Sample Classroom
Core Values
Unit Plans
Playing with Poetry: Gesture, Vocal Variety and Maya Angelou
In this 2nd grade unit, students explore the idea of "courageous hope” through poetic works of Amanda Gorman and Maya Angelou as well as music from Disney’s Encanto. Maya Angelou’s “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” poem is used as the foundation to explore gesture, vocal variety and what it takes to have hope and be courageous. The unit culminates with a video of student performances of Angelou’s poem as well as student-written poetry on courageous hope.
DEvising: Pepita Morales Saves El Jardin
In this unit, students read the story “The Adventures of Pepita Morales: The Fight to Save El Jardin" by K Mayenbeer Cruz. The unit explores community, empowerment and finding your individual and collective voice. The unit concludes with students’ writing a letter to a city council member and creating a devised piece on a community cause.
Pantomime with Joey the Snake
Joey the snake is a friendly tourist in NYC taking the subway. A fellow subway passenger is reading a book. What happens when the passenger notices there’s a snake sitting next to them?
In this lesson students are introduced to basic pantomime skills that they explore in a two person scene. Students take ownership of the scene by selecting an expression for how their character will respond to the given circumstance.
In this video of the scene, students explore slow-motion, expression, pantomime and puppetry. Student A is Joey and Student B is the subway passenger. Prior to performance, the pair discuss how B should respond once they see Joey. Are they Scared? Confused? Excited? Unperturbed? Watch the video to find out what they chose.
This lesson was expanded into a full unit where Joey explores various parts of NYC including the Empire State Building. These images showcase a Parents As Arts Partners residency, where families spend time creating theatre together.
Student A (left) is looking through binoculars at the view from the top of the Empire State Building. Student B (middle) notices Joey played by Parent A (right). Both students used facial expression and physicality to communicate during the scene. They concluded the scene by assessing that Joey looked like a friendly snake and went over to say hello.
Cultural Immigration Unit
Students are expressing excitement at “arriving to Ellis Island” using tableaux and levels.
In this unit, students explore their own heritage and learn how people immigrated to the USA via Ellis Island. Students are invited to re-enact the immigration process at Ellis Island becoming inspectors, doctors, ship captains and more. Additionally, students are encouraged to learn about their own cultural heritage and ancestry. Students interview their families and share new discoveries with the class. The residency culminates in a presentation of short student-written “I Am” poetry where students critically reflect on their own cultural heritage.
Students create a “soundscape orchestra” of what one might hear on a ship traveling to Ellis Island. Students brainstormed the following possibilities: fog horn, waves crashing, seagulls, wood creaking, captain talking, whistling, seals. Students practice the orchestra at different noise levels based on the conductor’s hand direction.
Students learn about the range of jobs immigrants had when they first arrived in the USA. During this lesson, the class was broken up into two teams. Each team decides on a “job” that they will perform. The other team must guess what job they are re-enacting. In this video, students are using gesture and pantomime to show “an assembly line of workers shucking oysters”.
This unit culminated with student-written “I Am” poems, critically exploring each students’ cultural heritage. In this video, the student pantomimes an activity she would do in her native land (breaking coconuts and drinking coconut water). She then shares her “I Am” piece while adding physicality to emphasize words and phrases.
additional Teaching Images
