Reflection Journal 6 (20/9/12)

Lesson Topic: Voice
Activities
1. Catching game (Jasmine)
Similar to the afternoon session of last week but instead of doing actions, we did only 5 actions with the 5 vowel sounds. (Ah, Eh, Ee, Oh, Oo)

2. Breathing Techniques and story telling (Carmen)
Teaching them how to use their diaphragm and their breathing techniques. Using sound effects to make the story telling more interesting. Allowing their imagination to create scenarios in their minds. Thereby, using sounds as a result of a visual image from their imagination. Students to experience the quality of the different sounds by exploring their vocal cords and also with the shape of their mouths while producing the vowels - what kind of sound one produce with the mouths wide open/ close. Such as open vowels, closed vowels?

3. Story telling (Unintended) and Speaking Gibberish
We used Boom Chika Rocka Chika Boom as a gibberish sentence. It doesn't have meaning to it but it is familar in cheers, at least in Singapore, so there is a feel of familiarity while doing this activity. By using emotions and scenarios, it is an activity where students can explore the various sounds that they can make. Variation of speech using rhythm, dynamics, tone and texture of the sound. They come up with their own version of Boom Chika Boom. Eg. Boom Chika Boom in a very cold room.

Reflection

- first activity: points clear. short and concise. Students know the actions but brains dont work so fast while switching to another action. At the spur of moment they could not think immediately which action and sound. And when there is a time limit of 3 secs, they come up with their own actions and sounds. They lose momentum after a few rounds. the actions dont tally with sounds. But with the sounds and actions it was Easier to memorize compared to the last week afternoon session.

- second activity: the ma meh me mo mooo is abit messy. Difficult to do class management while they lie down. cannot be controlled. space in between needs to be wider, further apart from each other. Needed preparation to begin the saying out of words. like 1,2,3, Go. kids did their best to breath in and out using their stomachs. Facilitators to guide them along. Some boys talked with each other while lying down. Some keep laughing at the exercise. They think that it is boring. Eddy wanted more games. 

Storytelling: Story of The Red Riding Hood maybe too boring and not engaging. Some students were not engaged in doing the sound effects. Especially Zan, Ryan and Jia Cheng. They were giggling. We separated Ryan from Dan and Jia Cheng because he was the one making funny comments. Once we single him out, Ryan had to obey instructions while Harvey keep an eye on him. The unintended story telling in activity 3 that Daniel did but was not found in lesson plan, could be that The Red Riding Hood maybe too boring and familiar.

- third Activity: The story telling of the third activity is repeated again unintentionally because Daniel might have thought a story close to our experience is better for the students to feel the connectedness. He used a scene of a person experiencing a wet and rainy day. The students did it more engagingly than before because maybe the Red Riding Hood story is too fairytale-like and childhood story. I like the Boom Chika Boom using the different scenarios and emotions because students came up with their own scenarios and emotions and did their Boom Chika Boom version.

For a class of Normal technical to go through boring and mundane breathing techniques, which they do not see the need of doing it, it was quite well managed already. In other schools, I believe it will go wild. Some of the students really did their best to breathe in and out with their diaphragm. 

Role of Facilitators

I think facilitators are really important in facilitating their learning journey. Kaner, S. (1996) stated that  a facilitator 'strengthens the skills, awareness and confidence of individual group members; strengthens the structure and capacity of the group as a whole; and vastly increases the likelihood that the group will reach sustainable agreements' (Pg 5) Facilitators are :

- guiders

- monitors

- encouragers

- instructors

- preparers

- motivators

- providers

- participators

- supporters

- leaders

- Contributors

- Imaginers 

- fixer

- love-givers

I love the word 'love-givers' because without love, we are not able to do all things that are listed above. I believe that Love is the greatest. In the Bible, Paul wrote that 'And now these three remain: faith hope and love. But the greatest of these is love' (1st Corinthians 13:13, New International Version) If we do not have the love, we do not have the passion and drive to want to see change or renewed transformation in the students. Love pushes boundaries. It knows no end. If for example we say we want to volunteer in helping out at the  old folks home, without love, we cannot do much because we become selfish creatures. But when love intervenes, we sacrifice ourselves and go all out for the people who are less fortunate than us. We have sympathy as well as empathy for these people. We want social change and this passion to want to see change in the lives of these people. Same for these kids, facilitators must understand their circumstances and their background before they can instruct, prepare, contribute in helping to transform these kids. I believe our role is to make a difference, mould, transform their lives, thereby providing a hope in their lives.

Sure these kids may not want to do things that we instruct them to do, but as an encourager and motivator, we can make them feel to want to participate and want to be in the group, not wanting to be left out. It encourages community bonding and gives them an identity. Govan, nicholson and Norrminton (2007) stated in their article that 'participatory working methods has often been regarded as an effective and flexible way to move from the individualism of autobiographical narratives to more collective forms of community participation and social identification' (Pg 73) Moving away from individualism to socialism, selfish to selfless. When there are strong bonds made, there is teamwork and therefore more success.

What we can work on
I think we could have rehearsed the flow of the lesson before the actual lesson. We did not expect the kids to come for lesson so early. It was surprising that they were excited for Drama lesson. It was heart-warming but the flow did not go on very well. When we do not rehearse, the flow gets disrupted and the children either get confused or do it in the wrong way.

I realised these kids take a longer route to learn and needs more time to grasp the meaning. When I give short and precise instructions, they are still not sure of the actions and words. It is then appropriate to stop the game and re-instruct them and get them to do one round of the actions.

I agree that it is time for the kids to learn something more established (I wouldn't say more productive because I consider all our activities productive) for their performance instead of just having fun because performance is nearing. I felt the first few weeks were more of the fun activities rather than training on their techniques and performance styles, so it is good that now we start training on their voice and acting techniques. We could work on giving more simple, specific, clear and step-by-step instructions. Students knows best when we break down things in short and simple steps. It helps them to remember clearer. We could also repeat demonstrations so that they can remember better. Speaking slower also help them memorise better.

Bibliography

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984.

Govan, E., Nicholson, H., Normington, K. (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices. London & New York: Routledge.

Kaner, S. (1996). The Role of Facilitator. Retrieved from http://enrapkscurriculum.pbworks.com/f/Role+of+Facilitator+-+Sam+Kaner.pdf