Reflection on Lively Action

Others (notably Brittney) have offered details about what took place in the workshops we observed on Thursday, July 8, where kids ranging in age from 7-16 were led to discover the "lively action" in short passages from various plays. I'd like to add some comments here about an insight I gained from the reflection/evaluation session which was held after we observed the workshops.

Our task was to evaluate the structure, delivery, and presentation of the workshop as conducted by the Globe practitioner who led it. These people are Globe actors who have been identified by the Globe Education staff as having great teaching potential, in addition to their acting abilities. The practitioner observed by my group (Jewel, Bob, me) was indeed a natural teacher, who effectively engaged a large class of 12-13 year-old kids from Suffolk in an activity based on Romeo and Juliet.

Certainly, I admired the effective scaffolding of the activities (very similar to the ones described by Brittney in a separate blog entry). Chris Nayak, who led the workshop, began with a simple set-up. After evaluating what the kids already knew about the play, Chris gave them a very lively action to perform: "Form lines of two rival gangs and fight each other! Use your finger as a sword and be sure to die out of the way!" Building one activity atop another, he was able to move the kids to working with lines in about 30 minutes, never losing them at any point.

Effective as the workshop was, my initial reaction was that as a teacher of adults, I might begin my lesson later in the series of building block activities than the Globe practitioner had done. To Bob I owe the insight that it is well worth beginning at the beginning: "If you're going to adopt a Globe practice, you have to do the whole thing, regardless of the age of your students!"