Unit 3 — Aesthetic Response
Description
This unit focuses on developing students' ability to review and critique theater events, understand personal aesthetic, and respond to theatrical works. Students learn to critique themselves and others in a respectful and constructive manner and compare art forms including film, television, and other media.
Essential Questions
- What are some methods that can be used to support and critique yourself and your peers in positive way?
- How can you review a theater event based on the elements found in the performance and production of the dramatic work being observed?
Learning Objectives
- Review a theater event based on observed elements in theater performance and production.
- Understand theater as a shared communal experience between audience and actor.
- Develop an understanding of personal aesthetic and choice as related to production intent.
- Critique themselves and others in a respectful and constructive manner.
- Use reflection and analysis to evaluate their work and the work of their peers in a productive way.
- Compare, connect, and incorporate art forms by describing and analyzing methods of presentation and audience response for theater and dramatic media, including film, television, electronic media, and other art forms.
Supplemental Resources
- Broadway Video Clip - The Lion King: 'Circle of Life'
- Broadway Video Clip - Matilda the Musical: 'When I Grow Up'
- Broadway Video Clip - Annie Live: 'It's the Hard-Knock Life'
- Glossary of Terms
Visual Arts - Connecting
Visual Arts - Creating
Visual Arts - Presenting
Visual Arts - Responding
Students prepare for and participate in conversations and collaborations with diverse partners about dramatic works. Students integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats including video performances. Students analyze how and why individuals and ideas develop over the course of dramatic texts. Students interpret words and phrases in dramatic scripts including technical and figurative meanings. Students read and analyze dramatic structures including dialogue and stage directions. Students write routinely over extended time frames to research and reflect on theatre and shorter responses about performances.
Students describe how the world is divided into nations with different governments, languages, customs, and laws. Students describe how culture is expressed through and influenced by the behavior of people. Students describe how the development of both written and unwritten languages impacted human understanding and the development of culture and social structure. Students explore how theatre reflects societal values and beliefs across diverse cultures throughout history.
Students explain and demonstrate movement sequences individually and with others in response to various tempos, rhythms, and musical styles. Students correct movement errors in response to feedback and explain how changes improve performance. Students create and demonstrate planned movement sequences based on tempo, beat, and rhythm.
Formative Assessments
- Teacher observation: Use a variety of vocal tones and breath control to create a character's feelings and mood.
- Teacher observation: Use basic analysis skills to perform a character within a scene.
- Performance rubrics
- Performance task checklist
- Self reflection - Mapping ones journey
- Critique a performance of script using predeveloped criteria.
- Pair-share
- Peer evaluation and observation
- Analyzing primary source documents on the history of theatre in various cultures.
- Conduct short research projects on the cultural origins of theatre to support analysis, reflection, and research.
- Use technology to create a presentation
- Evaluate informal in class performances and video evidence of student performances using observation, discussions, drawings, video, and simple student-created rubrics.
Summative Assessment
Students write and present a theater review of a live or recorded performance, identifying specific elements they observed (acting, sets, costumes, sound) and explaining how these choices affected their personal response to the work. The review demonstrates their ability to critique respectfully and connect production decisions to their own aesthetic preferences.
Benchmark Assessment
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Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate critique skills through oral responses to guided questions about a theater performance, with sentence frames or word banks provided to support description of theatrical elements. Visual aids such as labeled diagrams of stage areas or character emotion charts may be used to scaffold responses.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
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Section 504
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ELL / MLL
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At Risk (RTI)
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Gifted & Talented
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