Performing Arts In The Classroom
I am able to connect both Troy Hicks Crafting Digital Writing and Kelly Gallagher’s Write Like This to the performing arts in the classroom. First I
will explore the latter. Gallagher talks about real world writing purposes as a
way to help students see why their writing matters and how it connects to the
world. He breaks the purposes down into six categories; Express and Reflect,
Inform and Explain, Evaluate and Judge, Inquire and Explore, Analyze and
Interpret and Take a Stand/Propose a Solution (Gallagher, 10). These all relate
to the performing arts purposes as well. The student writes the piece and then
they can perform it but the process is the same in both aspects.
First
the student needs to get out on paper what they are experiencing and how they
feel about it (express and reflect). Then they need to think about what message
they are trying to convey through their writing-what are they trying to show
(inform and explain). By discovering how they feel about the subject, they are
able to take a stance on one side of the issue or maybe they feel on the fence.
Either way, they are uncovering how they feel about the subject matter
(evaluate and judge). They must take part in research and development in order
to back up the points they are attempting to make. Looking back at histories
and testimonies that serve as the backbone of their argument (inquire and
explore). Through their writing, the student can piece together what it all
means as they join their opinions with the information they have found. Finding
meaning leads to understanding (analyze and interpret). Once the student has
done all of this work, they then have a strong footing for what they believe
about the subject (take a stand/propose a solution).
In
the performing arts, students go through the same steps in order to create a
clear message to their audience. In writing the piece themselves, they are able
to relate personally to what they are saying but even if the words weren’t
theirs, this process would still get the students to the place where it would
become their own words because through these stages, they would get into the
mind of the character and the message they are giving. Navigating their way
through these hard questions strengthens their commitment to decoding the
meaning and finding respect in both perspectives. Maxine Greene, arts education
and social change advocate, said that “there’s a transformation element in
education and I think having the arts in education enhances that transformative
element; through the arts your experience is enlarged and enhanced-you see
more, feel more, understand more” (Kohl, 180) Through writing and performing
their writing, students feel like their voices matter because their audience
who watches them confirms that.
Gallagher’s
“so what?” also plays well along sing the performing arts because it shows
students why what they are writing, what they are saying and what they are
performing matters. It shows them why they should care. Moises Kaufman,
playwright of The Laramie Project, believes that it is writers and artist who
must lead the enlightened dialogue as “art is a higher domain than politics
because it addresses so many parts of the individual-the intellect, the
emotion, and the spirit, which is why the arts create a very powerful
discourse. We have this premise that we live in a democratic society where all
people are equal and yet daily we are confronted by the fact that we are not.
We live in a very stratified society, and we still have a great deal of poverty
and we all don’t have the same opportunities and civil rights violations happen
continuously. So at this particular moment in time we are failing miserably.
But I think art is a good medium to articulate our failure and to do so in a
way that reconnects us with our humanity” (Kohl, 142).
Gallagher
is also a big advocate for mentoring writing in a way that shows the students
that it’s not a magic process for them either. Troy Hicks gives a nod to this
technique too. By showing how the teacher struggles in finding the right words,
the student sees that it’s okay to fumble your way through in the beginning as
they make mistakes. As Maxine Greene points out “the teacher can’t
come into the room with the problem of Hamlet already solved. She has to come
in with the same open questions, with the same wonder that students will feel”
(Kohl, 180). “Where else do students learn that failure is not only constructive,
but is sometimes the only way to move forward. An artistic enterprise’s outcome
is always uncertain and that uncertainty has the power to let adolescents find
virtue in things they thought they disliked about others and perhaps disliked
about themselves. The strength of the ensemble built by an artistic endeavour
carries over in positive ways to other aspects of the student artist’s life
(Davis, 68-69).
Right from the start, in his introduction, Troy Hicks
says that crafting writing is an act of creativity. The performing arts are
where students can turn that act of creativity into something that can see
seen. By using digital formats like slideshows, videos and blogs, students can
make their writing come alive. “When we talk and teach thoughtfully about the
elements of digital writing-words, images, sounds, videos, links and other
media elements-we are helping them be purposeful and, in turn, helping them to
be creative” (Hicks, 19). They can film a scene, dance routine or music
performance and put it out into the world. This moves away from the constraints
of templates and lists that so limit the way in which students can show off
their writing skills and instead allows them to explore ways of getting their
message across using elements that free their mind. This open form communication
enables the student to “get a feel for the setting, voice, tension, inner story
or recurring detail that helps develop their writing with new lens” (Hicks,
12).
Hicks talks about Renee Hobbs five step process in engaging
students with digital learning. They are access, analyze, create, reflect and
act. This is very similar to Gallagher’s six purposes. All five are essential
in forming great writing and to performing a piece, any piece of art. First the
student must understand the piece, find their motivation, brainstorm, think and
then perform. I wrote that order of tasks from the perspective of a performance
artist but I could have easily done it from a writer’s perspective as well. In
a way to meet Hobbs process, Hicks has created MAPS which breaks down to Mode,
Media, Audience, Purpose and Situation (Hicks, 21). All of these stages guide
the writer to a place where they clearly know what their intention is and it also
lends a hand to the performer in the same way. It’s apparent that the same
processes and questions that a writer asks themselves are the same ones a
performer must use and ask too.
One way a writer and/or performer can really put this
process to the test is by adopting a social cause and representing a side that
advocates for a change. Common core
standards say that “students can adopt a variety of different perspectives to
analyze how spaces and systems shaping events are constructed through
historical and institutional/civic, cultural, psychological and economic forces”
(Hicks, 24). As “these students’ experience immediate connection with a world
of others with whom they work to create the best performance that they can
resonates throughout the natural community-building connections that arts
learning affords” (Davis, 81).
The
Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), the National Council of
Teachers of English (NCTE) and the National Writing Project (NWP) all created a
framework which outline the eight “habits of mind” all students need in order
to be prepared for college. They are curiosity, openness, engagement,
creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility and metacognition (Hicks,
26). Amongst a list of previous standards that high school students have to
meet, Common Core also says 11th and 12th grade students
must set out problems and establish it’s significance, sequence events so that
they build on one another, create a particular tone, convey vivid pictures and
provide a conclusion that reflects on what is resolved (Calkins, 119). Where
else, aside from writing and the performing arts can a student use all of these
techniques while understanding and enjoying the learning process? Nowhere,
which is why the arts are so essential for students development. The arts are
where the student’s words can come alive and move around grabbing the attention
of anyone who is around!
Works Cited:
Calkins,
Lucy, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman. Pathways to the Common Core:
Accelerating Achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2012. Print.
Davis,
Jessica Hoffmann. Why Our High Schools Need the Arts. New York: Teachers
College, 2012. Print.
Gallagher,
Kelly. Write like This: Teaching Real-world Writing through Modeling &
Mentor Texts. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2011. Print.
Hicks,
Troy. Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts across Media and Genres.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2013. Print.
Kohl,
Herbert R., and Tom Oppenheim. The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories
about the Importance of Arts in Education. New York: New, 2012. Print.
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