Inquiry I Question |
Inquiry I Proposal |
What kinds of projects and assessments will allow me to create a space where:
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Instructor will pilot one or more projects, both in and outside of the classroom, and explore ways in which these projects might lead to:
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Inquiry I Outcomes
As a result of Inquiry I, I was able to accomplish the following this school year. These programs or outcomes will continue to grow as I move forward next year.
- Theatre Pathway Redesign & Individual Course Redesign
- Project-Based Learning
- Academy & District-Wide Collaboration
- College & Career Panels
- Career Exploration through Work-Based Learning & Industry Related Enrichment
- College-Credit Baring Options; Colaboartive course with El Camino Community College and their Theatre department
Theatre Pathway Redesign
Project-Based Learning
Verbatim Theatre Project
(Advanced Drama) Project Description: Students spent the last half of the year studying the style of verbatim theatre. Verbatim theatre is a genre of performance in which artist research a topic, issue or event of cultural significance. Artists then conduct in-depth research on the issue and the community affected by the topic. This research and data is then compiled into a full-length play. The composition process is long and arduous as students must interview subjects and transcribe these interviews into texts for the play. An important part of this style of performance is for the authors and actors to ensure they have accurately portrayed each individual in the piece - without bias or exaggeration. The play is then performed and all subjects are invited. After the show, there is a town hall style meeting to give the audience, and in this case, the community an opportunity to dialogue about the issues presented in the play. This year, students chose to compose a verbatim piece on the issue of police brutality & racial profiling. The final script will be available soon. Watch some of their process here. |
Children's Theatre Project
(Beginning Drama) Project Description: Students spent 6 weeks studying Children's Theatre as a genre and style of performance. Students spent a few days digging into the psychology of a child and reminiscing on what they enjoyed about television, films, and shows. Next, students worked in groups to find a good children's book or story to adapt into a full-length play. Once a text was chosen, students then worked on writing a 10-minute play. Students were charged with changing one key event in the book, creating at least 3 new characters, and one new setting. As soon as students had completed their scripts, they were tasked with rehearsing, blocking, costumes, and props. After an ample amount of rehearsal time was given to students they were tasked with performing their final piece in front of their classmates and invited guests. Watch their dress rehearsals here. |
Acting/Tech Resume & Portfolio
(Advanced Drama & Stagecraft) Project Description: All advanced theatre students, including stagecraft and drama, were required to catalog their progress, success, and professional experience this year in the form of a resume and digital portfolio. Actors were required to create a resume and a digital portfolio which included headshot, acting reel, and contact information. Technicians were required to create a resume and portfolio, which included samples of designs, with matching labels, and their contact information. Sample Student Portfolios: Kira Parrish David Reyes Jocelyn Contreras Sam Garcia |
Poetry Anthology & Performance
(English 10, VAPA) Project Description: Students spent 6 weeks studying poetry; poetic devices, various artist, several genres, and performance techniques. As students movie through their study of poetry, they were also creating their own works and preparing several performances. Students finish the unit by composing an anthology of their work. With 25 students in the class, and each having wrote 16 poems, their anthology had a total of 400 poems. Students, prior to completing their anthology, worked with their peers to edit and review each poem in the anthology. In addition to completing their class poetry anthology, students are performed one original poem and one classic piece of poetry. Students then worked in groups of three to compose a slam poem and performed it in front of peers as well. Read Excerpts from their final anthology here. |
Academy & District-Wide Collaboration
South Bay Digital Media Consortium Grant
I have been working this school year with other district members and grant partners (including CSUDH & El Camino CC) to help create programming under the South Bay Media Consortium Grant. This has entailed working with all grant partners towards curriculum and course articulation across schools. One positive thing to come out of this grant, specifically for my students, is the creation of a 5-week Stagecraft course at El Camino College over the summer. For details on this course, scroll down. I plan to continue working under this grant in the coming years. One goal I have is to create a student-artist portfolio process that would allow students a chance to receive feedback from several college professors and students. |
WetEd Common Art Assessment
This year our district hosted professional development for all technical art course instructors on assessment. One goal of the professional development was to create, or begin to work towards, common art assessments. Since then, as the theatre course for the district, I have been working with teachers from various content areas at my site, within the district, and across Southern California towards this goal as well. Specifically, I have joined the Los Angeles Cohort for Speak Truth to Power in order to create cross-curricular programming with common performance based assessment strategies. |
TakePART Festival
This year, the theatre department participated in the TakePART Art Festival at Leuzinger High School. The festival hosted student-artists from several school districts in our community. This gave my theatre students an opportunity to meet middle school students from our area and share their experiences within Cougar Theatre this year. It was a way to help build relationships with our feeder programs. |
College & Career Panels
This school year, several individuals who represent various fields and college majors came to visit and share their college/career trajectories. Panelists also shared with students some of their successes and lessons learned. Our guests included:
It was important to have a series of guest speakers that students could identify with in terms of race, ethnicity, cultural, hometown, interests, generation, citizenship status, etc. Guest speakers spoke on a plethora of topics including what it was like being a first-generation college student and learning how to navigate the higher education system. View the photo gallery below of our special quests who visited our classes.
- Blanca Villagomez (former student of mine) is a recent graduate from UCLA and was able to speak to her experience as an undocumented student and the challenges she faced while completing her B.A. in Sociology & Education.
- Karly Benkhe (former student of mine) is a recent graduate of UC Berkley. She was able to speak to her experience as a minority student at Berkley and the challenges with maintaining her work as an activist as she completed her B.A. in architectural landscaping.
- Christopher Erazo (former student of mine) is recent graduate from University of Hawaii at Manoa. Chris spoke about his challenges moving so far away from home and maintaining his identity as Mexican-American in Hawaii while falling in love with island culture. He has earned his degree in Animal and Earth Conservation.
- Jasmin Young is a Ph.D. Candidate at Rutgers University majoring in History with a focus on Gender Studies & Black Power. She also has an M.A. in History from the London School of Economics,an M.A. in Black Studies with a focus on History from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Cal State University Northridge. As a product of the Inglewood community, she was able to relate well with students in regards to some of the challenges they face. She has lived in Hawaii, New York, India, Berlin, and many other places. She was able to speak to students about a breadth of information as it relates to identify, culture, traveling, and college (private, public, overseas and ivy).
- Amy Urbina holds a B.A. from Cal State University Northridge in Theatre Arts and an M.F.A. from Oklahoma State University in Theatre Arts. She was able to speak to students about her experience in the entertainment industry as a Latina from a low-income family.
- Deverau Chumrau holds a B.A. from California State University Northidge in Theatre Arts and an M.F.A. from Florida State University in Theatre Arts. She was able to speak to student about her experiences traveling and in the entertainment industry as an African-American woman. Because she has worked with the students several times this year, students were able to connect with her on several levels.
- Amir Abdullah holds a B.A. from Penn State and was able to talk to students about his experiences in the entertainment industry as an African-American male who practices Islam. He gave students a very unique perspective on the industry given his personal experiences.
- Sean Hill holds a B.A. in English and Theatre Arts from California Stat University Northridge. He is a well know poet, actor and motivational speaker. Sean was able to speak to the students about traveling, identity, and the arts. More importantly, Sean moved students to make personal changes in that moment.
It was important to have a series of guest speakers that students could identify with in terms of race, ethnicity, cultural, hometown, interests, generation, citizenship status, etc. Guest speakers spoke on a plethora of topics including what it was like being a first-generation college student and learning how to navigate the higher education system. View the photo gallery below of our special quests who visited our classes.
- Career Exploration through Work-Based Learning & Industry Related Enrichment
This year, students have participated in several programs related to theatre and have attended several trips. To the right is a photo gallery of just a few of our trips this year. Photos include the following activities:
Participants include VAPA students from across the academy including but not limited to, English 10, Adv. Drama, Stagecraft, Beginning Drama, and Technical Theatre. |
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- College-Credit Baring Options; Colaboartive course with El Camino Community College and their Theatre department
In partnership with El Camino Community College, specifically with Prof. Bill Georges of the theatre department, and our district office to help facilitate the creation of a course this summer. Students from CVUHSD will be able to take Stagecraft 184 towards 10 high school elective units as well as 3 college credits. This will help grow our theatre department and feed into El Camino's program, as our graduates will most likely end up at El Camino. More importantly, our students will have an opportunity to take a college level course that helps fulfill their A-G requirements as well as prepares them for their freshman year of college. A portion of the course will be taught at Hawthorne HS in Nyman Hall. Prof. Georges and myself felt it would be beneficial for students to use what they've learned in the course by applying their skills in our own theatre. Students' will receive their textbooks for the course from HHS textbook room; since the book is the same text we'll be using in the fall, we were able to help supply students with it for the summer.