| Welcome to my classroom. I get to help teach students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades and boy do we have fun! This is the main door to the classroom and when you walk in you will see a large room divided into two areas. The walls are covered in bright stars and posters. I live in the teaching area where the students usually sit. This is the place my teacher uses to give instructions and to introduce new ideas. The students sit at tables and do a lot of group projects. The students are always writing or making something to use in a performance. |
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This is the performance area where the students can perform the scenes they write or the scripts they read. Here I am on the sofa ready for my scene. You can see the flats behind me. A flat is a type of scenery that can be painted or decorated and is used as a setting for a play. This half of the room is used for the acting area. There is plenty of room to perform. The audience sits at the other end of the room by the door as they wait their turn to perform. |
| This is the storage room where we keep all the props and costumes and other things it takes to run a creative Theater Arts Classroom. We do plays during the class period and in the evening. The students always enjoy performing and look forward to the time that they will be on-stage. They also enjoy working on the technical parts of the plays such as costumes, props and painting sets. We are getting ready for a play right now, so the room is a little messy. The students will help clean up after the play is over. |  |
Course Description |
Activities and Lessons |
| 6th Grade Fine Arts The Fine Arts program for the 6th grade at our Middle School is a course that covers three different topics with three different teachers. Students who sign up for this course take 12 weeks of Art, 12 weeks of Music and 12 weeks of Theater. When the students finish the year, they have had great learning experiences in all 3 performing arts. |
In this course my teacher and I guide the students through activities in: Pantomime, Scriptwriting, Basic Acting, Speech delivery, Puppetry,Voice and Diction, Basic Staging techniques and many other topics. We do a little bit of a lot of things. |
| 7th and 8th Grade Theater Arts 1 This is the introductory course to Theater Arts. We design this course to make the students familiar with basic techniques in speech and drama. Students also get to perform in front of an audience and they can participate in a competitive Literary Festival if they chose. |
In this class students will study many topics. Some of these include: Basic Acting and Staging techniques, Technical theater techniques, Puppetry and Script Writing techniques, Speech delivery and vocal techniques, Characterization and performance, Improvisation and group acting |
| 8th Grade Advanced Theater Arts A student must have a year of Theater 1 to be eligible for this class. The students perform numerous times during the year for outside audiences. This is primarily a performance class using advanced acting and staging techniques. |
These students use the skills learned in Theater Arts 1 to perform before an audience. The class normally performs two one-act plays each year. Other performances usually include Reader's Theater, Music Video and Duet Acting scenes. |
February 19, 2001