Gearing Up to Give Your Best in 2012-2013

Mandy Epley, TETA Board of Governors
Vice President Elect K-12

Successful students must have successful, effective teachers. This summer in San Antonio we saw teachers working together to provide excellent workshops at SummerFest so that Texas theatre teachers could bring back quality instruction to all students for the 2012-2013 school year. I can not thank the presenters, volunteers and K-12 committee enough for the excellent job they did to provide such stellar examples of effective teaching and instructional support. 2012-2013 promises to be a year of exciting changes. While the students of Texas theatre work to master the use of their mind, body and voice in theatre arts, theatre teachers will work with curriculum, instruction and assessment, in order to ensure quality student performance. With proposed revisions of the TEKS and a renewed emphasis on Bloom’s Taxonomy teachers of theatre arts are gearing up to give their best by accepting the challenge to align learning objectives, encourage opportunities for students to think at high cognitive levels and, to make connections with broader concepts and real world applications. We are addressing the varied needs and characteristics of all learners and constantly assessing student progress for continuous improvement.


KNOW THE LINGO: As you approach this year, using the appropriate vocabulary can help you meet the needs of your students and help you communicate your needs to administrators. The following words are great tools for communicating educational goals and needs. Now without looking at the definition, see if you can define these words.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY: Yep. I was just like you and thought, of course I know Bloom’s but I would bet you were just like me and could not name all the levels in order. In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. During the 1990's a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom), updated the taxonomy to reflect relevance to 21st century work. The Old Bloom’s was Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation with Knowledge being the lowest level and Evaluation being the highest. The new Bloom’s is the basis for state curriculum and assessment and starts with Remembering as the lowest level and places Creating at the highest level.

Remembering: can the student recall or remember the information?	define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall, repeat, reproduce state
Understanding: can the student explain ideas or concepts?	classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize, report, select, translate, paraphrase
Applying: can the student use the information in a new way?	choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
Analyzing: can the student distinguish between the different parts?	appraise, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
Evaluating: can the student justify a stand or decision?	appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, evaluate
Creating: can the student create new product or point of view?	assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write.

CURRICULUM: Curriculum is WHAT we teach. It is the material that students must master in order to pass the course. Teachers are provided curriculum from the state (TEKS), their district, their campus, or from teacher created initiatives.

INSTRUCTION: Instruction is HOW we teach the assigned curriculum. It is the lesson attributes and designs that drive how students learn. The strategies that teachers develop, and share with students to differentiate instruction, are the art of teaching. Instruction is where teachers share their passion for teaching and for their subject matter. This is where you can shine by learning new strategies and working to differentiate for all students in your class. Attending SummerFest and TheatreFest is a great way to see how your fellow “instructional artists” bring their brand of artistry to teaching the curriculum. It is also a great opportunity for you to share your unique instructional style by presenting a workshop. The Curriculum is set and is WHAT you must teach but, HOW you teach it, how you instruct is your personal contribution to the learning process and should always be learner centered. You can bring new insight to other teacher’s by presenting and can find out new ways to approach curriculum through participating in other’s workshops and networking.

ASSESSMENT: Assessment is a tool to measure TO WHAT EXTENT students have learned the curriculum. With the increase in standardized testing, assessment gets a bad wrap. You must have accountability in education and you must have a way to measure student mastery. To be an effective educator, teachers need to use formative assessments daily that are not always pen and paper assessments. It is not only important to know what you want students to learn but to formulate ways to know how you will know when the have learned it. Methods for assessing mastery in theatre involve a variety of activities including performances, exit slips, teacher-student interviews, group activities and written tests in the form of quick assessments as well as longer essay type exams. The key to the successful execution of assessments is using the data from the assessments to make decisions about whether curriculum needs to be re-taught or if students are ready to move on to instruction regarding another concept or skill. Assessing student progress is how teachers know TO WHAT EXTENT students know curriculum and assessments provide data for teachers to differentiate instruction for all learners in their theatre class.

For both instruction and assessment, Bloom’s Taxonomy provides an important framework for teachers to use to focus on higher order thinking. By providing a hierarchy of levels, Bloom’s Taxonomy can assist teachers in designing performance tasks, crafting questions for students during instruction and assessment and providing feedback on student work. Like acting, Bloom’s Taxonomy is action or verb driven. Make it a goal this year to work to assess student progress using higher order thinking. Useful verbs for activities at the highest level of Bloom’s include to create, to invent, to compose, to predict, to plan, to construct, to design, to imagine, to propose, to devise, and to formulate. Stem questions include prompts like: Can you design a…to…..?

Why not compose a song about…..? If you had access to all resources how would you deal with……? What would happen if…..? How many ways can you….? Can you create new and unusual uses for…..? Can you write a proposal which…….?

Best wishes for an amazing school year and remember to share your instruction artistry with others by registering early for TheatreFest and sending in a workshop proposal. Only through sharing our craft can we ensure we are providing the very best for our students.