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“My classmate Jeremy said he’s been to Hawaii twice with his family. He’s pretty lucky huh? I wish Mom could be here with us.”
- Sarah
Big Idea: To investigate the internal and external influences on characters from Birds of a Feather. Specifically, to understand and interpret Sarah’s and Violet’s feelings towards their family at the start of the play and at the end of the play.
Role on the Wall is a drama based exercise and a visual map that invites participants to explore the inner feelings and outer influences on a character, place, or idea.
By the end of this lesson students will be able to:
Visualize the physical and emotional characteristics of a character from a play.
Understand the perspective and influences society can put onto people’s lives.
Materials: Chart Paper or Mural Paper, Sticky Notes, Pencils/Markers
Drama
B1.1 Engage in dramatic play and role play, with a focus on exploring themes, ideas, characters, and issues from imagination or in stories from diverse communities, times and places
B1.4 communicate feelings and ideas to a familiar audience (e.g., classmates) using a few simple visual or technological aids to support and enhance their drama work
B2.1 express feelings and ideas about a drama experience or performance in a variety of ways, making personal connections to the characters and themes in the story
Healthy Living
1. Explain how a person’s actions can affect the feelings, self-concept, emotional well-being, and reputation of themselves and others.
1. Identify the challenges (e.g., conflicting opinions) and responsibilities in their relationships with family and friends
Reading
1.4 demonstrate understanding of a text by retelling the story or restating information from the text, with the inclusion of a few interesting details
Ask your class what Sarah’s opinions were about her family at the beginning of the play. How did she feel about her Mom? What was her attitude towards her Dad? Was she happy to be going on a trip with just her Grandma?
Divide students into groups, giving each group one piece of mural paper/chart paper that’s large enough to trace someone in the group. Each group will be in charge of investigating either Sarah or Violet and who they are at the beginning of the play. One student volunteers to be traced onto the paper, which will act as the silhouette for their character investigation.
On the inside of the outline have students write down the character’s feelings, likes/dislikes, or dreams/regrets that Sarah or Violet has about herself at the top of the play. These are the character’s internal influences.
On the outside of the silhouette, students can write how the character feels about other people, what others may think about the character and how students/society are making them feel about her family. These are the character’s external influences.
Once completed, students can present their characters to the class.
Come together as a group. On the board post two character silhouettes. Give each student two sticky notes.
Explain that when Sarah meets Violet and goes on a journey through the story of Makani and Kainoa, changes occur in each character. How do they change? What are their attitudes towards family and other people’s family at the end of the play? Ask your students to fill in one sticky note for Sarah and one for Violet. As a group fill in the second silhouettes with these sticky notes illustrating the changes both Violet and Sarah have made from the beginning of the play to the end.
Extension
Now that your students have an understanding of Sarah’s character arc, they can recreate her feelings through tableaux. A tableau is a frozen picture that tells a story or depicts a certain event. In groups, students can create a before and after tableau depicting Sarah at the beginning of the play and Sarah at the end of the play. How has she changed? Has her attitude changed towards her family? Who helped her change?