Evaluating Lesson Plans
Megan Smith
March 18, 2012
For this lesson plan evaluation, I will be using a lesson plan sample from a website, Teachers Planet, and the plan is found in sections of teaching research for lessons in the theatre arts. The class I will be teaching will be an entry college level course, and the course is Introduction to Drama and Theatre. Students range in their age depend on their academia, however the course can be used as an elective for the arts and is available at entry level through local state colleges. The lesson plan I will be evaluating for this is titled: Relating Film to Real Life, and we will examine the script of Avatar and compare it to the history of the Native American Indians, and connect the history of theater and humanity.
The objective for the course is to engage the comparisons of stories, and to apply the research done on scripts of Avatar and Native American Indians, to help to develop and understand the vision of theater stage actions and set designs. But mostly, the students are required to critically examine how human entitlement played a role in land possession for both stories, the fiction of Avatar, and historical facts of the Native American Indians. .This is what I find very crucial for a lesson plan, and that is to have students research topics both in fact and fiction to gain an understanding of meaning behind arts and theaters and the role they play in history, and to come to terms with what happened in history, and to comprehend in their own words what drove humans to such extremes through history.
The activities for the course include researching at the beginning, but after research we will take the research to a court setting (mock trial), and examine the demands of humans and the moral dilemmas of taking what belongs to other people. I feel that the mock trial will be good for developing arguments that oppose one side or another, but I want to go a step further and require students to each give closing statements. The legal teams will be divided, one legal side for the Native Americans, and one arguing the positions of the Na’vi in the story of Avatar. Each closing argument the students must mold into the times of the characters they are defending and use historical facts to legitimize the arguments. I feel there is an important step missing in the lesson, and after concluding trails, we will examine the emotions behind the different arguments, the act out a monologue from what they learn through trials. The monologues should engage the time and emotion of the stories and convince the audience (the class) why there should be action or why there should be compassion for different situations. This will allow the understandings to go a step deeper, and will allow what they learn from the mock trial to be used in monologues, to help the validity of the territory trespass and the times.
For the assessments, the mock trial with be one part, and the monologue one part, but the final assessment for each student be that they create a set design, using props that fit and support the different positions they have taken, whether for Avatar or for the Native American Indian. The set design is to include a script created for one act of a play, either side of the argument. The score will be based on accuracy and originality, but will require an implementation of the fiction and facts they have researched. The research must be evident through props, characters, and dialogs. The students will create their own scripts with this activity, and will be asked to also connect the emotions with the scripts. All the elements of the activities should mold together with this practice, and by creating scenes and scripts, the students can learn what drove former novelists and playwrights to create stories and plays through the course of history. Methodologies should be discovered and tested, in creating theater settings and motions, and must be validated with the research.
With everything collaborated, the students are required to be creative and adaptable, and to use resources in becoming stronger actors and writers for future generations. Since this course is for the theatre arts, the lesson plan is utilizing what our texts refers to as active teaching, and with this method there is more activity together as a classroom, interactions together as a whole, “Some research suggests that active teaching is associated with enhanced learner achievement (Good & Brophy, 2004). The term active teaching refers to teachers who believe their responsibility is teaching, and they take a direct role in leading the class. This role includes organizing content, motivating students, presenting information, monitoring progress, and assessing student learning. Active teachers accept responsibility for teaching students rather than expecting them to learn from curriculum materials. They demonstrate, explain, monitor progress, and allocate most of the available time to activities related to learning the objectives of the lesson (Good & Brophy, 2004),” (Armstrong, p154).
This type of lesson plan requires complete thoughtfulness from students: creativity, activity, re-enactment, courage, ambition, insights, consideration, history, humanity, empathy, connections, understanding, and consequences. These are lesson strategies that for me will be the most effective in reaching early college students with the passions and purposes of theatre and literature arts. This type of plan demands a variety of exercises and makes it so that students can interact with other students, while interacting with the teachers at the same time. Along with active teaching, it also applies other theories from our texts, such as constructivism and multiple intelligences, and it does so with the variety of tasks, allowing each individual to have an opportunity to feel completely confident in theatrical development, and grow through interactions as a classroom.
Lesson Plan Title: Relating Film to Real Life
Overview and Purpose: Relate the film Avatar to life. Students will work together to find historical parallels between the Na'vi and the American Indians. Student will also study motivation. Why would humans feel entitled to the Na'vi's resources?
Goals:
1. Identify and analyze recurring themes and patterns in a script to make production choices in design and direction.
2. Describe the ways in which American history has been reflected in theater.
3. Students will be able to draw parallels between real life current and historical event and Avatar.
4. Student will be able to debate intelligently about the ethics of the opposing forces in Avatar.
Objectives:
1. Students will create a court like setting and defend an assign stance based on Avatar.
2. Students will use history books and movie quotes to defend the humans or Na'vi.
Resources:
Pictures, History Books, Movie Quotes Sheet
Methods
Introduction:
1. Start a discussion about the movie Avatar.
2. Does this movie remind you of any historical events?
Engagement:
1. As a class we will define the two opposing groups.
2. Students will be divided into 2 groups. One side defending the humans, the other the Na'vi
3. Ms Cynthia and Mr. Pierson will have a mock trial as an example.
Class Practice:
1. Student will have 10 minutes to meet with legal teams and get ready for court.
2. Students will read/review history notes and movie quotes.
Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)
1. Some students will be on the jury and vote on the winning side.
2. Some student will receive quote card with pictures to use as evidence.
Learning Checkup:
Each side must make a closing statement that acknowledges the other side's valid arguments as well and summarizes your team's feeling on the matter.
Wrap Up:
1. Have the students put their donut tickets on their desks.
2. Explain what we have just learned about false entitlement.
3. Tell the students they can take their neighbors' ticket and get their donut on Thursday (No one will stop them).
REFERENCES
Online Teaching Resource: Teachers Planet, Lesson Plan Examples/ http://www.sites4teachers.com/links/redirect.php?url=http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/arts/drama/
Armstrong, D.H. (2009). Teaching Today: An Introduction to Education (8th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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