Case Studies
One of the joys of being a Cluster Teacher in the E76 Street community means I have the opportunity to work with many classes and nearly every student that spends their time with us. Below, I've focused on three specific students I've worked with and demonstrated how my work as a theater cluster has successfully benefitted their TSG data in supporting their upwards trajectory over a certain period of time.
Paige
Working with Paige was a joyful experience. A natural storyteller, Paige was an energetic personality who lifted every room with her positivity and humor the moment she walked in. However, Paige would frequently get sidetracked while telling a story and making connections between the beginning, middle and end. She would focus on her specific understanding of things and struggled to engage in sociodramatic play that wasn't on her own terms. After discussing her TSG data with her SEIT and classroom teacher, we noticed Paige could use some support. And since Paige loved coming to theater class so much, I focused on a few standards when we spent time together.
In order to help Paige with her symbolic thinking and flexibility/inventiveness in thinking, and sociodramatic play, I encouraged Paige to participate in our Story Whooshes (group circle time where volunteers recall and act out a familiar story, in pieces.) At first, Paige was more interested in taking stories in her own direction. But after some gentle redirection and positive reinforcement, Paige quickly became a star among her peers.
Paige starring in a Story Whoosh.
Paige testing her puppet in the theater, deeming it "too big."
The answer— yes! Paige led her classmates in designing a tiny theater using a cardboard box. Students took turns kneeling on the ground and using their stick puppets to perform inside the tiny box. The show was a rousing success, and Paige was proud of her work (as were we)!
A few months later, Paige showed great inventiveness in thinking and proposed the idea of making a "tiny theater." With the help of her classmates, we took the idea and ran! Paige and her classmates worked diligently to create their own stick puppets to represent characters in The Three Little Pigs (during the Buildings Unit). They tested their puppets in the theater but Paige, sticking to her idea, deemed the stage to be "not tiny enough." So we went back to the drawing board — could we make a real, tiny theater?
Paige and her classmate successfully performing in the Tiny Theater.
Valeria
Valeria is the youngest of three siblings, the age gap between the second youngest and her being around 14 years. Needless to say, Valeria is the "baby" of her family! An adorable, bubbly child, Valeria, an ELL student, brought endless warmth to every room she occupied. Her classroom teachers and I noticed early on, however, that she struggled to communicate with both her peers and teachers. She repeated familiar words frequently and out of context and struggled to verbally recall recent events when prompted. As we approached the fall checkpoint it felt that oftentimes, even with prompting, Valeria looked for the others in the conversation to communicate for her and/or fill in vocabulary. As a theater teacher, I felt that I could help strengthen these checkpoints!
Each time Valeria had the opportunity to make a new puppet, she took on the challenge. Each time she made a puppet, I'd follow up with questions on the details of her creation, and we'd begin a back-and-forth dialogue. By the Spring Checkpoint, Valeria didn't need prompting— she'd already invented a backstory and eagerly approached me to explain it all.
Valeria makes a butterfly shadow puppet with her hands.
My breakthrough with Valeria came after reading Leonardo and the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems. Students were then asked to created their own "terrible monster," and Valeria was eager to create her own. But when it came time to present the monster in front of the group, Valeria at first didn't want to speak much. After some encouragement, she opened up, adding one, original, specific detail about her puppet— it was named "Blueberry." The class responded excitedly to this information, and Valeria began to open up. She was so proud, she started to offer new information. I thought it'd be interesting to turn the moment into a small "Q and A," where students were allowed to pepper Valeria with questions about Blueberry. Valeria rose to the challenge, vocalizing unique responses to each question. So began Valeria's love for puppet-making in theater!
Valeria crafts a stick puppet from loose parts.
Sebastian
Sebastian embodied optimism and excitement! Though Sebastian came to school with little prior socialization, he was very eager to connect with his classmates and participate in activities. However, Sebastian's struggles with speech made it difficult for him to successfully communicate with his peers and teachers. After checking in with his classroom teachers, we compared our notes and agreed on several checkpoints Sebastian was struggling with. As I saw Seb for theater several times a week, it was important to me to see him thrive through engaging with the content. After the Fall checkpoint, I focused on Sebastians ability to follow directions, attend and engage, and follow limits and expectations.
Sebastian pretending his "Not A Box'" is a racecar.
As Sebastian's class and I continued to work on long-form group projects, I pushed Sebastian to separate from the peers that enabled him by encouraging his individual sense of creativity and independence. Sebastian responded well to positive reinforcement and felt supported by helpful reminders. Using Sebastian as a demo for the beginning of a project proved useful too, as it enabled him as a sort of leader. By the Spring checkpoint, following directions was no longer a worry; in fact, Sebastian was often one of the first friends to volunteer to try something new in theater. He was especially instrumental in creating our class shadow puppet movie "Hello, Dude!" which you can learn more about and view for yourself on my "Movie Making" page :).
As we rounded the Fall checkpoint, Sebastian struggled with being a "follower." In order to blend in, Seb would play along with his classmates to appear like he was following the directions rather than truly understanding them. When he was asked to further his thinking, he froze. When the energy of the room escalated, he struggled to control himself and bring his energy down.
During our Not A Box Lesson (which you can read more about under my "Sample Lessons" tab :) ), Sebastian first chose not to participate. After some encouragement and demos, he tried, choosing to copy a peer. I worked with Sebastian further, encouraging him to think more about the shape of the box, giving him the book Not A Box to flip through for inspiration in the hopes of encouraging an original idea. Finally Sebastian volunteered a second time, this time acting out a "racecar." He was so proud when his friends were able to correctly guess what he was pretending to do! He showed a tremendous display of patience, commitment, attentiveness and understanding.
Sebastian using his shadow puppet.