Journal

A great way to engage students is to bring popular culture into the classroom. From celebrity headlines to social media trends, students are highly engaged in pop culture and are always eager to discuss and debate the latest trends. Here are three ways you can use pop culture as a tool to engage your students. Journal TopicsIf your students are required to complete a journal entry as part of their daily routine, you can create journal prompts based on pop culture to get your students to write about trending people or events. When a celebrity or event is in the headlines, or blowing up on social media, create a journal prompt asking students what they think about what is going on, and what they might do to change or improve the situation. These topics are a terrific opportunity to get your students to think about current events in a different light and engage in critical thinking. Phrase your journal prompt in terms of “how,” “why,” or “what if” and ask your students to think beyond the headlines. You might be surprised with what they share. Improv ScenariosAnother way to bring pop culture into your classroom is by inserting references into improv scenarios. You don’t need to create entire scenarios based on recent cultural events; you can simply include a pop culture reference in a larger scenario, and that will enable your students to incorporate some trendy topic into the scene. This strategy is useful in a couple of ways: First, it allows your students to bring their personal thoughts and feelings about current events into the scene. Second, it gives additional content structure to the improv circumstances the students are working with. Both of these are beneficial because the more information your students can connect with on a personal level, the more confident and creative they will be in their actions. Playwriting PromptsYou can also use pop culture as a starting point for playwriting assignments. It’s easier for students to approach a writing project when they are familiar with, or at least interested in, the subject. Their knowledge of popular culture will give them an easy head start when writing a scene or story. Create open-ended scenarios and allow your students to fill in the details based on celebrities in the headlines or viral events. Challenge them to put themselves in the shoes of those they are seeing on social media and ask how they would change the story. Again, the more familiar and engrossed your students are with the circumstances, the more willing they will be to dive deep and generate creative works. Additional Reading: Three Ways to Engage a Large Drama Class Engaging the Non-Theatre Student in the Drama Classroom

Continuing on with our focus on Social and Emotional Learning (check out our other posts about SEL here), this post is filled to the brim with self-reflection journal prompts. Teachers can use these prompts for start-of-class brainstorming, end-of-class exit slips, journaling exercises, or classroom discussion prompts. You can also have students answer the questions as if they were a character in the play you are currently studying, or as an acting exercise in character if you are currently producing a play. Self-reflection is a useful tool for students to help them learn more about themselves. You’ll find various prompts below, plus some bonus prompts in the giveaway. Encourage students to go into as much detail as possible when responding to the prompts. If students are responding to these prompts in character or about a character, have them include evidence from the text. Self-Awareness1. List five things you are good at. 2. List five things that make you happy. 3. Name a goal you’d like to achieve in the next six months. 4. What is important to you? Why is it important? Self-Management1. How do you keep track of your responsibilities? 2. What motivates you? 3. How do you cope when things go wrong? 4. How do you manage stress? Social Awareness1. What is your definition of social awareness? 2. Have you ever imagined being in someone else’s shoes? Describe it. 3. How do you show respect? 4. When was the last time you paid someone a compliment? Who could you compliment today? Relationship Skills1. Are you an effective communicator? Why or why not? 2. What does a healthy relationship look like? 3. What do you do when others disagree with you? 4. Why do relationships fail? Responsible Decision Making1. How many decisions have you made today? 2. Is it easy or difficult for you to make decisions? 3. What was the last mistake you made? What did you learn from it? 4. Have you ever purposefully made the wrong decision?

Once a show has finished, the “post-show blues” often hit students. This can have a number of symptoms, including obsessively quoting lines and song lyrics from the show, starting every story with “remember that time during the show,” missing their “show family,” wondering what to do with their suddenly very free calendar, and a general feeling of malaise, funk, or emptiness. These feelings are very normal and will probably affect every drama student at some point during their time in the drama department. If your students are feeling the post-show blues, give them this list to review. Encourage them to complete the items on the list, and see how they feel afterwards. Teachers may find these tasks helpful as well – post-show blues aren’t limited to the students! *1. Allow yourself time to rest and relax *You’ve probably been go-go-go for a while now, between final rehearsals and performances. Now is the time to sit back and rest, and allow yourself to rejuvenate. Take care of your body and skin (especially after very strenuous shows, or shows using heavy makeup), eat some healthy food, drink lots of water, and nap. You need to keep your strength up – it’s common for students to get sick after a show, as they’ve been pushing themselves to the limit and their adrenaline has been on high gear. 2. Get back to “real life”Get caught up on any homework or assignments that you got behind on during show week. Go through your planner and get re-organized. Get caught up on your chores at home. Don’t necessarily jump right into another show right away. You may think it’s a good way to distract yourself from feeling lonely or bored without a show in your life, but it can lead to burnout. Your body and mind need to rest and get back to normal life. 3. Spend some extra time with family and friendsYour family and friends outside the production have probably been very patient with you while you were busy doing the show. Spend some time doing something with them that’s unrelated to the production, and try not to talk too much about how much you miss your show. 4. Think about what you learnedThink about what you learned and what this production meant to you. Did you make new friends? Learn a new skill? Try a different aspect of theatre (for example, working backstage when you normally act)? Reflect on what you’ve learned – you may even want to write about the experience in your journal. *Click the link below * for a free list of journal prompts for your reflection. 5. Thank your fellow cast and crew membersKeep in touch with them. Send them an email or text message, or for goodness sake, pick up the phone and call them. If you’re really missing them, arrange a reunion – anything from a dinner out to a movie night to a simple backyard hangout. (Just make sure everyone is invited – it’s no fun to find out after the fact that only an exclusive few were invited to get together.) 6. Print out those cast photosCreate a show scrapbook. Or upload your pictures to Facebook, share them on Instagram, or create a YouTube slideshow (set to songs from the show, of course). Oh, the memories!

Drama teacher Joshua Hatt started using Google Drive as a response to the frustration of having his students lose curriculum booklets time and time again. His work developed into a powerful online home whereby students and teachers can communicate, contribute, collaborate, edit, and house all their documents online. Here, Josh shares 5 reasons why you should incorporate the online Journal (using Google Drive) into your classroom. Check out his course, Google Drive in the Drama Classroom, in the Drama Teacher Academy! 1. Harness the power of reflection.• Reflection is such a powerful tool in the drama classroom. Students who can reflect and use their analytical skills are the students who learn and can connect their drama to various situations in real-life contexts. • Thoughtful journalers are better prepared to articulate their intentions, plans and goals. They can also distinguish between needs and wants in a performance, based on the experiences with devising script work and improvisations. • Online journalling takes it to the next level! 2. Plan with the end in mind.• Presenting an online journal workbook at the beginning of the year helps both you, the teacher, and your students stay on track. • As educators, we always need to know where our students should end up in order to scaffold them correctly. A journal helps get us there. 3. Don’t lose any papers!• By moving to an online journal through Google, students are able to reflect on their work using actual photographs, video files, and audio as tools for more meaningful reflection exercises. • Creating this online resource means no more carting journals back and forth, having students lose their curriculum books, or wasted time hunting through files. It’s all right there on Google Drive, 24/7. 4. Engage in meaningful, timely feedback.• Google Docs allow for ‘commenting’ by anyone sharing the document – it’s a teacher’s feedback dream come true! • This real-time function allows you the opportunity to communicate with your students right away. Rather than giving them feedback formatively and having to wait until you cart your journals all the way back to the classroom, they get feedback instantly and can access it anywhere! 5. Collaborate in real time, wherever you are!• Students these days are all about chat and text – that’s their online language. If you’re using Google for journalling, you can enable the Chat feature and you can actually chat with your students live as they work. • Another way to use this feature is to set up some online office hours. You can access the journal from wherever you are. Students can ask you questions in the chat forum and get instant help. • Students can even chat with each other if they are sharing their journals with each other – amazing for collaboration. Are you sold? Are you ready to implement Google Drive in your classroom and try the online journal approach? Click here to see an example of a Journal you can use on Google Drive for drama students. If you want to learn more and get the hands-on skills to implement this in your classroom, check out Josh’s course Google Drive in the Drama Classroom, available at the Drama Teacher Academy – for a preview, see the video below!

Performances are rarely the only area where learning occurs in the drama classroom. What goes on during instruction, what happens in rehearsals and group work, how problems arise and are solved — these are all elements which can't be quantified in a final product. Journaling provides a way for students to record, track, and reflect on their journey from the beginning of the year to the end. Journals are also a great place for students to generate and gather source material for creative writing. Most drama classes will include a writing project of some kind and the journal is one way to keep material in one place. What should go into a drama journal?• Questions and answers • Reflection on a particular exercise or class • Evaluation of a student's own work and the work of others • Personal growth tracking • Challenges and possible solutions • Expectations and goals • Ideas/research/source material for creative writing • Character work for a scene • Reactions to performances • A record of achievements and areas of improvement What should stay out of a drama journal?A journal is not a diary, it is a classroom tool. It's easy for students to misunderstand the purpose of the drama journal. Reflection is different from writing in a personal diary. It's one thing to criticize yourself or a fellow performer; it's another to critique a performance, providing reasons for your opinion and offering suggestions for improvement. It is in this way that journaling is a learning tool and an opportunity to improve a skill. How do I ensure quality work from my students?Journal entries should use complete sentences unless otherwise specified (e.g., a collage). Every journal entry should start with the date. A standard length should be between 200 and 300 words. In terms of content, the purpose of journal entries is to show that the student understands and is able to comment thoughtfully on a specific experience, using examples from class. There has to be more than, “This was good, this was bad, I don't know what I learned.” There has to be effort. Having said that, some students don't know where to start and thus offer shortened answers simply because they have never had to write in this manner before. To encourage a fully realized response, journal entries can follow two templates: 1. The WHAT of the situation followed by the WHY. If a question asks students to give their opinion (WHAT struck you about the performance of Group A?), they must follow up their opinion with reasons WHY. This way, students can practice moving beyond simply criticizing what they see, because they have to back up their opinion. Students should be aware that the WHY is the most important part of the answer because it shows thought and consideration. 2. The WHAT of the situation, followed by the HOW. The HOW portion of the answer allows students to break down experiences beyond blanket statements. It's more than, “I acted in a scene.” Students have to consider how they approached the character, how they worked in their group, how they came up with the blocking. Here are some WHAT/HOW examples: • What exercise did you do? How did you approach it? • What was the audience response? How would you evaluate your work? • What can you change for next time? How can the exercise change? • What was the outcome of the exercise? How can you improve? • What did you learn? How will this apply to future exercises? • What did you dislike about the exercise? How can you improve the experience for yourself? • What was it like to work with your group? How well do you work with other people? You know your students best. You know if the act of old fashioned pen and paper writing in a notebook will inspire or repel them. Maybe they make videos instead. Maybe they create collages. The form of the journal is not as important as the act. Analysis, reflection, creative expression, self-evaluation, and peer-evaluation are what matters. Journaling is a skill that will serve your students for years to come.

Today’s students are visual learners. They look at screens all day long, it makes sense that they are going to be grabbed by a picture instead of something they hear or read. So why not bring the visual experience into the drama classroom? Exercise: Journal with Instagram.• Students take three pictures of themselves every day for a week. The pictures must be taken at different times in the day and in different locations. • When they come to class, their job is to look at their pictures (if your class is at the beginning of the day, they look at yesterday’s pictures) and reflect on what they see. Take it further: Do this only if your students feel comfortable sharing their photos. Divide your students into groups. Each student picks one of their photos. Each student gives their phone to the person on their left. Each student now has a new picture in front of them. They write a inner monologue (what is the person thinking?) for that picture. At the end of the week student must submit their pictures in a new format. Here are some examples: • Print out the pictures and create a physical collage. • Download the pictures to a photo editing site likepicmonkey.comand create a jpg image to send you. • Turn the stills into a video with music, or voice over. • Write a scene in which different pictures represent different characters. What happens when six versions of the student get together? What if I have students who don’t have smart phones? What if my school doesn’t allow phones during school hours? These questions are going to come up. The use of technology in the classroom is not universal. You can have students look for pictures in magazines or online that reflect how they’re feeling. You can have them take their self portraits outside of class time and reflect as homework.

I was teaching at a private school last week during their playwriting unit. One of their pre-writing exercises was to create an “Inspiration File” the point of which was to find, create, give opinions on different elements that may inspire a play. Poems, song lyrics, jump-starter writing exercises, personal credos, objects, and so on. Each student had to submit a booklet (folder, scrapbook) with 20 pieces of possible ‘inspiration’ for the plays they were starting to write. I was there when one class handed in their files, and they were fascinating to flip through. If you are looking for a tangible way to have your students answer the question ‘Where do Ideas come from?” this is a great exercise. I’ve included below some of the pieces this particular school included for their Inspiration Files and added some of my own as well. Try it with your class! Song Lyrics: Select three specific song lyrics (as opposed to full songs) and describe what inspires you about them. What type of character would say these lyrics? Poems: Select three poems and describe what inspires you about them. What type of play could come from the poem? Articles/Speeches: Select three articles or speeches and describe what inspires you about these pieces. Pictures: Select three pictures. Why did you choose them? What is happening in the pictures? What do the pictures inspire you to write about? Headlines: Select three headlines. Why did you choose them? What story could you write about? Jump Start Writing Exercises: These are writing exercises that were done in class to practice writing monologue and dialogue. • Scar Monologue: Write a monologue from the perspective of someone who has a scar, or is looking at someone with a scar, or from the scar itself. • Impression Monologue: Create two characters. Come up with a name, age, physical appearance, and relationship with the other character. Write two monologues, one for each character in which they reveal their impressions. What do they think when they see that other character? What is their impression? NOTE: This exercises was also used when the students started work on their particular plays to allow students to delve further into their particular characters. • I have to talk to you right now: The scene takes place in an empty classroom. Two characters enter. “I have to talk to you right now” is the first line spoken by one of the characters. Write ten more lines of dialogue between the two characters. NOTE: This could also be a monologue. • We are in big trouble: The scene takes place at the mall. Two characters enter. “We are in big trouble” is the first line spoken by one of the characters. Write ten more lines of dialogue between the two characters. • Change: Write a monologue where a person has changed into something else (an animal, an inanimate object). • Emotion: Pick an emotion. Write monologue where a character experiences that emotion. Personal Credo: Write out a formal belief statement with the following as the first line: “I firmly believe that…..” Focus Objects: Pick out five objects from you life (letters, pictures, pieces of clothing, trophies, post cards, jewelry) things that mean something to do. Describe why they are important to you. Character Profile: Create a character. Come up with the following for that character: Name, Age, Physical Appearance, Family, Job, Fear, Secret, Primary personality trait, Secondary personality trait. Memories: Write down your favourite memory, your least favourite memory and your oldest memory. Emotions: Write down ten emotions. Which one is your favourite and why? Which one is your least favourite and why? Sentence Starters: Pick five of these sentence starters and finish the thought. • I have always….. • I remember……. • It would be interesting if…… • I have no problem with….. • I try not to….. • I have never…. • I want….. • I don’t want….. • I know…. • I would like to….. • Why does…… • I hate…… • I fear….. • I love….. • I wish….. As you can see, the possibilities are endless! But a project like this can give students something to return and refer to when they say “I don’t know what to write about….”