UNO, Dos, Tres Amigoscapeweb.sicreative.com/research_action/uploads/PDF/58.pdf · 2006-12-12 ·...

UNO, Dos, Tres AmigosAgassiz School

Teacher: Dave Rench

Teaching Artist: Jacqui Russell, Chicago Children’s Theatre

CAPE Website Curriculum Development

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This year students added 6 new emotions to

their emotional alphabet:

Ashamed Frightened FrustratedJubilant Miserable Vengeful

Some students then wrote stories using the

emotion being studied. These stories

became our skeleton for the play we

performed.

The unit culminated with the students

performing an original play at an all school

assembly. The play highlighted the

emotions that were studied as part of the

CAPE unit and, more importantly, the

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Through drama, literature and writing

this unit explores the ability of students

with autism to better express their

emotions both on the stage and in their

everyday life. To do so students used

illustrated stories, movies, songs and

peer & teacher models.

Last year, students studied 12 emotions as

we built an emotions alphabet:

Angry Bashful ConfusedExcited Friendly GoofyHappy Impatient Pouty Sad Teasing Worried

I.D

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Student Demographics of Agassiz Elementary

School

Caucasian 20%

Hispanic 40%African American 35%Other 5%

One student models Frustrated for his younger peer. Agassiz Elementary School Mission StatementThe mission at Agassiz is to develop a unified approach to

academic excellence through professional development and

community involvement while utilizing uniform and proven

teaching strategies and integrating fine arts and technology

across the curriculum.

Agassiz School is a public school committed to fineand performing arts as essential methods for engagingstudents from diverse neighborhoods. Agassiz hasenjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationshipwith CAPE. Through this ongoing partnership,Agassiz students continue to uncover new andunexpected layers of creative talent and opportunitiesto demonstrate their vast capabilities. Each partnershipenriches the entire school community. Agassiz Schoolof the Fine and Performing Arts has been a CAPEschool since 1993.

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STANDARDS TOOLSRESOURCESPROCESSINQUIRYI.D.

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INQUIRY

Teachers’ Inquiry Questions:Can children with autism learn newvocabulary that will introduce them tomore complex emotions?

Artist’s Inquiry Question:Can the students then learn todisplay/recognize these emotions bycreating an emotional alphabet?

Going PublicThis year the teachers, artists and CAPE developed new strands based on commonalities between inquiryquestions and units of study. The strand became a part of what was titled “Going Public”. The title meantsomething different to each group involved.Going public meant three things to us.First, it meant sharing our portraits with the school as we hung an interactive bulletin board that asked others tomatch the feeling word with the portrait it represented.Second, it meant that the students would be sharing their short stories with the public by performing them on stageas part of an all-school assembly.Thirdly, student’s coached some general education students as they posed for photos to represent 18 differentemotions. The photos were used in a slide show during the all-school assembly.

Photos from our emotional alphabet


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STANDARDS TOOLSRESOURCESPROCESSINQUIRYI.D. PROCESS

The ArtistJacqui Russell of the Chicago Children’s Theatre hasbeen working with the autism program at Agassiz for thepast 8 years. Although she has worked with severaldifferent teachers over the years, many of the studentshave been working with her since the beginning, in factthree of her first students graduated this year.

Our FocusEach year we plan our unit by looking at our past year’sassembly performance and looking to see how we canfurther challenge our students. While our students are atdifferent levels academically, emotionally andtheatrically we have expectations for them to build uponthe gains they made in the previous yearThis year we wanted to challenge our students in twoways. Our expectation on the stage was to match theirfacial and body expression to the lines they werereading. In the classroom their challenge was to learnthe definition of and subtleties that accompany morecomplex emotions. Upon learning the emotions thestudents were asked to write about them in their journals. Mrs Russell advices a student actor during a dress rehearsal.


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Process:

Our unit began in October and ended June14th. We started by revisiting theemotions from last year’s emotionalalphabet. We began incorporating newemotion vocabulary through children’sliterature, acting and games. One of thegames, “Yes It Is!” was retooled this yearto challenge those student’s who are moreadvanced. The game involves imaging thatan ordinary object, like a cork or a plasticbag, is something different, like a spaceship or fishing net. This year studentswere asked to verbalize what someone whouses the object might say. After just afew sessions we got great responses.

Students using an “L” shaped wood block said:

“It’s a golf club – Fore!”“An elevator – What floor do you want?”“It’s a sword – We attack at dawn!”“It’s a spinning wheel – You win $10,000.”

Student using a plastic cassette case during “Yes It Is!”

“It’s a camera”

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PROCESS

As we learned new emotions weplayed a game where students wereasked to blindly select one emotioncard and one object card. Studentswere then asked to create a verbalexpression using the two.

Student responses: “I’m frustrated with this map. Ican’t find the Rainforest Cafe.”

“I feel miserable, I forgot to waterthe flowers and now they’redroopy”

As student’s became more familiar with this activity we usedan object and had them act out their response.

“I’m jubilant because I just finished cleaning the toilet and it’s spotless.”

“I’m so ashamed, I clogged the toilet and it’s all my fault:”


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Every time a new emotion was introduced, weused a book and games to help studentsunderstand the subtleties of the emotion. Oncethey had a more solid idea of what the emotionentailed they were given a story starter and askedto write a very brief story about that emotion.The spiral notebooks they wrote in became their“Emotional Journals”

As the unit progressed, the story starters werereplaced by simple instructions to write aboutemotions similar to the story we just read. Thewriting from the students at this point was verysimplistic so Jacqui suggested giving them a listof random objects to try to include in their story.Almost instantly their stories became moreinteresting and imaginative for the reader andmore exciting to write for the students. Thesestories would become the backbone for our scriptUno, Dos, Tres Amigos. The actors had becomeplaywrites.

Initial story starters:The most frightened I’ve ever been was…One time I was so frightened that…The other night I was really frightened because…What frightens me is…

One time I was frightened about a ghost chasingme around. I was in the living room watching T.V.

and then a ghost started chasing me all around theliving room. I ran outside the house. And then theghost was stuck in the house but my mom was in

the house. My mom told the ghost to stay in thehouse. Then I ran outside. The end

Story generated by student back in October using theabove story starter.


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Original story starter (above) used by a student to generate a story(below) in our play

One April there was a lady named Mrs. Angelica McPoodlesand she had a pet poodle named Cinderella. They were

walking in a park but the clouds in the sky were gettingtogether and starting a thunderstorm. Then Mrs. McPoodlesgot worried about her precious pet. So, they ran to their

house and then ran to their basement till the thunderstormwas over. Thunder and lightning crashed the mall, the

stores and the salon. Also tornadoes swirled around thehouses. The thunderstorm drifted away. Everything is backto normal. Finally Ms. McPoodles is happy and so is her pet.

So they walked to the park again and they played. I.R.

Mid-year story starters:Use your journal to right a story about beingconfused. It can be about yourself or it could beabout your friend, one of your teachers, your parent,your family members, or anyone you would like.

Try to include 2 of the following items in your story:a fur coat a shovel magnifying glassrain boots bee chocolate cakeGrapes flag chewing gumSnake purse paper airplane

I was confused about the purse and grapes. I putthe wrong backpack in the closet. I put the grapes in

the purse. The next day my Mom grabbed her purseand she went to the store. She bought food for herfamily. She reached in her purse and she ate 3

grapes. The cashier said “Huh? She’s eating grapesin her purse?” My Mom walked away and she said

“The grapes are from home.”A.K.

A story generated from the above story starter. This storywas acted out as part of our play.

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Older students were asked to be models for theyounger students when learning a new emotion.

The photos show students mirroring theirpeer’s facial expression and body language.

Photos were taken of both groups of students and used in ourslide show at the end of our performance with the accompany

song “Hooked on a Feeling.”Our students became the teachers.

Students from our class tutored general education studentsabout what words like ‘jubilant’ mean and how to express it.


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STANDARDS TOOLSREFLECTPROCESSINQUIRYI.D. RESOURCES

We used several books throughout this unit to study

the body language and facial expressions of the

illustrated characters.

Today I Feel Silly

Jamie Lee Curtis

William’s Doll

Charlotte Zolotow

The Lucky Old Woman

Robin Muller

The Happy Day

Ruth Krauss

A Fine, Fine School

Sharon Creech

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother

Patricia Polacco

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

William Steig

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse/Sheila Rae the Brave/Owen

Student’s used www. do2learn.com to practice interpretingothers emotions and changing the features of a animated face

to create emotions.


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Ashamed Vengeful

We used their own photos to help our students appropriatelymodel each emotion.

Students were given a pre-test prior to studyinga new emotion and the same test again after

studying the emotion for several weeks.


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The photos were hung on our drama room wallso they could be easily referenced during our

time with Mrs. Russell.

Towards the end of our unit the photos were moved outto the hallway. The bulletin board became an

interactive activity that asked all students in the schoolto “Try and match the emotion to the photo.”

“That bulletin board really helped my students learnwhat those words like ‘jubilant’ meant. Whenever wewere waiting for the bathroom they were always tryingto match them”--Third grade teacher


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Our “Going Public” strand includedan assessment tool which each artistand teacher used during their unit. Wesimplified the assessment and used it to evaluate howwell students were able to express each emotion.

The following rating scale was placed on the wallnext to our emotional alphabet.1.Did the actor use good voice tone? (clear, loud, pace)2.Did he/she use good facial expression?3.Did the actor use good body language?4.Did he/she use new vocabulary? (emotion words)5.Was the actor’s performance convincing?

While at first the teachers were the ones critiquingthe students performance using the assessment tool

eventually the students took over this role.


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DocumentationTOOLSRESOURCESPROCESSINQUIRYI.D.

ILLINOIS STANDARDS - FINE ARTS CONTENT

26.A.1b Drama: Understand the tools of body, mind, voice and simple visual/aural mediaand the processes of planning, practicing and collaborating used to create or performdrama/theatre.

26.A.2b Drama: Describe various ways the body, mind and voice are used with acting,scripting and staging processes to create or perform drama/theatre.

STANDARDS

ILLINOIS STANDARDS - ACADEMIC CONTENT

State goal-2 CAS 2BRead, comprehend, and interpret works of literature representative of various cultures, timeperiods, traditions, experiences, points of view.

State goal 3- CAS 3AProduce documents and other written works that adhere to Standard English conventions.

State goal 4- CAS 4AListen and respond appropriately to oral message.


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Warm-up and Yes It Is!This year the students took aneven more active role inconducting our warm-upactivities. While the order ofthe exercises we used to warmup our bodies might havechanged from week to week,the students never forgot asingle activity. Raisingexpectations for ‘Yes It Is!’was also very successful. Wegot some great verbalresponses that were linked tothe objects they imagined theywere holding. It was a greatpre-writing activity that helpedstudents to understand thatthoughts and conversationstranspire around the actions ofcharacters.

GamesUsing educational games in ourclassroom is very common. Ifeel that as long as you sneak theskill into the game your playingwhy not play games all day long.So as the students tried tosomehow pair an emotion with arandom object it not onlybecame about abstract thinkingbut also learning the subtleties ofwhen an emotion might occur.Adults asking questions oftenbrought more clarity to anemotion, (i.e. Would someone beashamed that they missed thebus or just sad?). This activityalso aided the students in addinginteresting objects to theirwriting.


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Story StartersHaving students write about theemotions we were studyingoriginally began more to fulfillan academic need rather than asocial need. I think the studentsalso viewed it as such. It wasn’tuntil Ms. Russell suggestedadding the list of random itemsthat their writing grew to beimaginative and rewardingactivity. Once we began actingout their pieces the writing tookon a whole new purpose for thestudents - now they werecontrolling what was happeningon stage. Now that they’ve seentheir vignettes acted out in frontsof hundreds of people I suspectthem to look forward to writingmore now than ever.

Our PhotosTaking photos of the studentsserved several functions. First,it helped our students fine tunethe subtleties of each emotion.With teachers and peerscoaching them, a student wascritiqued and asked to ‘furrowhis brow or don’t smirk’.Second, the photos becametools for the other students inclass to reference when theywere trying to act out aparticular emotion. Third, thepictures became learning toolsfor all students as they weredisplayed on a school widebulletin board. Not only did thestudents’ work inspire learning,but also, the students inspiredtheir general education peers onhow to express new emotions.


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Illustrated BooksExposing students to booksthat contained charactersfeeling the emotion we werestudying was extremelyimportant to the students’success in understanding theemotion. It was one thing tolearn the subtleties thataccompany an emotion likevengeful but quite another torealize that Lilly was feelingquite vengeful towards herteacher when she put the nastynote in his backpack. Booksand illustrated characters gavestudents both a visualreference to the emotion and asituational reference of whenthat emotion might occur.

Pre and Post TestsStudents taking pre- and post-tests whenstudying a new emotion was helpful to usbecause it gave us a baseline to how well,if at all, they understood the emotion.Giving the tests to the general educationstudents was also interesting. Manystudents who were older then our studentslacked the vocabulary we were teaching.Two weeks after our performance ourstudents interviewed 10 students from1st-5th grade about what theyremembered from the play. While theyremembered a few of the vignettes ourstudents performed the most interestingthing was that only 1 of the 10 usedvocabulary that didn’t contain the words“sad’ and ‘happy’. Our students, whostruggle with expressing and interpretingemotions are using more complexvocabulary then their peers.


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We assessed students with autism to see how familiar they were with the emotions: ashamed, jubilant and

vengeful. Each students was given a pre-test prior to studying the emotion and then given the same post-test

after several weeks. The tests for vengeful and jubilant was also given to general education students prior to

our all school assembly and our bulletin board being displayed and then again following after.

21 5Vengeful Pro-

test

35Vengeful Pre-

test

-- 9Jubilant Post

test

13 5Jubilant Pre-test

11 5Ashamed

Post test

24 1Ashamed Pre-

test

Do not

understand

Somewhat

Understand

UnderstandSTUDENTS W/

AUTISM

32 18Vengeful Pro-

test

66 11Vengeful Pre-

test

4- 13Jubilant Post

test

111 5Jubilant Pre-test

-- 11Ashamed

Post test

-1 10Ashamed Pre-

test

Do not

understand

Somewhat

Understand

UnderstandGENERAL ED.

STUDENTS

The results indicate that both groups were able to learn new vocabulary. The students with autism throughexposure to stories, acting, games and writing. The general education students learned through exposure to thebulletin board, the assembly performance, and through coaching from the students with autism as they werephotographed for the slide show.


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Throughout our unit we saw our students incorporating the

emotional vocabulary into their writing, their speech and

their interactions with others.

“Remember last time at Dominick’s Idropped my CTA card and couldn’t find

it and I got ashamed”Student recalling a community trip

I look so sad. I lost my money, I ammiserable.

Student’s writing

I’m worried about getting lost at summer camp.Student’s writing.

After apologizing to the teacher for doing somethingwrong, a student asked “Are you happy?”

Although the teacher replied, “yes” the studentbrought her face to his level and tried to change her

eyebrows and mouth to look more happy.

I was very mad and frustrated. Youare grounded!Student’s writing

The teacher was jubilant that hewas doing a good job.

Student’s writing

“I felt vengeful at Billy becausehe called my friends babies.”

Comment by student


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When parent’s were asked if their children were using the vocabulary at homeor noticing other’s emotions they responded:

“We took him to see Chicken Little and henoticed Chicken Little being worried”

“He was watching a T.V. show where one ofhis favorite characters was ignoring and

being rude to his best friend. He said, “I’mso ashamed of him! He shouldn’t treat his

friend that way. I’m not talking to him againuntil he apologizes!”

“He saw in a magazine where a baby wascrying and he asked was the baby sad.”

“One time in Grandma’s house he stated tome that Grandma worries too much aboutGrandpa. Also he stated to me that ‘Dad is

very impatient with the twins’. I wasshocked.”

“He’s been watching Dr. Phil with hisgrandma after school and has noticed several

times when people are ashamed orfrustrated.”

“He is always talking about being frustratedwhen it comes to math homework or jubilant

when there is none.”


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Teacher’s ThoughtsSince children with autism typically have difficulty expressing and interpreting emotions, our initial concentration is giving

our students the vocabulary to express how they feel and the skills to interpret how others feel.

When we started this year’s unit we had planned to finish our emotional alphabet; however, that didn’t happen. What I

found is that students needed more time to truly understand some of the more complex emotions. For example they

need time and exposure to the emotion “vengeful” to understand that it isn’t just a synonym for angry.

An important thing I learned is that not all our students are going to be good actors. While we tried to get superior

performances out of students who clearly understood the emotions, I realized that not everyone is going to be great at

expressing their emotions on the stage. Some students who had trouble using their face and body to express emotions

could easily identify emotions in others and use the vocabulary effectively. It was helpful to remember that not everyone

should be graded on the same scale.

Artist’s ThoughtsAs always, the students in our group never cease to amaze. This year it was their increased capacity for teamwork and

creativity that impressed me. The fact that it was their very own stories that we staged is something I could never have

imagined when we started 8 years ago. On stage these kids worked as an ensemble--supportive of one another and

focused on the work at hand. I also commend the classroom teachers for constantly pushing themselves to greater

heights every year. Their growth as teachers alongside the students is what makes this program really soar.

UNO, Dos, Tres Amigoscapeweb.sicreative.com/research_action/uploads/PDF/58.pdf · 2006-12-12 ·...

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