by Jess Plewe
Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of different qualities of movement by engaging in activities and discussions focused around Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints of Time.
Standard: L1.T.R.7: Identify and explain why artistic choices are made in a drama/theatre work.
Essential Questions
- How does the way we move convey meaning?
- Where does meaning in performance come from?
Enduring Understanding(s)
- Movement conveys meaning
- Artistic differences between symbolic and didactic movement
- The way we interact with time tells a story
Materials:
- 2 Hi-Chew candies
- The Student Spotlight Response Sheet
- Final Assessment
Spotlight
- Pull up the Student Spotlight Responses Sheet and choose a student who has not been spotlighted yet.
- Without reading their name, go through all of their answers. After reading all their answers, have students guess which student is the spotlight for today. Once correctly guessed, give the guesser and the student spotlight one Hi-Chew each.
- Allow the class to ask a few questions of the student spotlight to get to know them better.
Warm-Up/Hook - The Big Wind Blows
- Instruct all the students to stand against one of the two sides of the room. The caller (you) will call out phrases using the opener, “The Big Wind Blows if…” If the students agree with the statement following, they will cross the room to the opposite wall. The goal of this game is to establish similarities between students, as well as get fun conversations and debates happening.
Some examples of phrases to call:
- “The Big Wind Blows if you are a night owl.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you like country music.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you watched TV last night.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you ate breakfast this morning.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you like hotdogs better than hamburgers.”
- “The Big Wind Blows if you dislike pickles.”
For the last few calls, relate the statements to Script Analysis and The Glass Menagerie:
“The Big Wind Blows if you are excited to finish The Woodsman today!”
- This last one is a gimmie, and should be the final call of the warm-up.
Review
- Instruct the students to review all nine Viewpoints of Space and Time in groups of 4-5. They may raise their hands with questions.
Come together as a class and ask for quick definitions of each Viewpoint.
Viewpoints of Time:
- Tempo - how fast/slow something happens
- Duration - how long a moment/action lasts
- Kinesthetic Response - when you do something (in response to outside stimulus)
- Repetition - repeated movement
Viewpoints of Space:
- Spatial Relationship - the distance between bodies
- Gesture - movements that communicate an emotion/idea
- Topography - the pathways characters walk
- Shape - Using your body to create shapes to show a character or story
- Architecture - Building, location, costume, set pieces will change how you can move
- Have the students also review The Woodsman in their groups, and call on random people to give a review of it so far.
Explain that the final test includes several questions about The Woodsman.
- Remind them that phone use and side conversations are not allowed during the movie. They are allowed to grab chairs, but they must sit in the center of the room where the X’s are. “The film gets a lot more serious now, and I need you to stay in the story.”
Video
- Start The Woodsman at 39:37 and stop the film every 10 min until the end. When paused, ask the students to Think-Pair-Share about where they see the Viewpoints being used
Assessment
- Instruct students to grab their Chrombooks and open up Canvas
- On the projector, show them where they can find the Final Viewpoints Assessment. Instruct them to take the test silently, and work quietly without distracting others once they finish.