The Teaching for Understanding Framework

GENERATIVE TOPIC (the theme or topic this unit addresses)

Bringing text to life is a unit that helps students understand how to bring their own experience and ideas into the process of interpreting and presenting text, in this case, Macbeth. Students learn how to interpret dialogue, stage directions, character and other aspects of dramatic text such as information about scenery, costumes, props and gestures through rehearsal, critique, reflection and performance. From the teacher's perspective, the unit is a means of engaging sometimes reluctant students in active and collaborative learning in which they learn by helping one another see connections among reading, writing, and communicating text.

UNDERSTANDING GOALS (what students come to understand)

1. Students will understand how genre influences understanding and how to read different genres, such as drama, for meaning.

2. Students will understand how to orally interpret a literary genre.

3. Students will understand how communication is a layering of language types: body language, voice intonations, pronunciation, and physical position in space.

4. Students will understand how to utilize external resources such as video to develop their own learning.

   PERFORMANCES OF UNDERSTANDING (what will students do to build and demonstrate their understanding)

   Introductory
   Paraphrasing:

   1. Students read drama for meaning by collaboratively paraphrasing an assigned scene of Macbeth in their "acting troupe." Actors are heterogeneously grouped by the instructor so that each group comprises 3-5 students with different aptitudes, social skills, and peer groups ( UG 1).

   Guided Inquiry
   Performing Text:

   1. Students "block" their scene, applying class notes on stage composition, picturization, and other dramatic concepts.

   2. Students think critically about how performance choices influence meaning by discussing and drafting a "performance choice essay", or written justification for why they blocked their scene as they did. Included in this discussion and drafting is a decision about theme: what is the theme that they are trying to get across to the audience? They must be prepared to argue that their theme is consistent with the play as a whole and that all their performance choices support that theme ( UG 1, UG 2, UG 3).

   3. Students build toward understanding how oral communication involves bringing their own experience and ideas alive for audience by performing their scene using dramatic devices discussed in #1 above and speech techniques introduced in class ( UG 1, UG 2, UG 3).

   4. Students view last year's videotaped student performances and analyze them according to prescribed criteria to improve their approach to communicating the scene (UG 2, UG 3, UG 4).

   5. Students utilize external resources to develop their conceptions by critiquing a professional movie version of Macbeth according to the criteria they have been applying to their own performances (UG 4).

   Culminating
   Final Presentation:

   1. Students communicate their unique interpretation of a dramatic scene orally introducing the scene's importance to the play by , acting the scene, and concluding with an oral reading of their Performance Choice Essay in which they justify the choices they made in their enactment and their intended theme.

   2. Each acting troupe of students, demonstrating how drama is a genre of literature different from other genres, applies dramatic techniques: blocking, stage directing, expressionistic elements, and costumes to perform their scene in our class' mini-production of Macbeth (UG 1).

   (Performances are recorded on videotape).

   ASSESSMENT

   Because the process of bringing text to life involves revision and layering of language types, assessment was based on a sequence of repeated student performances in reading, writing, and acting (which includes both oral and body language). The rehearsal process mirrored the stages an acting troupe takes as they work toward opening night. Outlined below is the timeline for assessments:

   Introductory Assessment --week one: Students get feedback on their initial paraphrasing by discussing the assigned scene with students in their small group. Paraphrases are assessed by both students and teacher against a common criteria. Students get written feedback from their instructor on the understandability of their paraphrase according to the prescribed criteria. Students act out their scene in their group using the script as a guide and get feedback from peers and instructor during this preliminary blocking session.

   Guided Inquiry Assessment: In their small acting group, students rehearse and assess their blocking according to the blocking criteria as found in their classnotes.

   Guided Inquiry Assessment: Students self-assess their understanding of blocking principles by individually writing a "performance choice essay." This essay justifies their blocking of the scene according to the criteria prescribed in a-g above. When students work out why they need to stage the scene a certain way and articulate how their staging supports themes implied by the text, they are forced to evaluate how well they understand their script in particular and the play as a whole. Individuals are supported in the writing process by discussions with their group mates and with their instructor.

   Guided Inquiry Assessment: Using the blocking criteria, students assess their peers and revise their performances during each scene run-through. They must adjust stage positions, body positions, voice tone, and facial expressions to reflect their agreed upon theme. They need to put books down, move from reading to enacting the words, and generally, move "off book", speaking only from memory to make the meaning of the text come alive.

   In addition to the blocking criteria, each student gets feedback on the mechanics of his or her oral communication by ongoing peer and instructor review. Outlined in a class handout, these Principles of Effective Speech reinforce the idea of oral interpretation for an audience.

   Continuously, students assess their own understanding by moving from reading the text to "acting" the text from memory with words and body language. If they are unable to move off-book, they know that they don't yet understand their character's motivations or the scene events. The instructor knows if the students understand what they are saying by observing these multiple "run-throughs" per group and watching actors improve their speaking according to the prescribed criteria. Also, watching the young actors critique and advise their peers, the instructor assesses how well the students understand the assessment criteria.

   Guided Inquiry Assessment: Before their dress rehearsal, students assess their performances by analyzing the movie version of their scene. They compare their interpretation to the movie director's interpretation during class and in subsequent, small group discussions. Also, the instructor hands back the first draft of the performance choice essays: draft one so that students can read the instructor's comments and revise their essays for a final grade.

   Guided Inquiry Assessment: The instructor assesses the student's understanding by watching each group perform in costume and providing a grade prediction based on the explicit and public criteria detailed above. At this dress rehearsal, students, too, assess their understanding by watching their peers and giving an informal evaluation based on the same explicit and public criteria. Performing students get feedback on their UP by listening to the comments of their instructor and peers. Right before the end of class, acting troupes join together for one final "jam" session. Truly, the instructor knows if the students understand the nuances of developing understanding by watching them evaluate each other and improve their scene according to feedback in this last pre-performance day. At home that night, each student assesses his or her understanding of drama as genre by revising the "performance choice essay" and writing a final version for a grade.

   Culminating Performance of Understanding: The instructor assesses each student's understanding of Shakespeare's drama by evaluating the "performance choice essay" handed in on "Opening Day." Secondly, the instructor assesses each student's understanding of language layering by evaluating the actor's delivery according to prescribed criteria. Similarly, the instructor assesses the group's understanding of drama as genre by evaluating the group's use of dramatic techniques in the scene. Grades for each student are generated by averaging the group performance grade, the individual performance choice essay grade, the student's delivery in character and success in meeting a sequence of performance deadlines throughout the course of the project.

   However, student self and peer assessment is also a vital part of this unit because it shifts the motivation from an external source to an internal one. By placing evaluation in the hands of those being evaluated, the instructor empowers them to practice and monitor their own progression. Consequently, on Opening Day students critique each other by writing evaluations of each peer group. They write to the performers, explaining what worked in the scene, what themes were conveyed, and what could be improved and/or was confusing. They write as experts because they have worked through what it takes to make the script real. They know the possibilites of the text, and they can see when a performance comes up short.

   When the live action is complete, the curtains have closed, and the stage lights have gone down, students debrief, celebrate and review their performances by critiquing the videotaped record. They see gaps in meaning, recognize superior acting, and remark on what they would do differently if they could do it again. During subsequent class discussion and in end-of-year course evaluations, students assess their understanding of how to utilize resources and technologies such as video in developing their understanding by discussing the performance process in this unit. Their respect for the work involved in bringing a text to life grows and they recognize that reading for meaning, writing for discovery, and speaking to communicate are life skills that depend upon collaborative ongoing practice and assessment rather inherent "smarts."

   On to:

   • The Unit Timeline