5/4/2019
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Roxane Caravan
|
What a great success story, Christa! I had a student very similar who went through my program for 4 years, and by identifying his strengths and weaknesses, he was able to make tremendous social growth throughout his years, and was even able to verbally communicate to me and his peers when he was having soical coping issues, and we had a system in place for him to remove himself from the room/stage and take a breather in order to regain composer. These students are so incredibly gifted, but we as teachers and their peers need to understand and respect their boundaries. Christa Whittaker wrote:
I currently have a student, Trey, who is autistic, but very enthusiastic about theatre. He struggles with a few self control issues and social anxiety, but is very creative. I discovered that he works best alone, and not on a crew, because when I tried to put him in a crew ( thinking that other students could help him get projects done) he froze and would not do anything, but on individual portfolio type projects, he would blow everyone else out of the water and get the highest scores. Trey is in his second year of design and production, and I have given him free reign over prop creation-- he loves the research and the crafting, and he never lets me down. His confidence has soared, and he is even in our Mainstage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream as Philostrate, and he was the first one to be off book. I still have to monitor him to keep him on a timetable, but he has made tremendous progress working in the cast/crew/company and has not had a single panic attack this year. |
5/4/2019
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Roxane Caravan
|
With today's classrooms being 'inclusive' in nature, I find that within all of my theatre class on all levels that there are many students with varying disabilities in each class who require accommodations. This is challenging; however, theatre is a wonderful place to accommodate students with disabilities because theatre teaches acceptance and educates human beings on the differences of humanity, and I believe that this helps both these students as well as their peers to learn to accept and understand one another for who they are, what they are able to do, and what they bring to the table. |
5/4/2019
Topic:
Tools And Strategies
Roxane Caravan
|
Option 1 Response:
My final unit in my Theatre I class is to write and produce a play in a cooperative group setting. This can be an overwhelming and daunting task for any student when presented with the assignment, particularly for students with disabilities. By implementing Task Analysis, which breaks down the complex task into smaller steps or sequences, students are able to see the page to stage process of writing and producing a play in a more manageable way. This enables students with varying disabilities from Autism Spectrum, Emotional/Behavioral, Language, etc. an opportunity to utilize Chaining in order to successfully manage the assignment. Since the students are also working cooperatively, it enables students with varying gifts within a troupe to come together during the course of the assignment by pooling their talent and resources in writing, acting, directing, and all aspects of tech including costume design, lighting, sound, props, set and producing a playbill for their production. Students of all abilities can find an area of interest where they can be a contributing member of their troupe. This all being done in a methodical manner to show how the process of page to stage works and Task Analysis and Chaining pretty much is a textbook approach to this process. |
5/4/2019
Topic:
Tools And Strategies
Roxane Caravan
|
Laurie,
I totally agree with you. A safe space for all students is the key and a cooperative setting, particularly the larger learning environment is much more secure for students with disabilities because they are not in the spotlight. I think this is true of all students as well, particularly today's students who are much more sensitive and worried about being bullied. And the great thing with theatre is that, as you said, once they build that confidence and feel safe in the environment, then they are able to open up and eventually be comfortable in small scenarios. Laurie Reeder wrote:
- Describe how two of the strategies discussed could potentially be implemented in your classroom. Be sure to identify the two strategies by name and describe how they could be used to address a student with a disabilities needs.
Theatre lends itself so completely to both Cooperative Learning and Peer Partnering since acting students are often working on various scenes in class. Peer Partnering would work perfectly when assigning duet scenes whereas Cooperative Learning is the best way to have students work on a group ensemble acting scene. When a student with disabilities works with a peer partner on a duet scene, he/she is not having to worry about performing in front of everyone. He/she can focus on learning the scene and interacting with just one other person. When the duet is performed in front of the entire class, the student with a disability has already built some confidence working with just one other person.
Although Cooperative Learning requires the student with a disability to be in a bigger learning environment, it is still a safe space. Theatre is based on collaboration, and Cooperative Learning used for ensemble acting scenes is all about collaboration.
|
5/4/2019
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Roxane Caravan
|
Option 1:
I feel that utilizing Pre-Assessment overall in the classroom is important since there are numerous students of varying disabilities in all of my Theatre classes. This enables me to identify ahead of time based on the assignment or unit which student(s) in the class that need to be appropriately accommodated as well as placed within varying cooperative groups to assure the best possible success for not only the student(s) with the disability, but also the other students in the cooperative setting. |
5/4/2019
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Roxane Caravan
|
Courtney,
That is wonderful, and I'm sure that the confidence of this student has soared! I had a student going back some years in a similar scenario, and it is remarkable how powerful theatre is for students with speech disorder once they find a safe learning environment and feel comfortable and gain confidence. Courtney Kissling wrote:
I currently have a student with a speech disorder who has a pronounced stutter. When grading his performances, I focus primarily on projection and characterization, and allow any stuttering or repeating of words. He's really come a long way. We've reached a point where I haven't noticed the stutter in a few months. |