What could your students learn from studying the play "Special" (and the activities we did for it)? What about for you as a teacher?
'Special' is a good script for teaching moral education in schools. Instead of telling them straight in the face of the kids that they must do this and that, why not let them experience the situations and feelings of the oppressed. I feel that it is better to let them live through experiences than to nag at them on what to do because when they are in the character's shoes, they are able to understand the oppressed, bystander or oppressor's feelings and point of view. With regards to their acting and 'feeling' in the character's situation, they can then try to create ideas or alternatives to improve the situation. As what Hewson (2005) has described 'Narrative and other artistic forms are used to create virtual realities into which we may project ourselves, empathizing with characters and vicariously experiencing their predicaments.' (Pg 2). It is therefore good that students experience through the characters so that values can be instilled in them in a more effective way.
After enacting the play 'Special', it is always beneficial for the students to ask questions that will guide and help in their reflective thinking. Key terms in questions like how, what, who, when, why, could, could have been, should, should not and would will probe students into further thinking beyond the script, thereby bringing forth new ideas and solutions to react to the situation.
Hot seating
Hot seating is a very good convention for learning about the character's feelings, thoughts, ideas and background. Personally, I feel that hot seating the main character is the most interesting one because I am really curious about that character than the rest. When we did hot seating for Ian, there were many questions asked that revealed how he (Mr Kwok as Ian) felt towards the bullies, Mr Choo, himself and his dad. He even told us that he did something about his bullying after he was soaked (which is after the script), so all of us knew that he finally did something. Off course we interviewed other characters as well and we find out some more juicy bits that helps us understand the situation better.
Conscience alley
The conscience alley is very different convention from hot seating because it does not help students to understand the situation better but to understand the inner feelings of the character. What is it like to be Ian, or Mr Wong, or Dewi, or maybe even the bullies? What do you feel? Could these characters hear these voices in their head? If you were them, What would you do? Who would you listen? As I went through the process, I could hear alot of shouting and some bits I could catch, others could not because overlapping of voices were too strong.
This activity was later extended in Forum theatre where one would play the angel and the other is the devil, both instigating Ian to do the wrong and right. I tried Ian and I felt confused because I am listening to two opposing arguments at the same time and I do not know which one to listen to. I was trying my best to listen to one voice at a time but it was so confusing. But it was a good experience for students to feel this this confusion because we always face this confusion in life and sometimes we do not even know we are in a confused state. It requires us to take discipline to calm down our thoughts and anxiety and sift out the thoughts and ideas that will best improve the situations.
Forum Theatre
Forum theatre encourages an interactive role-playing exercises to deal with oppression in everyday life, whether is it in the area of community, educational or political. It's aim is to bring about critical social awareness of and stop oppression in everyday situations. I personally feel it is good because it spurs thinking and spontaneity, allowing anyone (really anyone) to come up on stage to change the situation. Their responses enables themselves to learn, and I as a teacher is not spoon-feeding them but facilitating the activities. It is more student-centred learning (as what the MOE has always been emphasizing). There may be multiple interventions but these still provide knowledge, critical thinking and awareness to the rest of the class. One person may not have the same idea but additional methods in dealing Oppression are revealed and added upon our existing knowledge. While exploring and implementing the different methods, the students could learn what and what is not working and the reasons behind successful methods and failed methods.
I like Hui Chi's convention where she had other characters acting as Ian's other classmates and each classmate has a theme to it. (Discipline, Moral value, strength, empathy, etc.) Through the process, they should react by improvising at any moment. What would they do as bystanders? Should they interfere? Why? If you do this, what will the oppressor do towards Ian or you? These different classmates are different types of solution or alternatives to deal with bullying.
Conclusion
These activities could help develop the awareness of bullying, whether in schools or elsewhere, oppression by experiencing it through the oppressed, oppressor and bystander. They can explore it in anyway they feel is better, finding new and different ways towards dealing this situation. Other than that, they can feel each and every character of their inner emotions by playing in the character's shoes.
Reference
Hewson, A. (20th Oct, 2005) Forum Theatre as a Means of 'Minding the Body
in Reflective Practice. Retrieved from http://oar.nipissingu.ca/PDFS/V931.pdf
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