Week 3: Community Project

WEEK THREE

During this weeks' workshop, we were trying to work more towards devising material for the shows with the year groups.

YEAR 3 PLAN:

Having started looking at the Rhino street art last week, we re-introduced the sub divided groups to the piece again and recapped some of the suggestions and ideas they had the week before about what was possibly going on. It seemed successful that they were initially quite enthusiastic and on board with the whole idea - continuing on from the positive atmosphere from last week. The structure of the last session enabled us to develop what we had started to build into a performance this week - using the 'beginning, middle and end' format to simplify the process of making a story for the children. Our story consisted of a girl who lives on her own meeting an endangered rhino who is being hunted for his golden horns helping the rhino survive in return for the rhino helping her find her family. (SEE BELOW). I was pleased with the input my group gave and I think we strategically tried to ensure that all the children felt they had a voice in the creation of the story by asking individuals who hadn't contributed gently, and by never rejecting an idea. 

With our group, all of the children were so enthusiastic with ideas that it was actually challenging for myself and Sophia to contain this into three set 'beginning, middle and end' moments. Perhaps this structure was a little bit too simple for them and the chance to create a developed story would have been something the children would have actually enjoyed more rather than just restricting the piece to three moments. Nonetheless, with the time frame, this structure helped the session flow easily, and sustained a clear structure for all the groups to follow when all the stories were swapped around. Swapping everyone's finished stories around was a particularly successful idea since it got the children to share their ideas with other members of the class, being open and adaptable to new stories. My experience was that the Year 3's in my group seemed to really take this on. It felt like a very positive experience.

 Here are some of the stories that we looked at creating as a group based on the ideas of the Year 3's:

Having been tasked with the 'school trip' story, myself and Sophia attempted to facilitate the rehearsal of the staging of the piece by almost directing the group into a formation, then giving them the creative license to do what they felt would bring the image to life. For example, the first moment of our story consisted of a school trip boat journey. We ordered the group into a boat formation, prompting them on how their character might be feeling about the prospect of a school trip and how they can be showing this in their face, or conversely how they're feeling about being in a boat, and how this might inform their physicality. I think this was successful in terms of somewhat managing the chaos of a rehearsal whilst giving the children freedom, although we did face challenges in trying to get them to listen to our instructions as opposed to just running out. It was difficult to control at times, however what we learnt was that being patient and warm leads to getting things done more quickly. We had a big focus on not leaving anyone out or alienating anyone - and so when more than 1 person wanted to be the rhino and in actuality there were 4 volunteers, we ensured that all of these four boys would have the opportunity to be a rhino within the piece.  A couple of children even gave suggestions for how they think the piece could be improved, which we accepted and encouraged, but when these suggestions seemed to stray in the opposite direction we tried to resolve this issue by lightly pushing them in the correct direction. The rehearsal process, although difficult, felt pretty easy. By treating the children with respect and like adults, it felt like we too gained mutual respect. We had already formed a bond the week before, and by not underestimating the idea of friendship and collaboration with the Year 3's, we were able to create a piece that all participants were happy performing. 

Performing everyone's pieces to each other was a lovely, optimistic experience. The nature of performing a story that the group had been shared by other group meant that everyone was eager to please. As this was one of the most major performance kind of opportunities we had done so far, as facilitators we tried to be positive and encouraging in ensuring that everyone felt comfortable to perform, and if they didn't then we would be in the piece with them. The idea of group feedback was another great strategy for hearing the thoughts of the Year 3's based on what they'd seen, and allowed them to be independent, critical and analytical thinkers. It felt empowering that everyone was exploring a piece of street art that many had said they pass to and from school, or when they're out on the weekends. It felt important as an exercise in not only fuelling the imaginations of the young and creative Year 3's but also allowing them to have their voice and ideas heard about their local community and what that might mean. I'd argue that so far this has been one of the most successful exercise we'd done, as the amount of thoughts and feedback that the children had reflected a real sense of engagement with the activity. Perhaps it's because it was material they had created themselves, which gave them a sense of ownership and pride over the work, as opposed to us handing them something to stage or do with a sense of disconnectedness. Their comments were quite perceptive about the work made and they were able to understand the variations between everyone's work and interpretations. As facilitators, we tried to ensure that we created an atmosphere where everyone was listening to each other and building off the opinions of others, a healthy atmosphere for constructive criticism.

After this, we moved on to introducing the children to the concept of Croydon as a jungle, a discussion which myself and Zafra led. We looked at the following street art photos from under the bridge near Selhurst Station and asked the children what was going on in the photos and their interpretations of the street art. Again, there were a wide variation of answers which we recorded, and it showed that the activity was important in engaging the imagination of the Year 3's.

This effectively set up the structure for next week's workshop, where we are going to embark further on physically embodying characters that exist in Croydon as a jungle. We believe that using street art to convey big ideas such as Croydon as a jungle because it fuels the imagination of the Year 3's and gets them to think about their local area with a wider perspective. It seemed like the Year 3's that contributed ideas were very on board with the idea and almost took the thoughts out of mouths in terms of the answers we were hoping to gain from them.

YEAR 1 PLAN: 

The warm up game was successful in energising the Year 1's while sticking with the dinosaur theme, although I don't think that the exercise was instructed as well as it could have done since the children didn't execute it with perhaps as much control as we would have wanted. Nonetheless, it got them to concentrate on the idea of being a dinosaur and since it was a race on who was the slowest dinosaur and the last person to get to the finish line being the winner, it involved an element of concentration and focus that was good for getting the Year 1's engaged.

The dinosaur freeze frame exercise was also very successful. Introducing the Year One's to the idea of a 'still picture' enabled them to understand the concept better, and thus it made everyone more comfortable. The way that this exercise was structured was good as in a sense it helped to break the big task of retelling the story of 'We're going on a bear hunt' (dinosaur themed) without the complications of having each group tackle the whole story. This was also a great opportunity to brainstorm and experiment with some of the ideas we might input into the show. We tried to challenge the children by stressing the importance of physicality which got them to think about more than just their faces or the setting they were in. After presenting the freeze frames to the class, it definitely instigated a narrative that all the children could resonate with, especially as all of the children were familiar with the story of the book.

The final exercise was probably the most successful exercise of the day, since it stimulated such an excited and engaged response from the children. We had all the Year One's sit in a circle. Tyrell had exited the room and when he came back in, he was a 'dinosaur'. We hot seated Tyrell and the children had the opportunity to ask him the questions they'd brainstormed last week. All the children were so stunned and seemed to be so entertained and amused by Tyrell's responses. It was quite a magical point within the workshop since it emphasised the power of theatre and how much of a positive impact it can have on a child. 

Week 2: Community Project

WEEK TWO

The aim of the second week of the workshops was to develop on the work that we created in the first workshop a week ago. We hadn't had enough time last week to share our work with the other groups in both years, therefore we used this session mostly as a chance to do this. Therefore, these workshops were sessions where we put particular emphasis on feedback and getting all the children to have an opinion.

YEAR 3 PLAN:

 What was successful about this session was that it seemed that all the facilitators were much more on board and organised, and it meant that we were more aware of time management, which helped the session flow. 

We spent a great chunk of our time with the Year 3's this week rehearsing the performances for the acrostic poems last week. I was working with Sean and Alice, and having polished the poem the week before, we recapped the lines and gestures with the group. The group were actually more confident than they were the week before, I noticed, and I assume that this is probably due to the strategy of having continuity within the structure. The children remembered working with us the week before and therefore felt safer and more confident the following week. A successful dynamic with our group was that a girl called Adele was very confident and proactive in making suggestions about having 'dance' in the piece, and that seemed to encourage the other girls to be a lot more confident and open too. We rehearsed the performance and stressed the importance of what we could improve on, to which we also emphasised the projection of the children's voices, how they were using their bodies and being committed and confident. As such, these clear instructions allowed the children to understand the dynamics of performing and they seemed to really enjoy rehearsing and polishing the piece - this was successful since everyone in the group seemed to be having fun. We didn't have any issues with alienation or lack of enjoyment. I think this was partly influenced by the enthusiasm, encouragement energy that myself, Sean and Alice gave towards the children. I have learnt so far during this project that the investment that you give to the children always lends itself to the investment they give you as a result.

When we shared the piece, doing the acrostic poem with the children to the rest of the group seemed to alleviate any nerves or stage fright, pushing them on if they forgot any part. It felt like a very positive experience, and was successful in terms of progressing from a partly shy and divided group to a group that was ready and happy to perform together. What was interesting from watching the piece's of other groups within Year 3 was that everyone came out with such a range of style and material. Primarily, the lines that some of the pieces had brought out different aspects of the joy of Croydon and I think this was successful in challenging the children to think more about their local area as they were watching the pieces. Equally, the movement in each group varied - stylistically, the pieces were interesting to watch and I can very much see them having a role in the final performance, perhaps as an opening towards the piece being about Croydon. The most successful aspect of this sharing was that most of the children really responded well to being asked to give feedback about what they saw, what they liked and what they thought was communicated. There was a positive atmosphere in the room, and many children came out with thought provoking comments which accentuated how vivid their imagination and brain is. A strategy that worked in encouraging these responses was us as facilitators putting our hands up and sharing what we liked about the pieces, almost as an example to the younger children. It built up a positive energy in the room. 

Next, we began to shift our attention towards the idea of street art in Croydon, looking at the following piece of street art in small groups:

This aspect of the workshop was really successful in my opinion, since the children were very active in my group in giving their understanding of what was going on in the picture and their perspectives of how and why. Our recordings of these images and stories was documented in this picture:

The ideas of other groups varied a lot, which was great to see, for example:

I think the way in which we achieved these results was through the encouragement and investment that we as facilitators gave to the children. Our approach to the exercise was very important. Since every child in my group was giving at least one idea, I attempted to adopt the idea that 'no idea is a bad idea'. Even if an idea was straying from the direction of the exercise, I think that myself and Sophia did a good job in leading the exercise so that every child felt included and listened to, as opposed to being patronising or dictatorial about the suggestions. Another reason why I feel this aspect of the workshop was most successful was I felt I achieved a bond with every child in my group, despite never having worked with them before. I think again there was a sense of safety and comfort, and by being warm and calm with the children this was achieved.

Although the session was cut short, I think that this workshop was really important in progressing in the process. The children were starting to show critical thought, adopting their own opinions and they were able to explain these articulately in front of the group. I also feel like we extended the imaginations of the children and were able to focus them to a point where they came out with some really ideas which could be used as stimulus for the eventual show. A challenge we keep on facing is the passing of time, but we should try to work against this by simplifying the plans and by only coordinating exercises that we think are vital to moving the process forward and giving the children a fun and beneficial time.

YEAR ONE: 

This session was successful, as in contrast to the prior session with Year 3, we managed our time well and were able to complete all of the tasks that we planned. This meant we got the most out of our time with the Year One's.

I felt that the warm up game we did was really effective as an energiser for Year One's who had just had their lunch. Since everyone was familiar with the game 'What's The Time Mr Wolf?', I think it created an atmosphere where all of the children felt safe and in control, knowing what was going on and being able to involve themselves. Switching this to the dinosaur theme ensured that we kept on a consistent theme going. The children particularly got into this, and when they were able to take turns as the dinosaurs, I think they found it really fun. This was really successful as a way of making the children feel energetic and ready to work, especially as a concentration game where they have to work as an ensemble in a sense. Adding the element of silence, staying still and elimination gave the game a slightly competitive feel - yet because no one went 'out' of the game, everyone was always involved and not alienated. I think to exemplify the potential of this game, we could have asked the children what they think they have to do in order to work quietly to get the wolf, just so they are thinking more about the principles of the game, nevertheless overall it was successful and could be used in the future since it's a game the Year One's seemed to respond well to. 

The next aspect of the workshop was somewhat successful. As an imagination fuelled exercise, it enabled the children to have freedom in acting like they were in the story, and from my observations they really responded well to it and enjoyed it. What I've learnt is that overall the children in both Year 1 and 3 respond well to exercises that rely on their imagination therefore in the future we should not reject their vivid imagination and keep on using it as a tool. A strategy that worked as facilitators was dividing the exercise into sections where each of us would promptly take over in instructing the children what to do based on the narrative of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. It was successful partly because the children were clearly familiar with the story, but it perhaps made them engage with the material in a way that they hadn't done in classrooms previously, lending to why they enjoyed it so much. As facilitators, we encouraged the children to use and think about their bodies, facial expressions and what their character is feeling in the moment. Although we tried to express the importance of being silent throughout the exercise, this is one of the problems we encountered since it didn't massively work and grew to be a bigger problem throughout. A way in which we attempted to counter this was by spreading out and working with specific children who were probably more disruptive and encouraging them to focus and concentrate on the activity by doing it with them and prompting them. Another challenge we faced was the children definitely didn't respond to the length of the activity, which we should acknowledge for future planning. When it got to the end of the exercise and the narrative was the near the end, it became harder to control the behaviour and noise level. When I was leading my bit, I tried to approach it with enthusiasm and energy which most of the children did respond to, but many had lost focus. What helped was all of the facilitators trying to take responsibility for all of the children.

Like the Year 3's, what really worked in this workshop was communicating with the children and seeing what their thoughts were on the activity in a big circle. The Year 1's had many thoughts which was lovely to see, and many of the shyer pupils seemed to speak up. Although many of their thoughts weren't particularly articulate, it felt successful that they were contributing their opinions in front of a big group. As well as this, they were making links between the original story and dinosaurs, which seemed to lend itself well to the educational aspect of the workshops. 

Finally, we split up into smaller groups again which was also successful because it focused the wavering attention of the group to a smaller concentrated group of people. We brainstormed what a children would ask a dinosaur if they met one, and this was lovely in terms of everyone being able to contribute. Again, there was a warm and positive atmosphere that was aided by the positive and encouraging response that we as facilitators gave to the children.

Week 1: Community Project

WEEK ONE: THE PLAN 

Having come back from the holiday, we had our first workshop where we met the two groups of children and ran a series of exercises. I think this session was purely about meeting the children and getting to know them rather than trying to actively work towards the final product, and it was an opportunity of trial and error for getting to grips with what the children responded better to, and what they didn't mix with as well. 

The plan we came up with went as follows, having our Year Three session first and our Year One session after:

YEAR 3 PLAN:

Admittedly, the groups were seemingly larger than we expected. Nevertheless, the strategies that really worked were having us as the facilitators spread ourselves about especially in the first few exercises where we were just warming up with icebreakers. By spreading myself out in the circle away from the Year 13s I was able to talk to some of the children and finding out their names, assisting them if they were shy, which seemed efficient and helped the session flow more easily. Myself and Sofianne led the first exercise, and by setting out clear gestures for them to use if they were nervous ensured that everyone in the room was comfortable. Immediately, I felt that within the first 10 minutes everyone in the room relaxed and the children seemed to feel comfortable with us soon enough. This was unexpected since I thought it would take longer for them to relax, nevertheless I think having a clear set out plan helped the group to feel a lot more safe with us. While the initial icebreaker took a long time, perhaps longer than we expected and ideally wanted, I think it was necessary for getting to know the children and helping them to feel relaxed, in control and comfortable. I think as facilitators we coordinated ourselves well in the first stages, being prepared and organised. It felt like an environment where everyone was united and on board, and this made it successful.


The Port Starboard game was an idea I had prior to the half term with Zach and Saffron, and implementing this into the workshop was something I observed that the children responded to very well. While there was a minor health and safety concern since the group was running everywhere in a frenzy, it seemed like they were having fun while actively thinking about travelling to different places in their local area. I think that this is a great basis for devising  the show in the future, the idea that the children are travelling to different places - as well as this, it could possibly be a game we return to in the next few weeks as they particularly enjoyed this. What helped create this atmosphere and make it successful was us joining into the game and helping encourage the children as opposed to standing on the sidelines. It also transitioned perfectly into an exercise that Tyrell led with great initiative and enthusiasm. He improvised as he went along which I thought was really good as a facilitator and kept the children on board, as he was committing to instructing them with energy. The exercise consisted of them going on their motorbikes around Croydon, and was imagination fuelling. I think they responded to this well to some extent - however, I think eventually they weren't completely concentrating and were interacting with their friends more than responding to the exercise with concentration. Perhaps in the future we will have to negotiate that these exercises are led with more attention to how the instructions are said, so that the children take it seriously.

Nevertheless, a strategy that seemingly worked (for both Year 3 and Year 1) was putting our hands up if the group wasn't being attentive. We had brainstormed this prior to the half term and set it up at the beginning of the session so the children were aware of it as a rule. This was effective in creating a sense of balance within the sessions between the children having fun and also listening to instructions.

Finally, in the session we looked making acrostic poems spelling 'CROYDON' with the children. This was probably the exercise that required the most concentration for the children - and it's probably why after all the running around some of them lost focus. Within my group working with Sean and Stella, the group we were working with were quite shy apart from one outspoken confident girl. In particular, there were two girls that clung to eacvhother, and when we explained to them the prospect of creating an acrostic poem they were seemingly more withdrawn. The challenge that we faced was trying to get them to contribute but also trying to get the task done, and so myself, Stella and Sean tried to aid and encourage them to come up with things. Eventually, we did come up with a whole poem and the group had relaxed a bit. I thought that this idea was really effective since it got the children to think about their local area in regards to the poem in a specific way, and therefore was introducing them to the essence of the project. Having come up with the poem, we started to use physical gesture and movement to bring the poems 'to life'. What I noticed was that the children responded to this particularly well - they were more engaged when they were up doing something as opposed to sitting on the floor having to concentrate.

Eventually, we ran out of time but overall the session was hugely successful. I think that the children felt safe and comfortable with us and as such there was no general challenge in trying to get them to relax. The group that we have ranges in terms of confidence which is almost a joy - there are some quite loud and outspoken people but also some really quiet and introverted children. This range is good because different exercises will appeal to them in different ways, and therefore we should bare this in mind as we approach planning the future workshops.


YEAR 1 PLAN:

Year One as a group were definitely more challenging, due to the fact they were younger, had shorter attention spans and lots more energy. Nonetheless, like Year 3 our clear structure and organisation helped engage them from the beginning, as we were strategic with planning in keeping their attention sustained throughout. Similarly, like Year 3 a strategy that worked for controlling this energy was putting our hands up and encouraging the children to be quiet. I imagine that this is a method their teachers use and by having a clear strategy we were able to deal with these challenges quickly and effectively.

The whole dinosaur theme seems to resonate with the Year One's really well, and they enjoy pretending to be their dinosaurs and using their bodies to do so. I think the whole advent of fun and play is something that is really working, and we should continue to use this to engage the Year One's in particular. When introducing the 'We're Going on a Dinosaur Hunt' theme, this seemed to also sit well with the children.

The biggest challenge of this session was working in smaller groups with the Year One's. I think they are the naughtier group in comparison to Year 3 and in smaller groups they seemed to bounce off the energy of one another more easily - if one person within our group was acting badly then everyone else would copy them. Myself and Zafra in our group tried to counter this by being persistent and trying to divert the attention away from that behaviour while addressing the behaviour in a light hearted way. Another challenge was that the group we were in seemed quite focused on the rest of the Year One's and that took their focus away. Trying to engage the focus of the Year One's was definitely the hardest part of the session. To resolve this in the future, it might be a good idea to split up friends from friends, not only to control behaviour but also to develop the confidence of people who may only feel confident around their friends.

Overall, I think the session was successful in meeting the Year 1's. Like Year 3, they bonded with us really well and there was no discomfort, which I think is the most important factor of a first workshop session. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and contrary to our expectations, there wasn't that many people who wanted to sit on the sidelines.