant and useful to my classes.  (And if you write such books - I'm not suggesting we don't use them - they are great inspiration!)  This week, or maybe last week, I forget which, we started playing a game similar to Space Jump

If you don't know Space Jump, here is an explanation from the Improv Encyclopedia

4 players. One player starts miming an every day activity or routine. A second player (or the MC) calls Freeze and the first one freezes. Second player builds another scene based on the frozen position of the first player.

The other 2 players enter the same way. Once players 3 and 4 are in, as soon as Freeze is called, 2 and 3 take on their positions in which they were frozen, and continue their scene. And so on backwards.

As soon as player 1 is back alone in his activity, he needs to finish it and that ends the game.

A useful game to help students define character, track plot, construct narrative, etc.

I've been playing with a modification - some students find it very difficult but most find it interesting either way - and that is to play it as a cumulative form.  Rather than stoping and reversing when you get to 4players - just keep adding new player after new player until it becomes unable to support itself.  Great for developing student awareness of points of focus, listening to each other, monitoring action, etc.

And a further modification I made with older students, who were working on a group devised drama, was to add a forwards-backwards command.  This means that instead of new player coming in and starting a new scene, they will be directed by "Forwards" or "Backwards" calls to shift into pre-existing scenes - this is very good if students can get the idea of how it parallels the idea of "Sub Plot"... it is also great for finding pivotal action that will shift between narratives in more complex work.  As I said, if the students are up to the intellectual stimulus, its a great way of conceptualising the notion.

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

To my mind this is still the most impressive collection of Improv Games available on the web.

PROFESSIONAL NEWS

Hi folks - haven't had any advice from people about forthcoming Professional Events.  The Drama Australia "Coming Home" conference is on this week - I'll be presenting "Cyborgs, Improv and Digital Drama in the Classroom" as a workshop activity.   should prove interesting watching people come to terms with challenges to the way they frame Drama.

One little menton I'd like to make is of a new book out of Perth, Western Australia.  Its called "Yes Let's" and it is produced by Angela and Michael Sanderson Green, who are long time TheatreSports™ practitioners and current proprietors I believe of the TheatreSports™ Institute in Western Australia.  I started playing TheatreSports™  in WA in the first year it operated at the Subiaco Theatre Centre - Michael and Angela were there at the beginning too!  They now specialise in teaching students, teachers and other organisations how to effectively use the form.  And they have produced a book of many of their ideas.  I've only quickly flicked through the book but it looks impressive.  If anyone has a review they'd like to submit, or some distribution details I'd be happy to include that information in an upcoming edition of this newsletter.  Alternatively, if a review copy is made available to me I'll do the review myself.  If anyone knows of their website I'd also like the details.

*** REALLY WEIRD THAT MOST TheatreSports™ websites in Australia seem to have a hundreds of dead links strewn across the web??? ***

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALSO AVAILABLE 

eBOOKS - Can be downloaded immediately - A full listing of available eBooks.

Kim Flintoff

Copyright © September, 2004