Tacky the Penguin - Performance
These past two weeks that I've spent putting together and presenting our little Tacky the Penguin performance have been really fun, kind of crazy, but also the most educational. There's nothing like just going for something even if you feel unprepared, and I saw that in my own efforts, and in those of the first-graders. Using a narrative mime written originally by my mentor teacher at BYU as a map, I put together a narrative mime-type performance with the students telling the story of Tacky the Penguin where they each had a role and I was the narrator.
The first thing I learned is that I had to let go of any perfectionism here and just get down to the raw basics of performing. We didn't use any costumes, props, or even sets. Instead, I had students help me create any necessary sets with their bodies, and prompted them through any lines or movement. I acted as the narrator and talked the actors through everything they needed to do and say in the script. If the penguins needed to march a certain way, I would just say "And then the penguins marched toward me.. okay that's good, penguins." or "The hunters looked really mean toward Tacky. Oh! But they didn't take any steps toward him. They stayed in a line. Step back, hunters." I wasn't afraid to go off script to tell them what to do - and it really didn't detract from the mood of the performance.
The second thing I learned is that students (even first graders, who can be pretty restless), love positive attention, so they all became performers I had never seen before in them just because they had an audience of second graders. There's something about just doing a performance, no matter how informal, that is exciting and helps students understand how to perform better than if I tried to explain it to them. Even though there was a little bit of goofing off, the students were so eager to do their parts well that they followed every direction and took on their characters quite well. I was just so impressed by the growth they experienced since my first visit to the classroom a few months ago. I saw some real performers in our classroom stage.
One thing I would change if I could go back, would be to allow us more time to practice and prepare for the performance. Even though they really stepped up to the challenge, I noticed so much improvement with each time we ran through it (even though we only got 2 full run-throughs before we performed). I think it would have allowed the students to feel more confident with their roles if they had more opportunities to prepare.
Overall, I had so much fun and learned so much from my efforts to teach these little first graders. I learned you can never be too prepared, try to think like a first-grader when planning, set clear expectations, and have a clear purpose when planning a lesson. But most of all, I loved getting to know the students I got to work with and see their creativity in all the activities I threw at them. I hope they were able to gain some confidence through their accomplishments in performing and successfully learning how to take on different characters. I know that I am proud of their efforts.
The first thing I learned is that I had to let go of any perfectionism here and just get down to the raw basics of performing. We didn't use any costumes, props, or even sets. Instead, I had students help me create any necessary sets with their bodies, and prompted them through any lines or movement. I acted as the narrator and talked the actors through everything they needed to do and say in the script. If the penguins needed to march a certain way, I would just say "And then the penguins marched toward me.. okay that's good, penguins." or "The hunters looked really mean toward Tacky. Oh! But they didn't take any steps toward him. They stayed in a line. Step back, hunters." I wasn't afraid to go off script to tell them what to do - and it really didn't detract from the mood of the performance.
The second thing I learned is that students (even first graders, who can be pretty restless), love positive attention, so they all became performers I had never seen before in them just because they had an audience of second graders. There's something about just doing a performance, no matter how informal, that is exciting and helps students understand how to perform better than if I tried to explain it to them. Even though there was a little bit of goofing off, the students were so eager to do their parts well that they followed every direction and took on their characters quite well. I was just so impressed by the growth they experienced since my first visit to the classroom a few months ago. I saw some real performers in our classroom stage.
One thing I would change if I could go back, would be to allow us more time to practice and prepare for the performance. Even though they really stepped up to the challenge, I noticed so much improvement with each time we ran through it (even though we only got 2 full run-throughs before we performed). I think it would have allowed the students to feel more confident with their roles if they had more opportunities to prepare.
Overall, I had so much fun and learned so much from my efforts to teach these little first graders. I learned you can never be too prepared, try to think like a first-grader when planning, set clear expectations, and have a clear purpose when planning a lesson. But most of all, I loved getting to know the students I got to work with and see their creativity in all the activities I threw at them. I hope they were able to gain some confidence through their accomplishments in performing and successfully learning how to take on different characters. I know that I am proud of their efforts.
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