Case Study: 4th/5th grade at Modern Orthodox School in BK
Discipline: Digital filmmaking/Stop Motion Animation
Huge amount of questions initially - Since my focus is and will always be student voice, what does it mean for me to go in almost completely blind? In most cases I am somewhat current on what media and stories are being consumed by the students I work with, but in a community that traditionally shuns modern media and historically has low literacy rates with a discomfort around non religious media - what are my resources here? All of my research is also telling me that expressing a certain amount of individuality and frustration about elders, asserting individual needs etc are considered an affront to God - which means a lot of what I consciously try to open up space to process might actually be deeply triggering to all parties - so what do I have to offer here? Art without a message is literally disembodied, cut off from the communicator, like making a meal that no one can taste. Just teaching a technique doesn't help young people have a clear embodied sense of why they may choose to return to that medium and technique later. Knowledge is embodied information - I am not in the business of dispensing information that we don't feel.
I've been stressing out about this in the background, though I still have a few weeks before I start. The school coordinator told me to make my instructions clear and simple, as most of their days are filled with religious instruction - so developmentally they are in one place, but academically in another, as far as nyc school standards go. What an interesting place to figure out what the building blocks to communicating about narrative structure and art form even look like. I anticipate that in this conservative environment, my natural presence will already pluck some raw strings, how can I work/move beyond that to get to the meat of meeting these young people where they are and building something together?
I had a flash of inspiration the other day - Stop Motion forces you to simplify for ease of making and creating visual impact. Last year I did a storyboard for my 6th graders at a school in the Bronx that was an exploration of the design principle Emphasis, where a star falls through the frame, and more and more curious fish appear to investigate its descent. Reading various descriptions of the design principles, I am realizing there is a natural space for SEL to live inside of the exploration of these symbolic compositional ideas - Unity/Harmony is an obvious one, exploring how to express harmony through the students perception - Contrast is an interesting one, stepping past the obvious Black/White dichotomy to more gently explore differences like Rough/Smooth textures etc to introduce the idea that differences are not inherently negative - I can embed the practice of building and reinforcing relational qualities and positive values without disrupting the way these young people are tethered to their caregivers or making it impossible to establish bonds with these young people. They need space to process their experiences, and there is space for that to unfold, it just necessarily looks different than the spaces I'm normally in. But I think there is power in what I'm already learning - about the symbolic and relational value of art making, about how I am living what I value and believe no matter what the circumstance, and able to show up in an Authentic way, even in an environment where I may not be received very warmly. I'm super excited about this particular curriculum now, and how much this will deepen and empower my teaching practice.
Case Study: Blended grades (mostly 3rd), all Inclusion/IEP students + paras in BK
Discipline: Puppetry via Theatre Dept
Super excited about this one actually, so much of my 6 years of movement study were focused on neurological development and the relationship between sensory awareness and motor skills - the desire to smell touch taste know that drives our bodies towards experiencing things/inspires movement/motor development - and the loop, the sensory feedback that creates positive relationships with learning about our environment and ourselves through contact - which also communicates to us where we are in space etc. I'm describing the experience of a very young child, but also something that could/should continue to be present our entire lives. This is underneath EVERYTHING I do, how I approach the world, and definitely how I approach working with students. Lots of things interrupt/corrupt this natural process culturally and economically - so I center this investigative space in my teaching practice.
This group provides an excellent space to continue certain things I've been doing from a tactility place, but expand into the body and experiment with meaning-making at this particular age/developmental juncture. I have more of a felt sense of this one then I do a clear structural approach, but I know I want to make full body mechanisms that are simple enough for them to move - and I want to find/figure out where meaning lives for them at this stage of their lives. Simplicity of narrative is going to be key, so I have some research ahead of me - but I also think the first session this week will be really illuminating about what I'm working with.
So much learning for me this year! I'm so excited for how much deeper and clearer my teaching practice is already becoming.
No comments:
Post a Comment