Thoughtful Meanderings: Explorer Project Capstone

Capstone: Video with Green Screen

As promised, here is the update to the final piece of our Explorer Project PBL experience. A great truth about 10-11 year old students is that they are eager to perform when they have a "mask." It may be a metaphorical or actual barrier between themselves and an audience, but it amounts to the same thing. If given a persona to remove them (at least by a step) from their audience, students who otherwise may shy away from public speaking or dramatic interpretations are apt to flourish and break from their shell. I believe that this is the great promise afforded to us by the integration of Drama into the curriculum. Throughout the year, students are given tasks/projects that encourage them to interpret text in a creative and dramatic way. Coupled with many presentations in class, students learn confidence in front of crowds, gain knowledge on how to reach an audience, and are more prepared for the new type of assessments often utilized in the higher grades. Perhaps most importantly, they enjoy themselves. Many of my units are capped by this type of activity. Often, the product is not really the point of the majority of the work accomplished, but it provides a definite goal and a rewarding experience that helps propel the students during the difficult work leading up to it. This will be echoed in the coming units (capstone performances of the Witch Trials, Poetry Parade, Greek Wax Museum) whose broad base of effort and practice are not always evinced in the final performance but are the actual purpose of the unit itself.

Below are some videos of the initial run-throughs and practices along with some final product. The bulk of the videos are to be added to the wiki pages for viewing and as a final enrichment of the overall experience.