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Goal

Through this grant, thirty of our high school students will be able to experience the live arts through a structured play performance of Shakespeare’s “Julius Ceasar” at the Gulf Shore Playhouse in Naples in late January 2018. Students will engage in close readings of the text and analyze/synthesize/question the material and how it relates to themselves and their world today. What a wonderful way to expose our students to theatre within their own community!  

What will be done with my students

Through funding of this grant, our students will engage in our Florida standards (LAFS) for language arts, writing, and performance standards and skills. One month before the performance, student will engross themselves in research and analysis of the various topics, themes, character analysis, stage directions, and plot components that will be presented through the live production. They will engage in the reading of parallel text (the old English side-by-side with modern-day English) passages of the play. These practice skills will be intertwined with general CCPS-adopted curricular materials and other outside reading materials I feel are appropriate to utilize and strengthen the students’ understanding of standards and skills so that there is a fluid and natural application and synthesis of learned skills from the lessons and performance and our regular curricular materials. After experiencing the live performance, students will reflect on and synthesize their experiences to create an end product (for example: an iMovie mini-play using connotative/denotative vocabulary, strong images, textual evidence to be acted out by, recorded, shared with, and analyzed by other students). 

Benefits to my students

Our students must be exposed to the theatre, for it opens their eyes to literary works and physical performances they may not have been exposed to before. It's a "right there in your face" experience that many of our students might not have the opportunity to engage in otherwise unless done through the school setting. A plethora of studies have demonstrated a strong connection between drama involvement and academic achievement. In one study conducted in 2014, researchers found that students who attended live theatrical performances could recall historical and sociological information about particular works of art at higher rates than students who did not. In addition to having higher standardized test scores than their peers who do not experience the arts, student who participate in drama often experience improved reading comprehension, maintain better attendance records, and stay generally more engaged in school than their non-arts counterparts. Schools with arts-integrated programs, even in low-income areas, report high academic achievement (American Alliance for Theatre and Education, 2016).

Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, there has been a national focus on closing the "achievement gap” between students of varying abilities, socioeconomic status, and geographies among other factors that may directly or indirectly affect a student’s academic success. The arts, including drama, address this issue by catering to different styles of learning, and engaging students who might not otherwise take significant interest in academics. Additionally, research indicates that interaction with drama performances have a particularly positive effect on at-risk youth and students with learning disabilities.

DuPont, S. (2002). The effectiveness of creative drama as an instructional strategy to enhance the reading comprehension skills of remedial readers. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership.

Jensen, E. (2001). Arts with the brain in mind. Alexandria, Va., Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Kennedy, J. (2002). The effects of musical performance, rational emotive therapy and vicarious experience on the self-efficacy and self-esteem of juvenile delinquents and disadvantaged children. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership, 119-120.
 

Budget Narrative

30 tickets at $20 each. 

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