Essentials of Children’s Literature 3 Poetry and Plays

1. Essentials of Children’s Literature3 Poetry and Plays Contents: Section One: PoetryPoetry in the ClassroomChoral Poetry Students’ Reading and Writing Poems Section Two: PlayDefinition and DescriptionEvaluation and Selection of PlaysHistorical Overview Of PlaysTypes of Plays Instructor: 張湘君教授Presenter: 胡美英 20978L020 夜碩一

2. Interpreting and saying a poem together Saying and hearing poems over and over again Choral Poetry Opportunities A Group Activity Practiced and Recited aloud Rehearsed and Read aloud

3. How to select poems and teach them to students? 1. Selection 2. Memorization 3. Arrangement 4. Performance

4. Selection short, humorous narrative longer The loserMama said I’d lose my headIt if wasn’t fastened on.Today I guess it wasn’t‘Cause while playing with my cousinIt fell off and rolled awayAnd now it’s gone. From Where the Side walk Ends

5. Selection short, humorous narrative longer And I can’t look for it‘Cause my eyes are in it,And I can’t call to it‘Cause my mouth is on it(Couldn’t hear me anyway‘Cause my ears are on it),Can’t even think about it‘Cause my brain is in it.So I guess I’ll sit downOn this rockAnd rest for just a minute … The Loser From Where the Side walk Ends

6. Memorization 1. The teacher select and read aloud a poem that is well liked by the students. Then students repeat each line or pair of lines after the teacher until they know them. 2. Variations can be added for performing the poem. 3. Some longer poems with older students who read well will not be memorized but will be practiced and read together as a group.

7. Arrangement unison solo cumulative simultaneous dramatic -- Learn the poem and recite it together as a group-- Achieve different effects Two-part or three-party choral poetry is usually based on arranging students into voice types (e.g. high, medium, low) and by selecting lines of the poem for each group to recite or read.

8. Arrangement solo unison cumulative simultaneous dramatic Solo can be added to either of these presentations and are sometimes used for asking a question or making an exclamation.

9. Arrangement cumulative unison solo simultaneous dramatic A cumulative buildup is effected by having, for example, only two voices say the first line,then two more join in on the second, and thentwo more, gradually building to a crescendo until the entire class says the last line orstanza.

10. Arrangement simultaneous unison solo cumulative dramatic Simultaneous recitation In this case, group one begin the poem and recite it all the way through. When group begins the third line, for example, then group two starts the first line, and the two groups recite simultaneously until the end.Other groups can, of course, be added.

11. Arrangement dramatic unison solo cumulative simultaneous . Paul Fleichman’s Joyful Noise: Poems for TwoVoices and I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices are written to be read aloud by two readers at once, one reading the left half of the page and one reading the right half, as well as certin lines simultaneously

12. Arrangement unison solo cumulative simultaneous dramatic Let be your guide.As soon as children learn that poems do nothave to be read sedately through exactly aswritten, they will begin to find excitement and deeper meaning in poetry. imagination

13. Action, gestures, body movements, and finger plays Remember the best audiences are close by – the class next door, the principal, the librarian, the custodian, or a visiting parent. Performance

14. Poetry in the ClassroomConclusion In addition to the group activity, teachers can encourage an individual student to learnpoetry by heart, voluntarily, and then to recite a poem in a small group or as a part ofa group performance, perhaps around a theme.Jane Yolen’s collection of weather poems, Weather Report, could be a resource for thisactivity.

15. Students’ Reading and Writing Poems Learning to Read Poetry Learning to Write Poetry TheClassroomLibrary 1.Comprehensive poetry anthologies2. Specialized collections by a single poet.3. Books of poem on a single topic Read Silently 1. Making copies of their favorite Poems2. Illustrating and arranging the poems in new and inventive ways.3. Rotating the poetry books Students’Activities

16. Students’ Reading and Writing Poems Learning to Read Poetry Learning to Write Poetry • Other activities: • Pair reading / making videotapes or audiotapes of their readings • Selecting three poems by one poet and finding something out about the poet; group discussing and reading three poems aloud. • Finding three poems on the same topic; then reading them aloud in small groups. • Finding poems of the same poetic form/similar poetic elements/slow or fast rhythms.

17. Group Writing Composing poems In pairs Composing individualpoems Brain-storming Students’ Reading and Writing Poems Learning to Write Poetry Learning to Read Poetry Suggestive books to start with: Poems on Poetry, Sunrises and Songs, Reading and Writing Poetry in an Elementary Classroom

18. Students’ Reading and Writing Poems Learning to Write Poetry Learning to Read Poetry Children should be reminded: 1. Poetry is a form of communication.2. Children should think of an idea, feeling, or event to write about in their poems.3. Poetry does not have to rhyme. Children may write something of interest to them. Children's poetry folllows no absolute rules.

19. Students’ Reading and Writing Poems Learning to Write Poetry Learning to Read Poetry Other suggestions: 1. Personal and class anthologies2. Bulletin board3. Modeling the works of professional poets4. Reading aloud many poems of one poetic form; analyzing the form with the students to reveal the characteristics of its structure Do and Don't: page 60

20. Reasons to include plays in school curriculum 1. Children often dramatize their daily lives and fantasies.2. In playacting, children can give expression to hidden feelings.3. Children’s linguistic abilities can improve.4. Children delight in plays and playacting.5. In a play and in a child’s own play, imagination transforms reality and endows ordinary objects with fantastic quality. Section Two: Plays

21. Section Two: Plays Reasons to include plays in school curriculum 6. Students enjoy reading plays and are able to experience a story vicariously quite readily through the play form.7. Reading plays aloud and performing plays are natural ways to develop and demonstrate a child’s oral reading fluency.

22. A Play Scenes Acts Section Two: Plays Definition and Description Plays refers to written, dramatic compositions orscripts intended to be acted. The script usually has set, costume, and stage directions noted, as well as dialogue provided for each actor.

23. Reader’s theatre 1. Oral presentation of literature by actors – a narrator2. Dramatic reading – voice and gesture to convey additional meaning3. Generally no stage sets, or stage movements Section Two: Plays Definition and Description

24. Creative drama 1. Informal drama – the reenactment of story experiences.2. Spontaneously generated by the participants who compose and act out their parts as the drama progresses. 3. Generally no scripts are developed or lines read or memorized. 4. Process-centered form of drama Section Two: Plays Definition and Description

25. Recreational drama 1. Formal theatrical presentation -- The development and experience of the performers is as important as the the enjoyment by the audience2. School and camp plays -- examples of recreational drama Section Two: Plays Definition and Description

26. Children’s theatre 1. Theatre for young audiences – A formal theatrical experience in which a play is presented for an audience of children2. Usually performers – skilled actors production – overseen by trained directors Section Two: Plays Definition and Description

27. Section Two: Plays Definition and Description Elementary school years:informal reading of playsMiddle school or older students:recreational and formal plays The dramatic processes of creative drama and reader’s theatre, discussed in Chapter 12, are also suitable for elementary grade students.

28. Section Two: Plays Evaluation and Selection of Plays A good play: • Subject appealing to children • An interesting character or two • A problem that thickens or worsens, but getsresolved satisfactorily in the end • Humor • Conflict between characters • Natural dialogue reflecting the personality of the character speaking • One or more of child-appealing characters – childlike figures, a personified animal, …

29. Section Two: Plays Evaluation and Selection of Plays Locating and selecting plays: • Children’s Book and Play Review: reviews of ten or twelve children’s playsas well as feature articles occasionally about the publication status of children’s plays. • The International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People: bibliographies of plays as well as synopsis of each play, length, types… • Anthologies: a good source of plays for children’s reading enjoyment • Eleven publishers: see page 63

30. A: for young people B: for elementary and middle school age audiences C: for the best adaptation The Distinguished Play Award Best original plays The Charlotte B. Chorpenning Playwright Award A body of work by a children’s playwright honors Section Two: Plays Awards: Evaluation and Selection of Plays The American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE)

31. 1904 J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan Church Dramas 1900~ 500~ 1500~ Middle Age Section Two: Plays Historical Overview of Plays Catholic church: a means of educatinggeneral audiences The most acknowledged classic of the genre of plays for children

32. Section Two: Plays Historical Overview of Plays Children’s theatre in the United States has generally independent of the adult professional theatre, is community based with substantial contributions by amateurs, has suffered from limited budgets, and yet has tenaciously survived. Children’s Educational Theatre was founded in 1903 in New York.

33. Section Two: Plays Historical Overview of Plays With the spread of children’s theatre groups there was an increase in the number of published script: 1. 1921 A Treasure of Plays for Children by Montrose J. Moses

34. Section Two: Plays Historical Overview of Plays 2. Exceptional note: Charlotte B. Chorpenning (1872-1955) Anchorage Press Plays The Artistic director of the Goodman Children’s Theatre of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1931 until her death. Her contributions to juvenile dramatic literature were outstanding for both quality and quantity. Her observations of children’s interests at each age level are still useful to playwrights (McCaslin, 1971)

35. Section Two: Plays Historical Overview of Plays During the 1960s and 1970s professional theatre companies for young audiences began to appear. Extremely limited body of children’s plays suitable to their needs A rapid increase in children’s play publishing (Oaks, 1997)

36. Section Two: Plays Historical Overview of Plays Aurand Harris, an outstanding children’s playwright, 1945-1996, left behind a rich legacy of published plays that include original works as well as adaptations of folktales and modern literature. He is particularly noted for exploring different styles for children’s theatre. A vaudevillian show ( The Toby Show)A melodrama ( Rags to Riches), A serious drama that treats the topic of death (The Arkansaw Bear) The first winner of the Charlotte B. Chorpenning Award and the only playwright to win it twice, in 1967 and in 1985.

37. Most common types Section Two: Plays Types of Plays Traditional: drama, comedy, farce, melodrama, and tragedy Participation plays – a drama with an established story line constructed to involve structured opportunities for active involvement by the audience. Adaptation plays – traditional literature, folktales, fables, Bibles stories, and modern children’s literature are available from most of the children’s play publishers.

38. A preferencefor plays with stories never heard before Early 1960: 10 –12 a year21th century:200 a year The publication of children play growing rapidly Section Two: Plays Types of Plays Original plays, stories originating in play form – fewer than one third of the new plays published annually.

39. Section Two: Plays Types of Plays The natural play of children and the theatre are manifestations of the same human need To make concrete the intangibleTo make explicable the inexplicableTo make accessible the incomprehensibleTo make memorable the significant (Davis, 1981, p.14)

40. Section Two: Plays Types of Plays Plays help children come to terms with the unknown and the threatening and help to heighten their appreciation of the actual and enjoyment of the human comedy. Make plays a vital part of your literary curriculum.