Student Goal Setting Exercise: The Wish Jar

“I’ve got so much to say / if only you would listen!” That’s one of my favourite lyrics from School of Rock: The Musical. Students truly wish to be heard, and as teachers, it’s our responsibility to not only impart learning to our students, but to encourage them to explore, shape, and voice their opinions and thoughts. On top of that, it’s our responsibility to ensure that our students are indeed heard. What better way to find out exactly what your students want than to ask them directly? While we teachers do have to adhere to the assigned curriculum, we must try to find some flexibility to include topics, exercises, and scripts/shows that our students express interest in. Allowing students to have a say in what they’re studying gives them the opportunity to take real ownership of the material. This series of open-ended “Top 5” list prompts can be used in a variety of ways:• Students can fill out the entire sheet individually as a class handout. From there, students can discuss their thoughts and ideas in small groups or as a full class. Or, you can compare the answers and put the results together in a graph or chart (for example: “Top 5 Results for the Class’s Favourite Musical” or “Most Popular Wish-List Plays in Ms. Smith’s Grade 10 Drama Class”). That way, students can see if their answers are similar to their peers’ answers. • The topics can be used separately, as a start-of-class bellwork topic, • Or, as the basis of a post-class reflection topic. • Also, they can be used as full class brainstorm and discussion topics, or as prompts for students’ essays or opinion pieces. If you are using the questions as a true poll, the results of the poll can be used for determining what direction the drama class will take in that semester, or for figuring out what the drama club’s (or entire school’s) next production will be. The answers could also be used to shape drama curriculums or show choices for future years–how exciting for students to be able to have a say in the future of their drama education! The important thing for students to note is once they have listed up to five choices per topic, they need to be able to explain the “WHY” of their answers. Why should we study this topic in class? Why is this musical one of your favourites? Being able to explain the “WHY” is a skill that is so important for students to practice–they will be articulating their thoughts and opinions on tons of topics for the rest of their lives. That’s one of the wonderful things about drama class–the skills they are practicing (even those that don’t necessarily seem “theatrical,” like filling out a “Top 5” questionnaire) are transferable to so many different areas in the future. Conversely, if your students lack the background knowledge of shows they like, or don’t express many (or any) wishes of what to study, this can still be useful to you. These students are blank slates, and there is a real opportunity for the teacher to help guide them towards areas of interest in drama. Perhaps do a weekly introductory workshop in various types of theatrical styles for your students. Once the students have had their say, it’s up to you to use the valuable information they have given you. If your students express an interest in mime work, then use that as a direction for your class. If the students want to jump right into a production, use that as a goal–explain the steps needed for them to get to that point, and then work towards it. Together, by listening to and learning from each other, you and your students have the ability to make some real magic in the drama classroom!

Character analysis can be done in many forms: • You can analyze a character in a play you’re studying. • You can analyze a character you’re playing in a production. • You can analyze a character in a play you’re writing. This Character Analysis Exercise will work in all three circumstances: Analyze a character students are studying, playing, or writing about! Have students do this exercise once they’ve either read the play at least once or they’ve written a first draft and are ready to dive deeper into character development. The goal of the exercise is for students to learn about a character through the eyes of others. Instruction1. Entry Prompt • Students enter and respond to the prompt in drama journals or on a separate piece of paper. • Describe yourself (both your public self and your private self) using the five senses. What is your look, sound, texture/feel, smell? Have them identify a specific food for taste. 2. Activity: Mirror Monologue • This is a nonverbal exercise. It is suggested that everyone goes at the same time, so that no one is singled out. You can have students facing in different directions so that they are in their own space and not looking at others or being looked at. • Say to students, Imagine you are standing in front of a mirror. When do you look in the mirror? What do you do when you look in the mirror? The goal is to get students to start a simple action. You may want to give some suggestions: Do you brush your teeth? Do you check what your clothes look like? Do you wash your face? Do you wear contacts? What are you doing? • Say to students: How do you see yourself? When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see yourself as confident? Make a pose or gesture that shows that. Do you see yourself as insecure? Make a pose or gesture that shows that. • Say to students: How do you think others see you? When others look at you, what do they see? Make a pose or gesture that shows how others see you. • Bring students back to neutral, and change the tone of the moment with an upbeat game or improv. • Afterward, discuss the exercise. What was their experience? 3. Character Analysis • In the same way that we can reflect on how we see ourselves and how others see us, we can do with characters. What can we learn about a character through the eyes of others? • The first step is for everyone to choose the character they’re going to analyze. Students who are doing this as a rehearsal exercise should choose their own character. • Divide students into small groups. Have each person in the group share their opinion of their chosen character. What do they think of them? Why did they choose them? What do they like about this character? What don’t they like about this character? • Now that students have had a chance to verbalize their thoughts, have them write them down. Give students the Character Worksheet (download below) and have them record their thoughts on their chosen character. • Next, students will choose a second character. They will now go through the script and identify everything this second character says about the chosen character. • • What words do they use? • What attitude is behind the words? • What is the emotional context behind the words? • Have your students highlight in their script how the second character responds to the chosen character. Again, have them focus on the words they use, the attitude behind the words, and the emotional context of those words. • Bring the students back into groups. Have each person share what they’ve learned about their character from analyzing the second character. Are they surprised? How does this second character see their character? • Now that students have had a chance to verbalize their thoughts, have them write them down. On the Character Worksheet students will answer the question, “How does this second character see your character?” They are to use the text to support their answers. • Bring everyone together and discuss the exercise.

This exercise is inspired by the theatre game The Machine, where students work together to create parts of a factory machine with repeated movements and sound. In The 20-Step Process, we take this a step further by making a simple task comically complicated. This exercise challenges small groups of students to think critically, problem solve, and create and execute a plan. It’s also a creative challenge — students can present their process in a variety of performance styles. Instructions: 1. Divide students into small groups of 3–4. 2. Assign each group an everyday task, such as making a peanut butter sandwich, brushing their teeth, or filling up the car with gasoline. If you need some help with tasks, our outdoor prompt and food-related prompt lists are full of action ideas. 3. In their groups, have students write out a list of 20 steps — no more and no less — to complete the task. For example, making a peanut butter sandwich isn’t simply opening a jar of peanut butter and using a knife to spread it on bread. It might involve locating a magical pig to sniff out a peanut plant, digging up the peanuts, selecting only the peanuts with a particular set of measurements, washing the peanuts with special soap, extracting the peanuts from their shells, crushing the peanuts into a paste, adding salt to the paste, heating the mixture over a fire that is exactly 348 degrees… and so on for 20 steps, with the 20th step being the completion of the sandwich. The steps can be as silly and fanciful as the students wish, as long as there are 20 steps — no more, no less. If students have difficulty figuring out the steps, they might want to try working backwards from the final step, or breaking down each part of the task into ridiculously small micro-tasks. 4. Once they have created the list, students will figure out a way to present it as a performance. Some ideas might include: • Create a series of 20 tableau scenes (one for each step). • Mime the 20 steps. • Do an interpretive dance of the 20 steps while a narrator describes the action. • Present the list in the style of a step-by-step instructional video. • Turn the list into a poem or song. • Create a comedy scene in which a teacher shows their students how to do the task using the 20 steps, or a group tries to follow the instructions written on a piece of paper for the first time. Students may also pitch their own ideas on how they’d present their group’s list. All the movements and voices (as applicable) should be big and exaggerated. 5. Give students time in class to plan and rehearse their performances. If you want this exercise to be a larger project, you may assign part of the task as homework and have students practice at home and present the next day. 6. Students will present their scenes for the rest of the class. 7. After each group presents, students will complete and submit an individual reflection.