TheaterReaders Background

Students will grow in their abilities to:

● Understand the power of words and images to transform lives and provide insight into the experiences of others and understanding of cultures and historical periods.

● Read and comprehend a range of increasingly complex texts and media written for various audiences and purposes.

● Generate open-ended questions and seek answers through critical analysis of text, media, interviews, and/or observations.

● Communicate ideas effectively in writing to suit a particular audience and purpose.

● Communicate ideas effectively in discourse and oral presentations to suit various audiences and purposes.

● Begin to self-identify as readers and writers.

In addition to overall program goals, skills will develop in the following areas:

● 3.RL.1 -- Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

● 3.RL.2 -- Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures (dependent on which sources are selected for each subsequent unit); determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

● 3.RI.2 -- Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

● 3.RL.10 -- By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

● 3.RL.3 -- Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

● 3.SL.1 -- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

● 3.RI.6 -- Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.

● 3.W.3 -- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

In terms of identifying as writers, students will gain skills in:

• Writing a real or imagined experience in a narrative. (3.W.3-Creating)

• Writing a narrative in response to something they have read. (3.W.3-Creating)

• Organizing their writing appropriately for task, purpose, and audience. (3.W.4-Analyzing) • Using dialogue and description to develop characters and events. (3.W.3-Creating)

Drama Studio’s Introduction requires a new way of thinking about words, self, and other students, including a new way of working with focus, awareness, and productive control of our “actor’s tools” (body, voice, emotion, experience, space, connections with others). It provides an orientation to the responsibility and the power of bringing words and characters to life. It creates an excited, eager self-identification as a writer.

In this introductory / ELA specific focus content program, we will be working with source texts provided by or requested by the teachers in this introductory unit. Duration of this unit will be evaluated by progress of students, and how it is supporting greater classroom work.

Essential​ ​Questions:

What makes a TheaterReader?

How is good theatre a form of good reading?

What do you and stories have to make the words come to life? To get the picture in the audience’s head? Whether they want it to or not? What are the Actor’s / Reader’s tools?

Structure:

Using content improv and forms below, each session will contain:

A. Introduction: discussion and setting of goals and questions

B. Warm Up: awareness of and development of skills in essential tools of a TheaterReader

C. Content: application of theatre forms and writing techniques, with the integration of source text. The fluidity between improv and text-based source will develop fluency with both forms (text reading and on-your-feet-bring-words-to-life), and develop the understanding that TheaterReaders see, hear, feel, taste, embody good writing on-page and stage.

ELA and Stem Curriculum Specific Residencies: TheaterReaders core offering is a unique collaboration with the teachers and staff of the partner school to work directly with their ELA and Stem curriculum, to directly support specific classroom units, reading sources and learning goals.

Additionally, TheaterReaders offers these specific units for schools to select:

Unit​ ​One:​ ​Introduction​ ​to​ ​TheaterReaders​ ​Approach​ ​and​ ​Practices

Unit​ ​2:​ ​Descriptive​ ​Writing​ ​/​ ​Details​ ​to​ ​life

Unit​ ​3:​ ​Poetry/Mythology

Unit​ ​4:​ ​Personal​ ​Narrative​ ​Writing:​ ​Inside​ ​Out

Unit​ ​5:​ ​Aesops​ ​Fables

Unit​ ​6:​ ​Page​ ​to​ ​Stage