Curriculum
Each twelve-week course is facilitated by an outstanding theater educator and involves the following concurrent stages:
Before We Enter a Classroom: Our teaching artists participate in approximately 60 hours of training, mentoring, and professional development activities, and continue these activities throughout their tenure. Each lead teaching artist is held to some of the highest standards in the field and is expected to consistently score “excellent” in our evaluation criteria in order to remain as an instructional leader in the program.
Planning: Teaching artist meets with the classroom teachers and administration several times throughout the project to collaboratively plan and reflect to ensure that we are meeting objectives and able to thoroughly integrate with the in-class curriculum. Additionally, before beginning instruction, the teaching artist visits the classroom to observe classroom culture, classroom management strategies, etc.
Professional Development of Teachers: Teaching artists facilitate one adult-learning experience for classroom teachers -- standard in each twelve-week course of study for students -- to connect the teachers with the learning material. Schools may escalate their professional development in theater-making or choose to have only professional development services (additional fees may apply).
Classroom Lessons 1 – 4 Actor Training: Students build theater-making skills that enable them to express characters through speech, movement, and stillness. Skills include staccato/legato movement and speech, gesture, tableau, and other theater abilities essential to making theater at this age.
Lecture Demonstrations: Children direct the actors using vocabulary they’ve learned in the classroom and watch their instructions come alive! A classroom field trip to Queens Theatre in the Park features dramatic scenes and discussion of the beginning, middle, and end of the rehearsal process of Stages of Learning’s in-house theater ensemble’s rehearsal process. This component can also be provided at the school if travel is not possible.
Classroom Lessons 5-10 The Rehearsal Process: Students apply their skills to a dramatic scene agreed on by the partnership team and interpret each role as a choral team, or small group of students speaking in unison. The developmentally-appropriate scenes are adapted by the Stages of Learning teaching artist from books the students are already reading in class or from another literary source, such as Shakespeare.
Family and Community Days (optional): Students lead parents and community members through some of the Stages of Learning activities. Additional fees may apply depending on the scope of this activity.
Classroom Lesson 11 Culminating Activity: Students share their work with the school community in a performance that aims to meet the goals of the project and school.
Classroom Lesson 12 Reflection: Teaching artists visit each classroom following the Culminating Activity to reflect with the children about their experiences. Also, the classroom teachers meet with the teaching artist to reflect on the project by giving and receiving feedback.
Assessment: The Stages of Learning assessment practice, intended to sustain instructional quality, collects, analyzes and interprets data in accordance with organizational standards. This information is shared with our teaching artists through inquiry, reflection, planning, and mentoring activities to ensure quality standards.