Monday, May 31, 2010

No More Reflection!

That's right! Let's put an end to our on-line reflective journal writing at least for this year.

In place of reflections, I have posted five exam revision questions each of which everyone should spend 15-20 minutes answering sometime before exam week begins on Wednesday, June 9.

If you approach these revision questions seriously, you should be well prepared for the exam!

Exam Revision #5 - More Death of a Salesman!

DUE BEFORE EXAM WEEK!

On your end-of-year drama exam, you will be asked to write about your work in class this year. One important area of work in our class this term was on a key scene from Death of a Salesman. Please write a 15-20 minute essay answering the following question.

Next year, you will need to submit one piece of "repertoire" group work as IGCSE coursework. Since in your literature class, you will be continuing to work with Death of a Salesman, it is likely that some of your classmates will want to further develop some scene other than that between Willy and Howard from Death of a Salesman for this coursework. If you were to develop another Death of a Salesman scene into a coursework piece, what would you do? Try to be as detailed as possible in your answer. What would be your ideal cast for such a scene? (Who would play what roles?) Why? What advice would you give to the actors playing each of these roles? etc.

Exam Revision Homework #4 - More Romeo and Juliet!

DUE BEFORE EXAM WEEK!

On your end-of-year drama exam, you will be asked to write about your work in class this year. One important area of work in our class this term was on Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo an Juliet. Please write a 15-20 minute essay answering the following question.

Next year, you will need to submit one piece of "repertoire" group work as IGCSE coursework. Since in your literature class, you will be continuing to work with Romeo and Juliet, it is likely that some of your classmates will want to further develop some scene other than Act 3, Scene 1 from Romeo and Juliet for this coursework. If you were to develop another Romeo and Juliet scene into a coursework piece, what would you do? Try to be as detailed as possible in your answer. What would be your ideal cast for such a scene? (Who would play what roles?) Why? What advice would you give to the actors playing each of these roles? etc.

Exam Revsion Homework #3 - Devised Scenes

DUE BEFORE EXAM WEEK!

On your end-of-year drama exam, you will be asked to write about your work in class this year. One important area of work in our class this term was on "devised" scenes. Please write a 15-20 minute essay answering the following question.

Next year, you will need to submit one piece of "devised" group work as IGCSE coursework. You may decide that for this piece of coursework you want to further develop one of your scenes from this year including your pair-work "picture scene," your group-work "picture-scene" or your group-work "history scene". If you were to develop one of these three scenes into a coursework piece, what would you do? Try to be as detailed as possible in your answer.

Exam Revsion Homework #2 - Death of a Salesman

DUE BEFORE EXAM WEEK!

On your end-of-year drama exam, you will be asked to write about your work in class this year. One important area of work in our class this term was on a key scene from Death of a Salesman. Please write a 15-20 minute essay answering the following question.

Next year, you will need to submit one piece of "repertoire" group work as IGCSE coursework. It is likely that some of your classmates will want to further develop the scene between Willy and Howard from Death of a Salesman for this coursework. If you were to develop this scene into a coursework piece, what would you do? Try to be as detailed as possible in your answer. In particular, be specific about what you would do to improve your performance and what advice you would give to your partner concerning his/her performance. etc.

Exam Revsion Homework #1 - Romeo and Juliet

DUE BEFORE EXAM WEEK!

On your end-of-year drama exam, you will be asked to write about your work in class this year. One important area of work in our class this term was on Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo an Juliet. Please write a 15-20 minute essay answering the following question.

Next year, you will need to submit one piece of "repertoire" group work as IGCSE coursework. It is likely that some of your classmates will want to further develop Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet for this coursework. If you were to develop this scene into a coursework piece, what would you do? Try to be as detailed as possible in your answer. What would be your ideal cast for such a scene? (Who would play what roles?) Why? What advice would you give to the actors playing each of these roles? etc.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Reflection - Thursday, May 27

Please submit your reflection on today's work here.

Please also read the message below. (We talked about this in class.)

Much of today's scheduled work has been postponed due to absences. Since the work of our class is almost all collaborative, and because absences occasionally necessarily happen, it is necessary for us to be especially flexible in our schedule. Let's take the following approach in order that all our remaining work gets done with as little stress to anyone as possible.

1. Let's spend today's and tomorrow's classes performing those projects that are ready to be performed and for which all participants are present. Today's and tomorrow's lunch periods are also available for any such projects.

2. Let's consider the DUE DATE for EVERY remaining project to be MONDAY. In other words, if it is necessary, you may be called on to perform any of your remaining scenes anytime after Monday.

3. Until everything is performed, let's meet for LUNCH in our classroom MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY of next week.

If we do this, we will surely get everything done on time and be able to relax and prepare for exams!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Reflection - Tuesday, May 25

Today we had several performances of repertoire scenes including a number of scenes from Death of a Salesman. Please submit your reflection on today's work here. (I'm sorry to have posted this so late! Please just copy and paste any reflection for today that you may have posted elsewhere.)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Reflection - Thursday, May 20

Today, we started with performances of remaining repertoire monologues, including Martin's, Mike's, Christina's, Anne-Mieke's, and Gamlet's, then had performances of several repertoire scenes including Martin and Evelina's, Luke and Sara's, and Max and Galmet's. Submit your reflection on today's work here.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Reflection - Wednesday, May 19

Today we performed repertoire monologues from the following plays.

Max - The Boy Who Ate the Moon by Jane Martin
Onur - The Zykovs by Maxim Gorky
Sam - The Taking of Miss Janie by Ed Bullins
Anne-Mieke - The Web by Eugene O'Neill
Sara - The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill
Evelina - The Danube by Maria Irene Fornes
Siri - Victory on Mrs. Dandywine's Island by Lanford Wilson
Luke - (What were the title and author? Nice singing.)

Please submit your reflection on today's work here. Please also remember that Mike, Martin, Christina and Anne-Mieke agreed to come to our classroom at or before homeroom time to perform or re-perform their monologues!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Reflection - Monday, May 17

Because we have had some problems with use of our classroom, today's graded performances of monologues were postponed to Wednesday. Though everyone has strong ideas about their respective monologues, it is of greatest importance that everyone be not only fully FAMILIAR, but fully COMFORTABLE with their lines before Wednesday.

Please submit your reflection on today's work on these monologues here.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Reflection - Wednesday, May 12

Today we were outside! Reflections here, please.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Reflection - Tuesday, May 11

Put your reflections on today's work here please!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Reflection - Friday, May 7

Today we worked on a whole range of scenes from monologues to Death of a Salesman scenes to Romeo and Juliet scenes to Repertoire scenes to scenes from The Good Doctor. Please leave your reflection here and have a great weekend!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

We're Almost There!

We have come to the point in our school year where we have very few remaining class meetings. However, we still have a fair amount to get through, so here is the planned schedule for what remains. (As always, the unexpected may happen and changes may be made!)

Friday, 7 May, DAY 2
Periods 1 and 2 - Discuss upcoming schedule, small groups work independently on scenes

Tuesday, 11 May, DAY 4
Periods 6 and 7 - Small groups rehearse all scenes independently

Wednesday, 12 May, DAY 5
Period 1 - Rehearse Monologues

Monday, 17 May, DAY 2
Periods 1 and 2 - (In class) Perform Monologues (Graded)

Wednesday, 19 May, DAY 4
Periods 6 and 7 (In class, Small groups) Rehearse Repertoire Scenes

Thursday, 20 May, DAY 5
Period 1 - (In class) Perform Repertoire Scenes (Graded)

Friday, 21 May, DAY 6
No class
LUNCH - Perform Death of a Salesman Scenes (Graded)

Monday, 24 May, DAY 1
No class
LUNCH - Perform Death of a Salesman Scenes (Graded)

Tuesday, 25 May, DAY 2
Periods 1 and 2 - Perform Repertoire Scenes (Graded)
LUNCH - Perform Death of a Salesman Scenes (Graded)

Wednesday, 26 May, DAY 3
No class
LUNCH - Perform Romeo and Juliet Scene (Graded)

Thursday, 27 May, DAY 4
LUNCH - Perform Romeo and Juliet Scene (Graded)
Periods 6 and 7 - Rehearse Scenes from The Good Doctor

Friday, 28 May, DAY 5
Period 1 - Rehearse Scenes from The Good Doctor
LUNCH - Perform Scenes from The Good Doctor (Graded)

Monday, 31 May, DAY 6
No class
LUNCH - Perform Scenes from The Good Doctor (Graded)

Tuesday, 1 June, DAY 1
No class
LUNCH - Perform Scenes from The Good Doctor (Graded)

Wednesday, 2 June, DAY 2
Periods 1 and 2 - Rehearse Scenes from The Good Doctor
LUNCH - Perform Scenes from The Good Doctor (Graded)

Thursday, 3 June, DAY 3
No class
LUNCH - Perform Scenes from The Good Doctor (Graded)

Friday, 4 June, DAY 4
LUNCH - Perform Scenes from The Good Doctor (Graded)
Periods 6 and 7 - TBA

Monday, May 3, 2010

Reflection - Tuesday, May 4

Today, the following scenes were due to be workshopped in the following order. (Those we didn't get to are up next in upcoming classes.) Please submit your reflection on today's work here.

1. "Surgery"
2. "A Defenseless Creature"
3. "Life Under Water"
4. "The Sneeze"
5. Death of a Salesman w/Evelina and Sara
6. Death of a Salesman w/Max and Luke
7. "The Seduction"
8. "Picasso at the Lapin Agile"

Reflection - Monday, May 3

Today we worked for about 25 minutes on Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet, for about 25 minutes on repertoire scenes, and for about 25 minutes on scenes from The Good Doctor. Please submit your reflection here.

Yes, we have missed a few reflection days. Today's reflection, however, is particularly important since Mr. MacLachlan wasn't with the class during its two periods of work and is really interested in what work was done. So please make this a good one!