LASW at ASAP Spring Workshop – May 11, 2009
Marcy Team work –
important thing to remember before we start—what did we see manifest in the work? what could
be next steps for the team as they take the work forward?
Describe: What did we notice about the performance and work we saw?
▪ we were in a formalized performance space
▪ Maria and students chanted “ take a seat take a seat take a load off your feet”
▪ teaching artist communicating with students using active participation
▪ students using loud and quiet voices counting to 10
▪ students solved problems – they came up with ways to try something another way
▪ students engaged—all were focused on the main action on stage
▪ ownership—students made the props and students answering to Maria’s questions about
problems to solve
▪ a “V” taped on stage that students used
▪ teaching artist used student names in communicating with them
▪ student guitar player to accompany the rat song
▪ teaching artist talked to students about what to expect on stage at CTC about props, stage
size, location of helpers, etc
▪ Maria presented a problem to students as question of how will you solve this?
▪ Maria asked students who were present for run-thru from last week to report on what
happened last Friday and things to remember for this run-thru
▪ Maria gave feedback to students and asked them for their experience
▪ Maria confirmed positively what the students noticed about their own performance and
said “I had that on my list too”
▪ one of the students used theater directions in his response/question
▪ student offered to bring a smoke machine tonight and Maria said: “I will not say no”
▪ a student commented on a problem to be solved that she was not directly involved in
▪ Maria deferred the problem of falling city hall with a prop expert
▪ students solved problem of falling city hall on their feet (with the mayor’s hat, their
bodies)
▪ performance ended with big moral guiding questions
▪ students seemed mature: participation high, they showed investment—coming up with
problem-solving strategies; active listening
▪ second time thru rat song—Maria probed the students until the problem emerged--students were not sure who was supposed to start (voice or guitar?). She got them to
articulate the crux of the problem
▪ students’ second performance showed the changes
▪ at end of run-through Maria gave a closing statement to students
▪ when they needed to rewind a scene Maira made “rewinding” sounds (playful)
Questions—clarifying and otherwise:
▪ genre? did it start as fairy tale and end up as a fable?
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was there a similar theme among all the classroom performances? is there a big picture?
did the students help in the writing of play?
why the Pied Piper of Hamlin and a trumpet was used?
were the questions at end student-generated?
do students have answers to those questions? have they discussed already?
who are these students? socio-economic? how much parent involvement?
how long has this project been going on? schedule of rehearsal?
is this their first time with Bridges program? do they other theater experience?
wondering about the first batch of rat-catchers and did they get employed by city?
why was the coin worth $20 say 75 and could they cover with tape?
why were there multiple coins in safe that = $1000 but the one coin = $1000
why did the amounts change? from first run-through the amount was $5000 and then it
was $1000
were they doing consistent math throughout?
in what ways did this piece connect to other parts of the curriculum?
could they improvise their lines?
did they work independently to make props? and did they give each other suggestions
about costumes?
do they have 5th graders with disabilities and where were they?
Maria talked about props being recycled and teacher used “trash” and was that
intentional? did it connect to something they were trying to have kids think about?
was there a science connection?
is performing at CTC part of Neighborhood Bridges program?
did students, teacher, teaching artist all have equal sense of ownership over the process?
does the teacher feel like she is a better teacher going through this process and in what
ways?
does Maria work with the same students over 3 years of ASAP? or with the teachers all 3
years?
demographics?
was there any background of the Pied Piper of Hamlin story? did the students dig into the
context for that fairy tale?
how do you get into that part with students?
what would be happening contextually in our modern times with children that might tie
into the historical context of that story?
Speculation: what do we think they wanted the students to learn through this project? what were
their learning goals?
▪ connected to environmental learning—each of us has a personal responsibility to the trash
problem
▪ multiple perspectives on the same situation
▪ when is it okay to lie? a character education goal
▪ the whole process of creating, revising, rehearsing, performing—wanting kids to learn
what it takes
▪ this was an opportunity for students to learn collaborative problem solving
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teachers wanted the students to ask deeper questions of a fairy tale
learning is about improvisation
learning is about working as an ensemble
students to create and perform original work based on a recognizable story—develop
their own voice
have students be an active part of the content generation and performance and have
ownership over the process and project
one of the goals was about citizenship and what it means to be active about questioning
authority and what it means to participate
open-ended storytelling is another way to perform and tell a story (raising questions
instead of answering them)
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Liddy and Steve respond with what they know:
▪ Neighborhood Bridges (a 31 week-long program) has a long history with Marcy. Maria
has been involved with this project for at least the three ASAP years. Teachers learn and
take charge of the teaching every other week. Marcy students have a partner school with
whom they will perform tonight. And they have a chance to respond to their partner’s
performance tonight. These were 5 & 6 graders so some students are repeating. And
every week the CTC teaching artists and teachers meet for an hour of planning/reflection.
▪ they had a lot of parent help and a visual artist help with props but students do most of
the work.
▪ not all the classrooms have the same theme—each class chooses the theme and the kids
write them. They all adapt a fairy tale and transform them to varying degrees.
teams’ stated goals from November meeting:
▪ multiple perspectives, stepping into another’s shoes
▪ those that control the narrative control the power
▪ narrative can be questioned and transformed and questioning the author (tied to MPS
literacy initiative)
▪ deeper understanding makes me a better citizen
▪ big idea: students understand that the author’s voice is one of many
Steve’s notes from this morning:
▪ multiple perspectives: how does the text position itself in terms of who is telling the
story? is it clear? within the text can you see that multiple perspectives are there?
▪ from teacher: did the students know why and who is telling the story and how is that
evidenced in the story?
▪ how to set up a story in big blocks of action and ideas rather than scripting it out point by
point.
▪ students brainstormed everything—elements of plot and then what it takes to perform
these ideas
▪ do we think that telling the story is clear about the multiple perspectives?
open discussion:
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how does ASAP fit into the longstanding relationship that Marcy has with CTC? what
impact does ASAP have on this program with its coaches, protocols, etc. What does it
mean for two organizations (Perpich and CTC) to collaborate and deliver student
learning? What will carry over once the ASAP portion is over? At our school we came in
with different projects and we had no real set history so it is different.
the above question is what Barbara hopes to gather information about from each team.
People enter with different levels of experience and have some desire to deepen an
existing collaboration—how do you do that with the tools and processes of ASAP?
how does MPS support the work at the school level and work with ASAP program? is
there a district goal for that grade level that ties into the team’s work?
what impact does ASAP have on student learning?
how does one gather useful information about individual student learning when it is a
collaborative project? what are all the ways that students can show what they know?
final debrief at end of workshop
ASAP has questions that it needs to gather in order to move forward. Such as those listed below.
Coaches and Barbara will be in touch about gathering that feedback from you.
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what did you come into this ASAP program thinking you would be doing? and what do
you understand now?
What would you want a new team to know and understand up front?
what has really worked and made a difference for you and for your students in ASAP?
what questions or gaps remain?
if you wanted to continue this work next year without ASAP funding, how could we help
you do that with the final report PowerPoint presentation, for instance?
what kind of technological help might support the work? (wikis, online documentation,
ppt.)
what would you do together? what can you envision planning and implementing?
what does a good peer coach do from your perspective?
how does the work of ASAP and its structure around intentional planning and reflection
fit into larger school or district curriculum initiatives—like content, mapping, and even
pacing guidelines?