The Second Grade worked with Ms. Jenny to bring word problems to life! We journeyed to Wild Island (setting of “My Father’s Dragon”) and solved problems as scientists. By creating a context for word problems, the students were able to understand them better. By using drama to activate their imaginations, the students became adept enough at solving word problems that they were able to create their own.
George Leal, Second Grade Teacher This year at IAA we're integrating every arts subject - visual art, dance, music and drama - with mathematics. Wonderful, right? The trouble is that drama and math are somewhat incongruent. Not exactly the peas and carrots of school subjects or the most natural fit for arts integration. So, we’re getting creative. Or, more creative. After some head-scratching, the second grade teachers and I settled on an idea. The students had been to see My Father’s Dragon at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts earlier in the year. They loved the show. They’d also enjoyed the book as a read-aloud. What if we adopted this story -- and the imaginary setting of Wild Island -- as the framework for our math and drama unit? The hope was that an imaginary context would increase student engagement and provide a rich background for an exploration of addition and subtraction word problems. So, inspired by the work of Dorothy Heathcote, and her Mantle of the Expert approach, we cast the students in role as the H. O. Wheeler Society of Scientists. We established these roles during a visit from Terry Tangerina (teacher-in-role) from neighboring Tangerina Island. Terry asked the scientists if they would be willing to travel to Wild Island, where they would need to study the island and solve mysterious problems. The students enthusiastically agreed to the mission. The imaginary context seemed to hook the students’ interest and they were intrigued to witness their teachers-in-role. They were also delighted to be given an official-looking pin that said they were a scientist of Wild Island. The scientists then went on a journey -- a beautiful boat ride across the sea -- until they arrived at Wild Island. They looked at maps of the island and discussed what they might encounter. To establish the playing space, they ‘built’ the different parts of the island with their bodies and created and recorded a soundscape of island sounds. The Wild Island scientists were then visited by Dr. Scratch-a-lot who informed them that there was a flea epidemic on the island. The epidemic was rapidly worsening, so the scientists had to count a lot of fleas and solve many addition problems. They then had to journey to far-flung parts of the island (in solo spots around the room) in order to give the animals medicine. Luckily, once they administered medicine, the flea epidemic improved, but the scientist had to monitor all of this and complete a lot of subtraction problems. The students engaged enthusiastically in these imaginary scenarios and we noticed they confidently solved word problems that mirrored situations they encountered in the drama. They were also able to write word problems based on scenarios they had embodied during drama work. The students also spent time reflecting on the skills they were developing. At one point, they looked at pictures of scientists working in the field, noticing their concentration, focus and teamwork, as well as their use of tools. They then created tableau to show how they used teamwork, concentration, focus and tools during their Wild Island adventure. In this way, the drama provided a framework for embodied reflection and an avenue for demonstrating burgeoning metacognitive skills. After six weeks work on Wild Island the scientists sailed home and saw an enormous blue whale on the journey!
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AuthorJenny Norris, Drama Coach at the Integrated Arts Academy Archives
January 2018
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