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.
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.
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.
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