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As Halloween approaches, why not blend the art of mask making with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? Our students can certainly relate to costume parties, but they may not know anything about masked balls. First, let’s give a brief introduction into the history of mask making.
Students should know that masks existed prior to the Middle Ages. Ancient Greeks and Romans used masks to transform themselves to communicate with forces of nature that they believed were supreme beings. Eventually, the use of masks turned into entertainment purposes used during plays, feasts, festivals, and parades.
Early Christian priests wore masks to dramatize Biblical stories. However, in 1207, the Pope forbid priests to wear masks, so the towns people used them to hold plays outside the churchyards.
Carnival or Mardi Gras adopted the festival and the wearing of masks for the party 40 days before lent. During carnival, wearing elaborate masks became customary, especially at masked balls of the wealthy. Masks allowed for the abolishment of rules and indulging in total excess.
The most well-known mask outside of Europe, is the Japanese Noh Masks. These were worn during musical plays about Buddhist monks. There are at least 125 different types of Noh Masks.
For a look at some of the most intricate masks created today, search for the Carnival of Venice.
While studying Romeo and Juliet, tell the class that they have been invited to the Capulet’s Ball, and a mask is part of the dress code, so they’ll have to make one tonight. And, give a prize as the class decides upon the following awards:
Most original design
Most Colorful
Most unique materials
Most carefully created
Wildest
Funniest
Design that best represents a character in Romeo and Juliet.
Poetry is a genre that seems to get short changed during the elementary years. And, I am not so sure why that is. Maybe, it’s because the essence of poetry analysis is left to secondary teachers? Possibly, younger children are thought not to be adept at poetry analysis in the fourth grade? However, if we think about the early childhood rhymes that most parents impart upon their infants , preschool, and elementary school children, we know that the rhymes and rhythms can become inherit and natural for children to produce on their own, if given the chance.
This poetry lesson is one you might try with a group of fourth grade students. Read aloud to students, Sky Castle, by Sandra Hanken. Students will immediately sense the rhythm in this poetic story, but they may not notice the pattern of 10 and 11 syllabic lines running throughout the entire book. Once you point out this pattern, students will have fun doing some investigative work of their own; to be sure all lines are either 10 or 11 syllables in length. At this point, you can give a brief explanation of pattern in poetry; most students this age would not have been introduced to the concept previously.
Next, allow the class to brainstorm an imaginary “thing” to build. Brainstorm together descriptions of this thing, using generalizations to start. Divide the class up into teams of two or three students, who will work to write one, four line stanza with each line being 10 or 11 syllables in length. Each stanza will represent one of the descriptors the class created. Once they complete this, they may illustrate their page. Illustrations can also be done on a computer in Power point or Word. The final poem will be a class story, similar to Sky Castle.
Shakespeare, often a daunting author to study for any student, can be taught and evaluated in greater depth by using an evaluative process that forces students to dig deeply into the literature from a playwright’s perspective. By doing this, students will gain a stronger appreciation of the text as well as the theatrical components of any Shakespearean play.
The goals of this type of evaluation are as follows:
- Gain a clear understanding of one scene that will be performed
- Visualize set, props and traffic patterns
- Analyze actors’ lines and determine how to read them
- Think about appropriate costumes for each character
- Understand your character
To accomplish goal #1 – Students read through their chosen scene and underline words they are unfamiliar with and paraphrase the lines in their scene. Students should know what happens in their scene , like the main events; they should understand the purpose of the scene, in relation to the entire play, and note what reactions they may have to this particular scene.
To accomplish goal #2 – Students will draw their stage set, after studying theater terms for staging.
To accomplish goal #3 – Students may make copies of their text and paste those pages into a notebook, where notes can be taken on the side. Cuts may be made to the scene that are justifiable. And, students should create notes that include: facial expressions, gestures, movement diagrams, tone of voice, and pauses.
To accomplish goal #4 – A drawing or description of each character’s costumes should be provided with reasons for each choice.
To accomplish goal #5 – The following questions may be considered: What obstacles are in the way of your character? What happens when the obstacles are confronted? What is the character thinking in this scene? What is the goal of this character within this particular scene? What motivation does your character have for his/her actions?
Helping my own children study for most tests in school frustrates me, simply due to the amount of information that is required memorization. When students are asked to spit back data that may or may not be processed correctly for a quiz or test grade, soon to be forgotten days later, is a waste of their time. And, in the eight years my son has attended school, there has been only one teacher , who asked for a self-evaluative grade based upon work completed in a particular unit. I believe, the evaluation process after a unit of study should be comprised of the following:
- Self Evaluation
- Peer Evaluation
- Teacher Evaluation
When a student uses self evaluation, he must rank his performance level based upon predetermined criteria set by the teacher. Each level of competency should be clearly specified with enough detail, allowing a student to clearly understand where he truly ranks.
The peer evaluation should, too, allow for a performance level ranking. In addition, peers may comment on the part of the project/ unit of work that he liked the best. Further, ways in which the project might be raised to the next performance level should be included in the comments section. Additional commentary about a section of the unit that may need more attention should be explained by the review board member.
Lastly, a teacher evaluation should follow the same steps as the peer evaluation. With an added “You have achieved Performance Level# _ on this project.”
Allowing for this kind of evaluation, will enable students to help one another, while honestly examining their own work .
Even adults have difficulty with total, reading comprehension when vocabulary is challenging in literature. And, research tells us that we will not fully comprehend our reading, if we run across words unknown to us. Our mind, then, focuses on the “mystery” word/term, and takes focus away from the remaining literature. For elementary readers through adulthood, I would like to offer a strategy that takes some time to produce, but will offer a more complete understanding of any given reading, where vocabulary is new and challenging.
As students read, have them jot down words/terms that are unknown to them, and have them try to define those words in their own language. Next, ask students to collect true and false examples of those words. Lastly, students should generate questions that will bring a deeper understanding of that term or word. For example:
Step 1 “Double Jeopardy” (Unknown Term)
Step 2 Being brought to court for a crime a second time. (Own definition)
Step 3 Examples True – OJ Simpson was tried twice in court but not for the same crime.
False – OJ Simpson can be tried again for the murder of Nicole Brown.
Step 4 What caused the creation of the Fifth Amendment of the US?
Another way students might work to See the Unseen, is to make an Error List before doing a particular assignment in order to prevent errors from being made. Before the assignment is started, create a list of mistakes one might make. And, place a star next to those you are particularly prone to making. Begin the assignment and don’t think about the list. Before handing in the work, go back over the list paying attention to one error at a time, and fixing those you catch. For example:
Error List
- Fragments, spelling, capitalization
- Writing illegiblely
- *Using a comma in a compound sentence
From an early age, children can practice the art of inductive learning. It’s easy to tailor this learning strategy to any age group, but let’s start with an example from any 6th grade text about Colonial New England in the 1750’s. Have students imagine they are in a time machine, returning to the year 1750 to one of the 13 American colonies. Ask: “What would you expect to see?” Make a list of those items on a piece of notebook paper. Next, provide students with a list of words they would hear spoken by the people of this colonial town. Have students read over the list and imagine the people who would be using these words. For example: apprentice, axe, faith, freeman, oak, pelt, pine, pray, saw, sin, tan, town meeting, trap, whipping, master, leather, journeyman, harvest, cooper, barrel, etc. Now, students should group together any words that seem to have common features. Have them group these words into circles, filling at least five circles with words. Then, in groups, have students decide what each group has in common. Use this common characteristic as a label for each group. Now, based upon groupings, what statement can students make that might be true about life during the colonial period? Look at each of the grouped words and have students think of three statements( hypotheses) about this time period. As students read the text, ask them to refute or support their hypotheses each time they come across evidence that would do so. They can write a page number and key word next to each supporting piece of evidence.
My nearly, nine year-old daughter would recognize Jim Dale’s voice in an instant; after all, she has listened to the Harry Potter audio books more times than I can figure. But, her listening adventures didn’t start with Harry Potter; they actually began when she was four-years-old, as an eager listener to any one reading aloud. Children naturally like to hear stories read to them, and as parents, many of us do just that. Yet, life moves along, gets more hectic, and often we stop reading aloud to our children when they are old enough to read to themselves. My advice: keep audio books in the house, the car, and on vacation at all times! And, never stop reading aloud to your children.
Both of our children have listened to audio books since the age of four; our twelve-year-old continues to do so. The younger child will draw and listen as a time to relax and find peace in her world. Our older son listens to audio books while he is falling asleep at night. Simply, put a CD player in your children’s rooms from an early age and get in the habit of searching for books of interest through Amazon or your library’s website. When you visit a book store, write down titles. Read book reviews. Compile lists of audio book titles to order through your local library system. The benefits to doing this are children who possess strong, above grade-level vocabulary and comprehension skills. It’s that easy
There are many memorable moments in a lifetime. One that has stayed with me over my thirty-five year education career happened back in the 1970’s. I was teaching on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
I was teaching first grade and had a few books in the room on a bookshelf. Some I’d brought with me from my home in western New York. We had phonics books, but it was difficult to identify initial sounds when we couldn’t identify a picture. There aren’t many lighthouses in South Dakota, for example! But we worked hard and I was so proud of the student’s progress. I will never forget the day in late March when Shane, who had asked to go look at a book while others finished their assignment., shouted out, “Miss Jeanne! Miss Jeanne! I can read! I can read!”
It is so important to share books and the love of reading. Read to your children. Read to your students. We’re never too old to enjoy a good book!
As a teacher, having a myriad of teaching strategies to get students fired up about reading is essential. In order to achieve a goal or objective , teaching strategies lay out a set of procedures for students and teachers to follow. The following strategy called CREATE will also enhance writing, sharing, and oral communication.
Using Big Universe’s book entitled India by Lisa Zamosky, teachers can help 6th grade students comprehend the text with ease.
Step One: Compare and Contrast. List similarities and differences among the early invaders of India. What are significant similarities or differences? Which two are the most significant?
Step Two: Relate Personally. What are your feelings about the invasions leading to the creation of Buddhism? How would you feel if a similar occurrence happened in the United States?
Step Three: Evaluate. Of the three Empires discussed in the book, which do you believe to have had the most impact on India? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each Empire?
Step Four: Associate. What words come to mind when you hear “British Rule”? What do you think of when you recall the British Rule of our early settlers in America?
Step Five: Trace or Sequence. Trace the development of India as a country. Sequence the events leading up to its independence.
Step Six: Enumerate. List the causes of India’s revolt against British Rule. List the facts regarding India’s independence.
Try this reading activity with your students. I used it when teaching sixth grade. Select book titles that will be appropriate for your level.
Have students in groups of 4. Use one of Spencer Kagan’s Cooperative Learning
suggestions to group students.
Number group members 1 to 4.
Place one book in each group, approximately 8 books needed for class of 32. Use laptops
and use picture books from BigUniverse.com.
Students will read one page and pass the book, starting with person #1.
Show illustrations. Be conscious of story line. Shoulder pair assist in
oral reading. Teacher circulates to be certain students are following
directions and are on task.
After story is read, students are to complete recording sheet. Use record
sheet at end of read time. Record sheet should be designed to have students
recall the literary elements; title, author, characters, main idea, and so
forth.
RoundTable should be used for recording information so all students writing
is represented. In RoundTable, students record information and pass the paper around until all have added to the record sheet. If time available, have students discuss another ending for
the story, or add another character or draw a picture to go with the story.
Rotate the book to a new group and repeat activity up to 8 rotations.
Students should be asked to explain how the illustrations added to the book.
Cooperative Learning is successful when resources are shared and all contribute to an end product. When time is up, all will have read 8 books and you will have 8 papers to check. Having students sign their names by their individual entries or using different colored pencils helps in identifying the individual’s work.
