| These professional development workshops are planned in coordination with school administration and are provided as either a single session or as a series of sessions.
Shakespeare Workshop
- In this workshop, teaching artists lead participants through the process of making Shakespeare accessible to students.
- The content of the sessions are planned and designed with input from the school administration that is hosting the workshop.
- Using one of Shakespeare’s plays such as Romeo and Juliet or Julius Caesar, participants learn the plot, themes, characters and language of that play. All the lessons are taught through improvisations or theatre games which actively engage teachers, while simultaneously demonstrating the exercise. Various speeches and scenes from the play are used to demonstrate the exercises as well.
- At the conclusion of the workshop, the participants are paired and assigned a scene. The pairs create a concept for this scene and then perform the scene, demonstrating the concept for the class.
- Reflection time is built into these workshops so that participants can brainstorm on how to adapt the lessons for use with their own students.
- All teachers receive hand-outs with detailed explanations of all the lessons that were presented so that they may refer to them in the future when they are implementing the lessons on their own.
- The classroom lessons that teachers learn in this workshop address New York City and State Learning Standards in the Arts and English Language Arts, as well as the NYC Department of Education’s Curriculum Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Theater.
Playwriting Workshop
- In these workshops, teaching artists lead classroom teachers through a series of acting exercises, improvisations and theatre games which teach the genre of playwriting. Lessons include focus on conflict, character, inner conflict, setting, dramatic arc and conflict resolution.
- The lessons culminate with participants writing short plays that are performed by other participants in the class. Teachers are encouraged to give critical responses to their fellow participants’ scenes. The writers then use these responses to determine any rewrites that the play may require.
- All teachers receive hand-outs with detailed explanations of all the lessons that were presented so that they may refer to them in the future when they are implementing the lessons on their own.
- Reflection time is built into the session to discuss how the teachers can adapt these lessons to bring them back to the classroom. When this workshop is presented as a series, teachers have the additional opportunity during the course of the workshop to report on successes and challenges they encounter in presenting the lessons to their students. Teaching artists then advise the teachers on ways to adjust these lessons to better meet student needs.
- The classroom lessons that teachers learn in this workshop address New York State Learning Standards in the Arts, New York State Learning Standards in English Language Arts and the Curriculum Blueprint in theatre.
Design Your Own Professional Development Workshop
- Collaborate with Theatre for a New Audience’s Education Director Katie Miller and Staff to design your own professional development workshop. Whether you are looking for a deeper interaction with Shakespeare’s text or an interactive approach to drama and literature, the sessions will be specifically tailored to focus on curriculum areas of interest as determined by teachers and administrators.
|
By Milton Glaser
For further information regarding our programs, please contact:
Katie Miller
Education Director
T: 212-229-2819 ext. 18
E: kmiller@tfana.org |
