Units of Study / ARTS ACHIEVE THEATER UNIT: HIGH SCHOOL

Costume Creation and Interpretation

CRITICAL VIEWING AND WRITING

UNIT SUMMARY | STANDARDS | OUTCOMES | RESOURCES

LESSONS 1-4 | LESSONS 5-10 | LESSONS 11-12

Outcomes

The Graphic Organizer became an essential pedagogical tool in helping students become better critical writers. We found that the Graphic Organizer, not only helped students organize their ideas, but it also helped them understand the concepts of identification and the study of detail. The Organizer provided students with a clear place to record -- "What do they see?" Having to put their initial ideas on paper, before they actually take on the task of critical writing, gave the students the ability to gather their thoughts and also access what they were going to write.

Many students access their writing after they are done with a draft. But the graphic organizer allows the student to both continue gathering and categorizing ideas AND accessing them at the same time --- so that even during the initial writing phase, students are able to formatively access their work as it's actually happening, in real time. The organizer affected students’ attitude toward revision because it served as a resource. Rather than search through random notes or rely on memory, students had the details that supported their opinions. This had a positive impact on the quality of their writing.

As for costume design / their own design ability --- once the students were introduced to the "graphic organizer" they were then able to transfer this process of organization to their own designs. The Graphic Organizers helped students to plan their initial conceptual ideas. Then as their designs continued to evolve, they were able to categorize the new ideas -- Rework/Edit the Graphic Organizer so that they were able to compare and contrast initial musings with new ideas. This allowed the students to access their creative process as they designed.