Artifact: Exit ticket on the Tableaux & Dramatic Readings of Historic Prison Narratives
- How did the tableaux affect your understanding of the prison narratives?
- Should I use this exercise again in the future? Why or why not?
Analysis
In anticipation of this lesson, I wondered whether all students’ tableaux would look the same—an individual behind bars pretending to write—but was pleasantly surprised to find that students’ imaginations took them far beyond a basic interpretation.
If I were only judging the success of the lesson based on students’ exit tickets, I would get the impression that the dramatic readings and tableaux were effective teaching and learning tools for the majority of the class. Students wrote that the activity was “fun,” “interesting,” “better than reading it plainly,” “it sticks better,” “helped me visualize the text better,” “was a good way to understand the reading because some students are more visual learners,” and “it missed class (work)”—the last of which makes me think that that student got the impression that the activity was so fun that it couldn’t possibly be considered school work, which from certain angles seems like a success to me. But the complementary critiques are only a part of the picture. A handful of students expressed dissatisfaction with the activity, writing that it was “actually a bad idea, it really doesn’t show much,” “doesn’t really help with understanding,” “it was funny but we didn’t really learn anything about who or what they are,” and “I hated it.” Interestingly, the author of the last response also wrote that the activity helped her understand the reading more, and was “interesting,” but it is clear that she did not enjoy it. From my perspective, the wide range of student responses shows that the activity is a valid example of how to appeal to the multiple intelligences across a class, and within individual students—because it worked very well for some students, and not for others.
In both classes, student groups were eager to make their presentations—groups volunteered without my having to persuade them. In the audience, students were attentive to the presenting groups—some times through silence, and at other times through verbal responsiveness. In the future, I would make stduents in the audience more responsible for asking questions of the presenting groups.
If I were only judging the success of the lesson based on students’ exit tickets, I would get the impression that the dramatic readings and tableaux were effective teaching and learning tools for the majority of the class. Students wrote that the activity was “fun,” “interesting,” “better than reading it plainly,” “it sticks better,” “helped me visualize the text better,” “was a good way to understand the reading because some students are more visual learners,” and “it missed class (work)”—the last of which makes me think that that student got the impression that the activity was so fun that it couldn’t possibly be considered school work, which from certain angles seems like a success to me. But the complementary critiques are only a part of the picture. A handful of students expressed dissatisfaction with the activity, writing that it was “actually a bad idea, it really doesn’t show much,” “doesn’t really help with understanding,” “it was funny but we didn’t really learn anything about who or what they are,” and “I hated it.” Interestingly, the author of the last response also wrote that the activity helped her understand the reading more, and was “interesting,” but it is clear that she did not enjoy it. From my perspective, the wide range of student responses shows that the activity is a valid example of how to appeal to the multiple intelligences across a class, and within individual students—because it worked very well for some students, and not for others.
In both classes, student groups were eager to make their presentations—groups volunteered without my having to persuade them. In the audience, students were attentive to the presenting groups—some times through silence, and at other times through verbal responsiveness. In the future, I would make stduents in the audience more responsible for asking questions of the presenting groups.