Playing Roles for a Real Education

Octo­ber 8, 2008

By CHRISTINA SHUNNARAH

This past week­end my col­leagues and I gave a pre­sen­ta­tion at the Per­form­ing the World con­fer­ence in Man­hat­tan, which brought together edu­ca­tors, artists, ther­a­pists, schol­ars and activists from dozens of coun­tries who are inter­ested in using per­for­mance and drama in a vari­ety of ways. Our pre­sen­ta­tion was on the role of the arts and per­for­mance at our school and how it com­ple­ments and expands the Inter­na­tional Bac­calau­re­ate Pri­mary Years Pro­gramme (IBPYP), an enriched cur­ricu­lum that we have been using in our classrooms.

The IBPYP model is based on inquiry, par­tic­i­pa­tion in the process of learn­ing, and explo­ration. It is learner-driven, not-teacher dom­i­nated. Teach­ers act as facil­i­ta­tors in the learn­ing process and children’s ques­tions and inter­ests are at the cen­ter of the class­room. The pro­gram orig­i­nates with the Inter­na­tional Bac­calau­re­ate Orga­ni­za­tion, founded in 1968 and based in Geneva, Switzer­land. Thou­sands of schools around the world have adopted IB frameworks.??For the chil­dren at our school, some of whom face dif­fi­cult issues at home — poverty, iso­la­tion, domes­tic vio­lence, trauma and stress, to name a few — learn­ing that empha­sizes per­for­mance, inquiry, and artis­tic explo­ration is vital. That is why on any given day at I.C.S., you will see a mul­ti­tude of cre­ative projects going on: sto­ry­telling, pup­petry, drama, dance, music, move­ment, role-playing, book clubs, chess, paint­ing, cook­ing, yoga, writ­ing, gar­den­ing, and active inquiries all around. In the cur­rent national cli­mate of test­ing, we have to make time for cre­ative expres­sion. It is urgent. Chil­dren need some con­struc­tive form of release.

In our class­rooms, inquiry comes alive through per­for­mance. This week in our kinder­garten we are start­ing a unit called “We are Peace­mak­ers.” In this unit, the chil­dren learn about shar­ing, coop­er­a­tion, con­flict res­o­lu­tion, express­ing feel­ings, and build­ing com­mu­nity. We start the unit by ask­ing the chil­dren what they know about peace and being a peace­maker. We then use their ques­tions and inter­ests to guide the inquiry process.

Dur­ing this unit, activ­i­ties are designed to be both phys­i­cally and men­tally engag­ing. The arts and per­for­mance are per­fect tools for explo­ration. Chil­dren learn about solv­ing prob­lems and resolv­ing con­flict by role-playing sit­u­a­tions, par­tic­i­pat­ing in sto­ry­telling or using pup­pets to express emo­tions. They explore these con­cepts in a safe set­ting so they are free to try out new roles and ideas. This is open-ended; there is no one-size-fits-all in devel­op­ing a peace­ful class­room com­mu­nity. There is obser­va­tion by teach­ers, but no test­ing. There are no “right” answers; the activ­i­ties are more about explor­ing who we are as a group, get­ting along with each other, and doing what we need to do together to improve. The chil­dren take charge through their inter­ests and ideas. Children’s lit­er­a­ture, poetry, and songs are incor­po­rated through­out to guide the inquiry.

In our peace­mak­ing unit, some exam­ples of activ­i­ties that involve per­for­mance are adapted from cur­ricu­lum designed by the orga­ni­za­tion Edu­ca­tors for Social Respon­si­bil­ity. We might start with a sim­ple ques­tion like, “What is con­flict?” This will gen­er­ate a dis­cus­sion that can go in var­i­ous direc­tions. From the stu­dents’ inter­ests and com­ments, activ­i­ties are designed to explore how to resolve con­flict. We will role play sit­u­a­tions and try to come up with solu­tions together. We will use pup­pets, music, song, and dance to explore our emo­tions. We will also play a series of games designed to build friend­ships and develop com­mu­nity. Role-playing has many ben­e­fits. The chil­dren are able to take a step out­side them­selves and explore pos­si­bil­i­ties they might not have ever considered.

Games and play are impor­tant tools as well. An exam­ple of a sim­ple activ­ity that we do is called “mir­ror­ing.” Each stu­dent has a part­ner. As they face each other, one of the part­ners has to copy the move­ments of the other. By mir­ror­ing each other, the stu­dents learn to be atten­tive and obser­vant of their part­ners. Another one I like to use is called Changes 1,2,3,4. The stu­dents pair up again. They have to take a good look at their part­ners and then turn around. One stu­dent in the pair has to do some­thing to change their appear­ance — pull up their socks, take off their glasses or switch a bracelet to the other hand. When they turn back around, the other stu­dent has to fig­ure out what has changed. This helps the chil­dren develop obser­va­tion skills.

Chil­dren express their cre­ativ­ity and intel­li­gence in a vari­ety of ways. By allow­ing stu­dents to safely explore beyond their typ­i­cal bound­aries, we are encour­ag­ing them to express them­selves in unique ways in a pos­i­tive, safe, non-judgmental envi­ron­ment. Per­for­mance and open-ended inquiry help us move beyond tra­di­tional mod­els of edu­ca­tion. The arts, per­for­mance, and inquiry are small steps we take to help our stu­dents regain own­er­ship of their learning.

I will be pub­lish­ing future education-related posts on my per­sonal blog.