Rationale
Why is
this unit worth teaching?
The connections
between the arts and identity are important notions for students
to explore if they are to understand the human impulse to create
art and the personal values of the artistic process. The arts
are not separate from the artist. They offer an opportunity
to discover and transform who we are. Jazz, America's contribution
to music, is a particularly rich vehicle for teaching students
about the relationship between artists and identity. A player's
art even under the guidance of a composer, this music of spontaneous
melodic embellishment is an art form which has developed in
the recent past out of African American culture and reflects
a sense of group identity. Its distinctive rhythms, scales and
modes, harmonic progressions and riffs, and its improvisational
elements celebrate the communal need for self-expression and
allow the individual performer an opportunity to unmask and
explore in order to develop his unique voice.
* Thanks
to mentor Dr. Paul Traver for naming our unit
Unit Plan--Overview
(6-8 lessons)
Big Idea:
Identity and the Arts
Essential
Understandings:
Topic:
Jazz
Essential
Understandings:
Discipline:
Theatre
Learner
Outcomes and Expectations:
·
Students will compare the basic elements, principles, materials,
and inherent qualities of jazz to dramatic activities.
·
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the diversity of theatrical
expression, including contemporary styles, and the creative
processes from which these endeavors emerge.
·
Students will demonstrate the ability to explore the creative
process through theatrical activities and to apply theatrical
practices to collaborative theatre presentations.
Essential
Questions:
1. How
can art help us to discover and express our identity in relation
to others?
2. How
does art reflect an artist's identity?
3. What
is the role of structure in helping us to find our own voice?
4. How
can improvisation challenge traditional notions of art and
self?
Assessment:
What
should students understand and be able to do as a result of
this unit?
·
Students should be able to express their own identity in art.
·
Students should be able to give examples of how an artist's
identity is reflected in his work.
·
Students should be able to create within the structures of
art forms.
·
Students should be able to use improvisation to energize and
focus their self-expression.
·
Students should be able to explain why and how art forms change,
citing relevant examples from the development of jazz.
Big
Idea: Identity and the Arts
Essential
Understandings:
·
Parameters and structure in art can empower an artist, giving
him creative freedom.
·
Despite its different styles and reputation for being free,
jazz is structured.
·
Students will demonstrate the ability to explore the creative
process and to apply theatrical practices to collaborative
theatre activities.
Essential
Question:
1. What
is the role of structure in helping us to find our own voice?
Lesson
Objective:
·
Students will explore the creative process by practicing collaborative,
structured improvisation games.
Lesson
Activities:
After studying
the types of jazz and its structures, students will identify
other areas of human activity in which structure inspires
creativity. Some questions:
--Why have
some games such as chess and bridge had an enduring fascination
for adults? Is it because of their difficulty and complexity?
Is it the challenge that they offer that invites us to play?
Do we like the rules to make things difficult for the fun
of overcoming them? Do we like to try to juggle many objects
at once?
--Poetry
is supposed to be the most expressive form of all writing,
yet its traditional forms are the most highly structured.
Students
will read the well-known Frost poem "Stopping By Woods on
a Snowy Evening." They will discover its form and name the
rules Frost followed in writing it. They will explore how
the restrictive form led him to the sublime discovery of repeating
the last line. Students will discuss the magic of his accomplishment
in overcoming all the obstacles and following all the rules,
his effort all the while seeming effortless.
Students
will play some improvisational theatre games that draw upon
their creativity within a structure, much as jazz does. The
rules and parameters will grow more difficult as we progress.
1. Emotional
Symphony (a nonverbal performance; it is also a way to get
performers to commit themselves physically and emotionally)
2. What
am I Doing (a concentration game that invites creativity)
3. What
am I Doing II (same game with added difficulty)
4. Foreign
Film (a gibberish improvisation)
5. Fractured
Fairy Tales (improvs with narratives in altered time)
6. Alphabet
Duet (verbal and physical concentration scene)
Students
will discuss what is enjoyable about improvisation. What makes
a good improvisation? To what extent does the difficulty of
the game affect the actor's performance and the audience response?
What rules should be followed in a theatre classroom practicing
improvisation? What can we learn through improvisation?
Assessment:
What
should students understand and be able to do as a result of
this lesson?
Criteria:
Students will be able to identify the relationship between
structure and artistic freedom. They will practice theatrical
skills, using improvisation within a structure.
Evidence:
Students will practice theatrical skills, using improvisation
within a structure as a jazz musician does.