Wesley Heights Elementary Year One
Heil – Jen Weisphal
Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes:
- Students will be able to correctly answer addition and subtraction problems including the operations of fractions
- Students will contribute to peer learning and collaboration
State Standards
MGSE3.MD.1 Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure elapsed time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram, drawing a pictorial representation on a clock face, etc.
TA3.CR.2 Develop scripts through theatrical techniques.
- Create scripts that include setting, point of view, sequence of events, and cause and effect.
- Create an organizing structure appropriate for purpose, audience, and context.
TA5.RE.1 Engage actively and appropriately as an audience member.
- Participate as audience.
- Demonstrate appropriate theatre etiquette.
Integration Area/Subject:
Math and Theatre Arts
Materials/Playing Space:
Playing space in front of classroom
Description: Minefield
The PAIR Specialist asked students to share what they new about Improv. The goal answer to the question is that improv is a form of theatre arts where the content is completely made up on the spot. The improv game, Conducted Story, is a game where a group of students creates a story beginning as any good story does with “Once Upon A Time.” The ‘conductor’ of the story is the teacher. The teacher controls how long a student will add onto the story by pointing to them and when the teacher pulls her hand back, the student must stop telling their story, even if it is in the middle of a sentence!
Pointing to another student, the story continues on where the last student left off. Student 1: “Once upon a time there was a lion who was walking down” Student 2: “the street to the circus. Then he ran into a girl lion and he” Student 3:, etc, etc. The PAIR Specialist emphasized that this story would be unique and exceptionally creative because it was not being created by a single storyteller, but by many, which means that the story would be something even greater because of collaboration. The PAIR Specialist also emphasized the importance of listening to make sure that the story stays connected and makes sense from beginning to end.
The teacher chose five students to create a story that had never been told before and would never be told again. This story had no boundaries and was a completely improved creation.
The teacher then chose five more students to play Conducted Story, but this time added a layer of information to the story being told. This layer was to create a story about elapsed time. With this Conducted Story, we identified a person and began taking notes of what this person did throughout her day. For instance, “Once Upon a Time, a girl named Theresa woke up at 10:00am.” Once a time was given by a student, the conducted story would move to another student to create the next part of the character’s day; “Then Theresa went to eat brunch with her friend, Suzi, at 11:30am.” Once we had a good story with many points in time, the students would end their story with the phrase, “What was the elapsed time?” This created a math word problem using Conducted Story!
Once we had the list of time frames, the entire class worked together to create a timeline, by informing the teacher how many hours had passed between each time given and how they counted it. Once the timeline was created, the students counted the hours to find the elapsed time of Theresa’s day.
Notes:
- It is important when using Conducted Story to continue to encourage creative ideas around the core subject matter being used within the story. Keeping creativity within the story being created allows for fully arts integrated lesson.