Teaching Television: Reflections on a new curriculum

READ THIS ENTRY FIRST

2007-01-07T02:24:00Z

I have gathered portions of reflections made throughout the course of the study--beginning with designing the curriculum and concluding with my thoughts after the last class. These are short highlights of my own observations that I feel may benefit from outside comments and suggestions. I plan to keep adding to the blog as I spend more time now reflecting on the process as a whole.

The oldest entries are from April 2006, so start reading there for a chronological approach. Please feel free to comment. Even though the course is over, my questions and frustrations remain. Thanks for reading!

The Last Day: A Commercial

2006-11-05T04:00:00Z

November 5, 2006

We took our time with the warm up today, and I played our "circle game" a few times because the students asked me to. We finished acting out the script. The students really get a kick out of the final arrest scene--especially with our bumbling cops. After it was over, I told the students that we would now need to create a commercial, so people would know to watch the show. I asked who we wanted our audience to be: adults? children? families? Jasmine spoke up, asking, "Why don't we take a vote?" The class was getting the hang out of our process drama decision-making tools! So, we took a vote--and the students wanted to add aliens to the list of possible audience members. I think this showed their willingness to suspend their disbelief for the sake of the process drama. The majority of the class voted for an alien audience, so we created a commercial geared towards the aliens. The students wrote it and acted it out as a voiceover--someone read the commercial as the students acted out scenes from upcoming episodes. It served as a great way to recall some of the earlier parts of the episode as well as remembering some of the characters we came up with weeks ago that did not star in the specific episode we created.

I gave out certificates of achievement from myself and "Miss Z"--the students appreciated it and asked when i was going to be back. The teacher also seemed eager to work together again. I said I would do my best (I would have to check with my employer), and we said our goodbyes as they tried to guess who Miss Z was. One student did say, "It's you, isn't it?" But I left without answering the question. It was a great last day. In some ways, although I wanted to expand on the media education concepts, it felt like that specific project (episode creation) was finished. The students are now ready to challenge themselves with forming a network--programming, advertising, etc, and I would love to challenge them with additional roles to play--producers, advertisers, etc.

How to End It?

2006-10-29T04:00:00Z

Sunday, October 29, 2006

I brought in costume pieces on Friday, so the kids were noticeably pumped. The class had that Friday afternoon energy—excited that the weekend is coming ahead. I told them the costume pieces were from Miss Z, and I pulled them out one at a time—asking what characters should wear what. Unfortunately, no one was interested in wearing the disguise nose/glasses that I thought were hilarious. I had us start with scene 3—when Mr. Scary’s skull is taken by the aliens. We then moved to our most chaotic scene—where the students create music that scares the aliens away. I mistakingly brought in some cheap party favor harmonicas and flutes, so when they had them in their hands, they couldn’t help but play them…loudly. So, it was hard to actually make it through the scene, and we spent ample time on it. We got through it, finally, and ended up working on the spraypainting part of the scene. We still have to do the “arrest” ending scene—but then we are done.

We have one more class left, so I’m still thinking about what would be most valuable to them—I hate ending classes when I don’t have a specific ceremony or process in mind. We can start by having them finish the scene—so we have a written script. I thought we would go back and act the whole thing out, but I’m not sure it’s necessary. Maybe an ending would be packaging up our script, so we can deliver it to Miss Z? Or, in the curriculum—we do a commercial for the show—maybe I can do that, too, so we can begin to address the idea of advertising and audience.

Routines and Ending the Script

2006-10-27T04:00:00Z

October 27, 2006

Thursday’s class was fun. We’ve gotten into a routine—one that changes in slight ways over the week. I come in the room, and written on the board is the schedule for the day. I ask questions about every part of their day: “Someone raise their hand and tell me what they had for lunch?”, etc. It has been a way for me to transition into drama and also learn about literally what they have been doing that day & what kind of energy they have in the room. We also have begun playing the “how are ya/good to see ya?” game—which they are very good at for the most part. I say we would spend the first 15 minutes of class just getting into it, warming up—which may be too much in an hour long class, but I find it helpful both to me and to the students.

We began our tv work by reviewing the scenes, and I asked about ways in which we could end the episode. They did not really grasp the concept of “ending,” because each person’s suggestion was actually a completely different story. Finally, someone suggested that we have the police come in and capture the aliens after the people in the amusement park frighten them. I told them this would be good because the next episode could be about them getting out of prison. Joker said, “Like in Prison Break!” Genius. I really feel them starting to make connections with the television they see, and if anything—hopefully seeing it in a very constructed way. I told them that we would act out all of the scenes from the beginning, and each person could be in at least one scene. I also told them I would write down the lines this time. This process was a little tedious—my writing sort of allows for downtime for the rest of the group, but I didn’t think of an alternative. They would then use the lines as “cue cards” as they acted out the scene. We got through scene II, and today, I hope to get through the end of the script. I told them I was bringing in some costume pieces tomorrow, but they would be very simple.

The acting has become a highlight—and I think it makes media education courses more fun. The students really are using their imagination as they create lines and characters—and use different emotions. One student, playing the character of George, ad libbed some stuff and made a really angry face about the popcorn being stolen, and the whole class cracked up. It is entertaining, a fact which can’t be overlooked.

Acting Out the Scenes

2006-10-22T04:00:00Z

Friday, October 22^nd

We are nearing the end of the study, and all I can think is “I’m not ready to end!” I guess this is a common theme with classes. By the time you finish the curriculum, you feel like you’re just beginning—like this project should be year round to really go into any depth. But, it is what it is, so I must find a way to conclude. This week we continued working on the story idea for the novella. I’ve decided for lots of whole group work now, just to get the story up on its feet and moving. I’ve discovered a really great way to devise the scenes using everyone. Volunteers will come up as actors, and the audience suggests what lines they will say. It’s a little Boalian! And it works. The students remain engaged in the activity, and they have a good time watching their dialogue come to life.
On Thursday, we voted on one “problem” and suggested ideas for a “solution.” They had no trouble brainstorming, and the majority of the problems had to do with the aliens coming and attacking the theme park. Once a student mentioned this, every subsequent idea was partly based on this idea. I asked them to think about any problem they might have at a theme park—aliens or no aliens, and there were a couple like “bad food” or “falling out of a rollercoaster”—but I also agreed that the idea of aliens seemed like much more exciting television. Again, I felt like we weren’t really staying true to the genre. But the idea of really utilizing characters we created as a team was exciting. We acted out a couple of the problems: bad food and aliens becoming invisible and tricking people—then we ran out of time on Thursday.
They had worked on creating a spell that turns the aliens invisible—and away from class, the classroom teacher came up with a rhyming version—so it was good to have them connecting outside of class. The kids also mentioned today how another story they read took place at an amusement park. Anyway, the second scene has the aliens starting to play tricks on the characters. I decided to have them play 2 tricks, so it becomes a larger problem. Then, the people decide to create lots of music because the aliens are scared of it. This was very impromptu, but me and the teacher decided to create this large sort of band—with different people creating different instruments. It was so much fun—and a way to include everyone who wanted to participate. This is how we ended. We still need to have characters spray paint the aliens, so we can see them before we play the music…and then find a way to end the episode. Next week, we will actually write down the lines & figure out who is playing what. I hope it doesn’t get too tedious. And then I want to bring in some simple costume pieces just for fun. I am really enjoying working with this group. They match my energy and ideas each and every class, and it is thrilling.

Creating Characters

2006-09-22T04:00:00Z

Friday, September 22^nd

We worked on characters this week in class, which was an interesting experiment. The first day, they worked on individual characters & then presented them in a talk show format. This actually took up two classes to completely make it through—because almost everyone wanted to present their character. I had them draw it individually, so they could have a visual representation of what they were creating. I’m not sure if this accomplished much of anything. I thought it would be a look into their imaginations, and it sort of was—but there wasn’t much out of the ordinary stuff. I got into the talk show thing—because of the audience questions. They would really try to come up with unique questions about the characters that we hadn’t heard before, and I found myself really encouraging new kinds of questions. The characters themselves weren’t really “acted out.” No one used a different voice to “play” the character—they just answered the questions in their own voice. I assume that some of them were probably answering them from their own point of view as well, but I think this is something writers do as well—use themselves and people around them as inspirations. It took SO long to do each talk show guest, and students were getting visibly agitated towards the end, but by that point I couldn’t NOT show each person’s.

The next class, we began with the idea of creating characters in groups that would be part of our novella. I told them we would start with the novella show and then focus on our soccer show. I handed each group a body form that I messily drew before class & told them to work together to make one character (girl or boy—or to disregard the body form and create whatever animal or creature they wanted). They all began using the body form right away—which was drawn with pants. I think this led them to believe that the characters should be boys—because all of them were, with the exception of “Lupita” who was a “tom boy.”

At first, this activity was a disaster. Few of the groups were understanding the idea of making one character together—and I thought for a moment about changing it to a whole group activity. Instead, I went table to table to figure out how this teamwork could happen. I knew there was chaos going on in parts of the room, but I really took my time with each group & heavily praised them when they found ways of working together—and after about five minutes, each group seemed to find ways of working that were satisfactory to them. At the end of class, we did a shortened “presentation” news show, where the students “artists” I called them, showcased their character. This was a way for them all to become familiar with each character. I went home thinking that we might need more characters—and especially some girls in the story. So, the next class, I did the same activity—still really enjoying building those small group dynamics—and told them this character needed to be different than their previous—if it was a boy, it should be a girl or another creature. I decided to break a couple of groups up that were having trouble, and give out more human forms. This resulted in six (instead of four) characters—two aliens, one skeleton, two women, and one male character. The enjoyment was still there—for me and for the students as we presented these characters.

Doing this activity I think is really central to the ideas of the curriculum—and should be taught before the idea of story (and maybe even setting) come into it. Because right away, there is a way where EVERYONE’s input into the process is literally seen—in the forms of the characters. And, there is also the group work to make it happen.

Am I Teaching Anything?

2006-09-19T04:00:00Z

Tuesday, September 19^th

I realized right away that doing “one word” story with them was too much too soon. I’m not even sure why I put story in my curriculum before everything else. It seems to me a more natural progression to move through setting, characters and relationships first—and then begin to brainstorm story ideas. So, we didn’t focus on the idea of story for very long. Instead, I skipped right to environment/setting work.

I first asked them how we could combine the two genres—novella and sports, and they were bursting with ideas. This surprised me, as I genuinely couldn’t think of many myself. It shows me the creativity these kids have—and also how important it is to ask questions instead of just leading activities. Although I hate sitting with the kids for too long talking—I want to get up and do drama, there seemed to be benefit in us really discussing what our show would look like. We didn’t decide until Friday’s class, when they voted to combine the shows by beginning with the novella, interrupting with a news broadcaster, and then showing part of the soccer game. Everyone agreed that this would be a way to please both the novella and the sports crowd. I said that it was a kind of trick I haven’t seen on TV before—interrupting programming with the goal of keeping and building a larger audience. It should be interesting to see where this goes as the week’s progress. In some ways, it seems like more work—thinking about two very different genres. I’m not too concerned about the newscaster, since it seems more of a transition role and not an entire ‘news cast.’

In the back of my mind, I am still thinking, “Am I teaching anything besides basic story structure/composition?” I think the key lies in my asking more questions and always bringing it back to the idea that we are creating a brand new show—and that we want to make it unique. This forces us to think about how the shows on television right now are similar and how we can make ours different.

Two Genres?

2006-09-10T04:00:00Z

Sunday, September 10, 2006

The first classes were a welcome to the challenge that the whole idea of teaching media poses—especially to younger kids, which just isn’t written about enough for me to pull curriculum and ideas from the literature. I struggle with “is this really relevant?” and I’m hoping it does grow from these beginning stages. I see right away that all of the students are connected in some way to television. They all had shows right away deemed as “favorites.” When I introduced the concept of “genre,” mentioning novellas, game shows, news shows—they seemed to understand right away the format and look of those shows—even though they might not spend long periods of focused time watching them, they are a part of the family, the culture.

I was surprised by their choice of “sports”—the genre they would like to develop into their own show. It was hard for me not to just throw that option out, because I didn’t at first see how we could investigate television production by focusing on sports. As I watch the U.S. Open today, though, it is obvious how t.v. alters the event itself—focusing on individual stories and triumphs, announcers with personality, locker room/post-game interviews, stats, shots of audience and players—it will of course be different than creating a typical story with characters, etc—but not so much. It could be even more an opportunity to see how “real” events can be controlled in ways by the media—given a certain slant to build audience, to keep the audience. Since there was also interest in novella, I told the kids we might be able to create two shows—but I wonder how I can make that work without having to cram everything together. It might not leave enough time to go deep into the curriculum. I’m wondering how I can make “sports” work for everyone in the class—or how I can incorporate these two genres. I will ask the kids more about it as we begin to work on story development (their answers will help shape how that unit is led), but any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. They are the experts creating the show, so I need to let them articulate how that looks within the project. This happens through asking the right questions, I think.

Change of Plans

2006-08-19T04:00:00Z

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Well, the big news is that in the end I did not get the permission I needed from the school that was visiting Inner City Arts. So, I cannot use it for my dissertation study. This is of course frustrating, but I think it comes with research in the education field. Protection and the child’s education come before all research needs. So, I have to be patient, but it’s a tough process. The next class my bosses' offered me is a group of 2^nd graders. My curriculum was developed for the 4^th grade, so at first I was hesitant, but now I see the value in modifying the curriculum to fit a younger age. It is actually one of my favorite age groups to work with—they easily buy into the idea of process drama and the importance of it all. At first, I worried that they would not be able to produce the kind of writing I wanted to work on, but I think that will be the more important challenge for me—instead of relying on writing-based activities, how can we physically investigate media in the moment dramatically?
   How will my current lessons shift to accommodate for the age change? My first instinct is to cut the creation of the network and focus only on the creation of a television show. The good thing is that this class will have only 20 students, as opposed to 30, so there will be more opportunity for whole group activities.
    I have been working with these kids for 6 weeks—one time a week—teaching an hour and fifteen minute drama session. We’ve been focusing on poetry revolving around animals. I think this will help prepare them to jump into more work with me, and I won’t have to spend as much time developing the classroom drama community.

Choices Being Made

2006-07-08T04:00:00Z

Saturday, July 8, 2006

I have started getting back to the literature again, in order to fix up my curriculum—clean it up. I read David Buckingham again today. I really like what he has to say about media education & some of the bigger ideas that teachers should focus on. I especially like his point about not just validating the students’ experience—which I think becomes a problem—especially in short term classes…but having them understand that there are choices being made in the media. The students can begin to ask questions about how they themselves view the media & suggest that alternatives are possible. I think leading this process drama depends on lots of question asking—going into the classroom with questions in the back of my mind but allowing these to change as the students bring in their views. I love not knowing what to expect. It’s exciting. After reading Buckingham today, I think it might also be interesting to keep a diary of my own television-watching and how it changes through the study.

Role of Expert

2006-07-05T04:00:00Z

Wednesday July 5, 2006

I have written lessons 6-10 now, with only the final lessons (rehearsals and performance) to go. I have to type lessons 9 and 10 into the computer—due to traveling, I was unable to get to a computer. I have found the process helps when developing the curriculum, though. It becomes a rough draft. I am still not pleased with the curriculum as a final product, but I hesitate to go into too much detail when I haven’t even met the class. I have chosen to represent the lessons online—as a preliminary and then as a final draft. They may go through an “intermediate” phase, too—depending on how much the class interests shift the curriculum. I still feel like it needs more of an emphasis on the role play and the part of experts. If they are indeed experts, why am I giving them all the direction? I am asking for their views, but as class goes on, I want to find more ways of letting the students direct the course of the activity itself.

Adding New Activities?

2006-06-24T02:34:00Z

Friday, June 23, 2006

Writing the curriculum is more time-consuming than I expected. It is one thing to have an activity idea in my head, and it is a whole other thing to write it down. I also realize that these will be first drafts of the curriculum. It would be great to begin to layer each lesson—with a new focus each time. I would like to go through them again looking at specific ways to bring the process drama elements to the forefront. I would also like to look at each lessons for more ways to interrogate the key aspects of media education. For now, though, it is important that I get a structure written. I have written 6 of the 12 lessons. As it gets further along, it is much harder to predict the details of the class—since I have no idea right now what the kids will bring into the process. I write them knowing they will morph as the class happens. It does give me more of a focus than I’m used to, though. I don’t think I’ve ever developed a full curriculum before teaching any of it, and it’s a good experience for me. It’s time-consuming, though.

I wrote up the first six lessons using many games and activities I’ve done before with my drama students. I use what I know works, and then I try to make it fit the media education curriculum and the process drama. I would like to add another layer to it—comprised of new/different activities that might be better suited for the class—or just bring a fresh element in, so it’s not too predictable. Right now, I just want to finish a basic draft of all 12 and then worry about it.

Coming up with the Overall Structure

2006-06-15T04:00:00Z

Thursday, June 15, 2006

I found out that I will most likely only have 12 classes instead of the 14 I imagined. This means my lessons will have to be really tight and focused. I can’t have any throw-away activities. I really need to go in with structured ideas. Of course, they will be flexible, but I must have a strong structure going in on this.

I looked at an overall structure today: how do I teach what I want in twelve lessons? I decided to divide the class in half: the first six sessions would cover the making of a TV show and the last six sessions would cover the creation of a network. Within the first six sessions, I will introduce the process drama, create characters, situations and settings for our very own tv show, write and perform scenes from the show (possibly taped) and create a “pitch” for the show.

In my original thoughts, this is where I was going to create a role-reversal and have the kids be the network that is seeing the pitch. I got confused when it came to who would be performing the pitch and who would be watching it—and how we could make that all happen within the drama. I thought it would be easier and smoother if they maintain the same roles & somehow decide to not only create a show, but create an entire network for the show to air. Perhaps they could fall into some more money somehow…maybe their pitch is rejected and their next thought is just creating their own work.

Creating the network will give us a chance to look at these media concepts: programming, brand development, audience, advertising. For the final class, we would present our network at the “upfronts”—where the networks talk about their fall line up. We would spend a major portion of that time showing our “pitch” to the audience. Hopefully, this audience could include other teachers and admin from the arts center as well as industry professionals. Then we could follow it with a Q and A and finally, a wrap party.

I feel much better about creating a framework for these twelve lessons now that I have a solid overall structure down. I want to go into the first class with twelve lessons, knowing of course that they will change. But feeling ready and willing to be 100% there for the kids.

This reflecting is still not second nature to me. Usually, when I get an idea in my head, I don’t immediately write it down. I let it sit for awhile. But in my attempt to capture that process, I must force myself to sit down and write. It also helps me crystallize the lessons.

Here’s what I wrote earlier today:

Lesson #1 (already written)=introducing process drama, talk about shows they watch, introduce genre

Lesson #2=vote on genre, what kind of show do we want to create?, practice elements of storytelling

Lesson #3=Develop characters and settings

Lesson #4 Develop relationships and conflicts

Lesson #5 write script and begin pitch rehearsal

Lesson #6 Practice pitch meeting, create storyboards/visuals

Lesson #7 Pitch meeting, bring in feedback

Lesson #8 Create a network idea=kinds of channels, what do they watch, we want a network that can fit our show

Lesson #9 Programming

Lesson #10 Brand, audience, commercials

Lesson #11 Rehearse for “upfront”

Lesson #12 Upfront presentation with pitch, q and a with special guests, wrap party

So, in the next several days, I will work to get more detailed framework—working specifically to keep the process drama moving & a big part of the structure. Always keeping the drama and creativity at the forefront.

Creating the First Lesson

2006-04-08T04:00:00Z

Creating Lesson One

April 8, 2006

I am creating my first process drama lesson today, which is always a bit of a leap. I’ve come up with concepts, but the hard part is finding a way to make it happen through dramatic activity. I decided to start with the development of a television show because I think that will get the kids talking about the shows they watch on television, and we’ll have a better starting off point for future lessons. As I create this lesson, I wonder if having the kids play experts will make any difference in this process? I want to hear their ideas, but I want them to speak as if they were experts—is this clear in my curriculum?

My set up/pretext is a classified ad that the students have responded to. I thought it would be interesting to use a form of media (print media) to begin the process. It also sets up the idea that they want to be here—that they have expertise and ideas to share. I think this role play might also be something that they grow into as they feel more comfortable in the class.

My first activity is a fairly simple sound/movement wheel getting them to name their favorite television show—speaking it and coming up with a movement that somehow represents it. My hunch is that what other people in the group do will be very important to the others, so it won’t necessarily get an “accurate” interpretation of kids’ favorite shows. But I think it will highlight shared experiences within the group. I could ask them to come up with different shows, but I don’t want to start off with an activity that puts additional pressure upon the students.

The second activity begins to investigate genre. I will be bringing in knowledge of various genres—these are all pulled from Kellison’s Producing for TV and Video. Through introducing these and asking students to give me definitions/examples, I can gauge how much knowledge they have of these different categories—and perhaps which ones they are drawn to. I then use an image exercise to perform these genres—the students have an opportunity to dramatize the vocabulary & think about it in “real” terms. I added the part about moving from ‘channel’ to ‘channel’ through images because I think it will highlight the differences/similarities between genres.

The third and final activity involves a discussion reflecting on the day's work. I want to bring it to life--how do you do this with discussion/reflection?

It is strange to put this into words. I am used to lesson plans, but the thought articulated along side them is never there. I think it will provide me with a way of understanding where my process fails to generate a positive experience for the class—and checking myself to make sure I’m not getting lazy with the curriculum development.