What happened in Year 3?

For Year 3 of Studio 180’s education initiative, workshops were tied to our October/November 2011 production of The Normal Heart. To give us the chance to test our model at different grade levels and across different schools and disciplines, we partnered with a new school and school board – Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in the Toronto District School Board – this time working with one Grade 9 English class and one Grade 11 Leadership class. We were grateful for the participation of teachers Emma Munro and Sally Spofforth as we entered the final phase of the pilot. Once again, Studio 180’s Jessica Greenberg, Mark McGrinder and Kimwun Perehinec were all in class.

This year we returned to questions of responsibility and power, also exploring how our students relate to the idea of “community.” Once again, we challenged students to express what they believe and why. In each class, we zoned in on one Big Question the play inspired students to ask.

Key activities included

• Brainstorming around key themes in the play: “Responsibility,” “Community,” “Gay,” “AIDS,” and “Discrimination”;
• Sociometrics exercises that challenged students to agree or disagree with statements related to the play;
• Hot seat exercises that invited students to answer questions from the point of view of characters in the play;
• Brainstorming a list of Big Questions inspired by the play, and choosing one to focus on in each class;
• Exploring reasons to accept or reject a position based on the question;
• In groups, hot seat exercises that helped students develop characters with a strong point of view about the position statement; and
• In groups, pursuing one character’s story and improvising scenes of conflict to further explore points of view.

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In addition to our work with Marc Garneau we were able to visit two other schools this year. Our experience with Streetsville Secondary School (Peel District School Board) has been very rewarding, and we continued our collaboration with teacher Marsha Legault, returning to work with her Grade 12 Drama students (many of whom had also participated in last year’s workshop). We also co-created a workshop that Marsha and Kimwun led for this year’s Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators (CODE) conference.

And we travelled to Pickering High School in the Durham District School Board for sessions with Jennifer Goodine’s Grade 11 and Grade 12 Drama students.

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Feedback from Emma Munro

“I was looking for ways to engage my students in the excitement of live theatre, while also challenging them to confront important social issues and apply the lessons learned to their daily lives. Teachers in the Toronto District School Board are encouraged to educate today’s youth about equity and gender-based violence, and it can be difficult to know where to begin and how to actively engage students in this discussion.

“Our class field trip to see The Normal Heart and the associated educational workshops that Studio 180 provided were outstanding, and exceeded my expectations and hopes in terms of the students’ success with this initiative. The professionalism and creativity of the Studio 180 artist educators provided an opportunity for my students to discuss and confront significant values-based ideas, and to participate in hands-on, exciting and innovative classroom activities. My students were also ultimately successful in creating their own written and visual work, inspired by their experience seeing the play and working with Studio 180.

“The field trip and the workshops were memorable educational opportunities for these young students, and the experience of seeing The Normal Heart and Studio 180’s educational workshops showed me different ways to communicate and engage with my students, through the variety of thinking skills and activities that were showcased in the classroom. Seeing and participating in Studio 180’s production and workshops pushed me as a teacher to try new things and to be more fearless. I realized that teachers must be willing to take on new challenges if we expect our students to do the same. I believe that the artistic and educational work that Studio 180 provides is an invaluable resource for a wide range of audiences in Toronto. I intend to continue supporting Studio 180 and their initiatives both inside and outside the classroom, as both a supporter of the arts and as a member of the educational community.”

Emma Munro is a Grade 9 English Teacher at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in the Toronto District School Board.

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Highlights from the student feedback

“I didn’t know much about AIDS or what ‘LGBTQ’ really meant before we did this unit. I learned a lot, and Jessica, Kimwun and Mark made it fun too.”

GRADE 9 ENGLISH STUDENT

“The agree & disagree activity helped me know myself better because they asked me questions I would never ask myself.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

“I felt like the scene we were doing was real and true. I acted the way I’d cope with the problem and it helped me if something like this ever happens.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

“I liked having the Studio 180 people come right into our classroom. It was different from a regular English class. We got to talk about the issues and then write about them ourselves later. I created a character who had HIV and wrote diary entries in her voice.”

GRADE 9 ENGLISH STUDENT

“I found the ‘agree’ and ‘disagree’ activity very useful because I got to see how people deal with different things, which makes me a more considerate person when it comes to people with different views.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

“I had never done anything like this before. I liked doing the ‘Hot Seat’ activities and getting to try some acting in class. I liked playing different characters.”

GRADE 9 ENGLISH STUDENT

“I found working in our groups useful because we could articulate a deeper reason from inside the character’s view and try to empathize.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

“I found the exploration of why we can’t or can accept other people useful. It taught me that I can judge people without even knowing it. This activity opened my eyes out to the world.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

“Going downtown to see the play was really cool. The play was really sad but it was all based on true things that really happened, and not everything has a happy ending in life. The acting was really good and we were so close to the stage so you could see the emotion on their faces.”

GRADE 9 ENGLISH STUDENT

“It stands out in my mind that today’s society still has difficulty in accepting ‘different’ people.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

“I never knew it was that big of a deal, but now I think it’s very important for everyone to look at one another the same.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

“I would love to do something like this again because I enjoyed every minute of it.”

GRADE 11 LEADERSHIP STUDENT

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