Sharla Arnold Ed Psych

Is it just me, or does every learning theory fit into theatre in some way?  Well, all of the good ones anyway.  This seems to be true for Modern Constructivism as well.  It is a big beautiful burrito of all of the intrinsically motivated, identity development centered, learning theories out there.    There is one case where this is usually done in theatre unintentionally!  When a person is in a play for the first time they have to understand stage directions.  Stage directions refers to the areas of the stage that an actor is directed to be or move to during a scene.  In the Secondary Theatre class for 7-8 graders I have been observing the teacher asked the class if they had ever been taught stage direction.  The majority of the class said no.  She then asked if the class understood the terms of stage directed such as "up center", most said yes.  The reason for this is that frequently a new actor will be told where to go on the st...

Lesson Reflection Stage Combat Secondary Theatre Grades 7-8 I feel my lesson was 100% on target for helping my students meet the objective of demonstrating safe stage combat.  Although direct instruction can be a less effective way to teach, in this lesson it was necessary to insure the safety of the students while we practiced the fight moves.   Growth mindset is so important in theatre because so many students come into class with a fixed mindset! They already have ideas of how well they believe they can sing or dance or act. Additionally, assessments tend to be public, so when a student doesn't master a skill the class can see it. For this reason I believe it is my job as a theatre teacher to teach growth mindset regularly and help students apply it to every aspect of their lives. In my lesson on stage combat the growth mindset was reinforced by warmly encouraging all students to participate and giving positive feedback when a strike went particularly well. Also, ...