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Education |
video generously produced for ATC's 2009 Gala by Pioneer Productions American Theater Company’s education programs engage Chicago youth in the question of American identity, and use theater as a means to explore with students their own life stories and how they intersect with the rapidly changing story of our nation. Through this exploration, ATC shares its core competencies in performance, design, playwriting, and arts management to build students’ writing, reading and critical thinking skills. American Mosaic In the American Mosaic program, ATC-trained teaching artists collaborate with 9th grade English teachers in 35 classrooms to deliver an intensive six-week arts residency in seven CPS schools. The program’s goal is to improve student academic achievement in the high school English curriculum. ATC’s method is to apply its core artistic competencies to literary instruction. ATC trains a cohort of classroom teachers and teaching artists to lead students in a performance-based study of a play, in the same manner that a professional acting company would study, rehearse, and produce a text for the stage. The program’s focal play is one produced in ATC’s mainstage season, which in this next year will be the World Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo’s by Kristoffer Diaz. Classroom Teacher and Teaching Artist Preparation Classroom teachers join teaching artists for two workshops that introduce American Theater Company, the program, and the curriculum schedule. During the first workshop, teachers and teaching artists review a curriculum guide that explores the play’s plot, characters, themes, performance history, and impact on American society. Teaching teams also learn ATC’s recommended activities for teaching the text and preparing the students for the residency. In the second workshop, teaching teams read, examine and discuss the play. They read a sample scene and participate in round table discussions that emulate student discussion in the classroom. ATC provides materials on the design and production aspects of the play, including the professional design team’s actual research. Subsequent to this workshop, teaching artists and classroom teachers meet one-on-one before the program commences to individualize an approach to each classroom and to continue to solidify their particular teaching partnership. Mosaic classroom teachers worked with ATC’s Education Director to develop the program’s curriculum. The team analyzed the Arroyo’s script to determine themes to align with the 9th grade English literature standards. The group then wrote a curriculum to integrate academic standards into the program’s production component. Student Process Students begin the program by studying the literary aspects of the play for two weeks, led by their classroom teacher and two ATC teaching artists. Students examine how the play relates to their identities as Americans, and teaching teams provide tools to foster discussion on what it means to be an American. Students then spend four weeks exploring the performance aspects, led by an ATC teaching artist. Students manage project timelines and budgets, study American history and culture, and learn to express their ideas articulately and respectfully. They become actors, directors, producers, designers, and stage managers to stage an assigned scene from the play. Each class rehearses a different scene from the play, and the program culminates in a showcase of the entire play in front of peers and family members on the set of ATC’s professional production. Afterward, students and their families are provided ticket vouchers to see a free performance of the professional ATC production. |