I learned a few things from this experience 1) Plays can be an excellent addition and enrichment to the curriculum. 2) Teachers must fully understand what a play is about before arranging to take a group of students out to see it, otherwise it will be a waste of time, money, and a disturbance to the performers and the audience if mid-way through the play the teacher realizes that it is inappropriate.
Friday, December 12, 2008
My Heart in a Suitcase
Yesterday I saw a wonderful play called "My Heart in a Suitcase", this play was put on by a group named Arts Power (put this in your tool kit of resources as the put on wonderful plays). This play was about the Holocaust; more specifically, it was about the Kinder-Transport-- a transportation system that was set up to allow Jewish children to leave Germany without their parent and be taken to a safe place that was accepting Jews at that time. This play was the story of one little girl who was taken to safety on the Kinder-Transport, after which her father died of disease in a Concentration Camp and her mother was killed in a gas chamber soon after. This play was performed my four actors--the main girl who the story was about, her best friend, her mother and father. They did an amazing job. Emotions ran high throughout the theater as they re-enacted the Night of Broken Glass and as the girl departed from her family. My students have begun a unit on the Holocaust and they will continue learning about it through the end of the year. I thought that this play was an excellent addition to all that the had learned and will continue to learn about the Holocaust. My students are in the fifth grade and in the theater was another school with students who looked like they were in the first grade. They children appropriately became very afraid during the Night of the Broken glass scene and the teachers removed the students from the theater. It was very distracting and also I found it inappropriate that the teacher even brought those students to see that play as did my CT.
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2 comments:
Hey Eminah! Wow, this play sounds very moving. I really want to see it now. Do you know if it is still showing? Anyway, I think it's great that you took your class to see this play to build upon the Holocaust unit being covered in the classroom. Such an experience is a great tool for students to make their learning more meaningful. Also, although that particular scene was a little much for the younger students I wonder if there is another way, a more appropriate way, they could have been exposed to the horrors of the Holocaust. I feel that it is a difficult situation. How does one address such a significant issue to students in an appropriate way while at the same time being mindful to not make the horrors of such a terrible event seem less terrible? But I do agree with you that developmentally this particular play may not have been most appropriate for 1st graders. I just then wonder if it would be best to wait to expose them to this topic until they reached an upper grade?
Wow! this play sounds amazing. I had never heard of Kinder-Transport before. I think that the fact that the play is about something that not many people know too much about is a perfect addition to the students' curriculum. The Holocaust is very hard for children to truly understand and I think that showing a play, despite how scary it might be is very important because it allows them to actually see what it might have been like for a child during this time. Although, books and other resources are great for students to have, actually seeing a play allows them to take a first hand look into the events that occurred during the Holocaust. I would defiantly take my class (4/5th+) to see this. As for the first grade class, I think that is horrible that a teacher would think that it would be appropriate for those students. First of all, the play means nothing if it is not connecting to their curriculum, and there is no way that in first grade the students can comprehend what is going on. The Holocaust is a horrible event and to teach it to first graders does not do it justice. You need to be able to talk about how bad it was and the different events that happened like the night of broken glass, which obviously would not be appropriate for first graders to emotionally or cognitively understand. I think that in response to what April said about exposing the students to this in an earlier grade, I do not agree with doing that. I think that this topic is something hat needs to be taken very seriously and the students need to be able to fully understand it first. Most first graders do not even know where Germany is on a map, so it would be important to start with the basics and scaffold the experience, so that in older graders the students could understand it fully.
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