My First Acting Series in ACTION

At Lakewood Catholic Academy, students are up on their feet learning self confidence, fluency, public speaking and drama skills. Using monologues from the “Fun and Games” and “I wish, I want” chapters in the My First Monologue Book, students partnered up for peer critiquing, concentrating on their delivery.

“Use facial expression, body language and tone of voice to communicate what your character has to say to your audience,” said Ms. Sullivan, their teacher. The students were up out of their seats practicing with their partners. There was movement all over the classroom! These kids knew practice makes perfect.

“Everyone in their seats, please,” said Ms. Sullivan and she reinforced the critique rubric once again. “What are we looking for in these performances?” she asked and the class said, “Facial expression, body language and tone of voice”

Dozens of hands shot up in the air. They all wanted to perform. Then, showing concentration, and a wide variety of facial and vocal expression, the students played characters named Austin, Greta, Andrew and Kevin.

After each student performed in front of the class, Ms. Sullivan took the lesson one step further and created two columns on the board; Personality and Emotion.

“What kind of a person is Austin?” she asked.

“He’s a braggart,” said one student.

“And what feelings does he have in this monologue?”

“He’s brave because he thinks he can defeat the monster!”

The lists grew after each student performed. Using class discussion, the students were also learning to differentiate between personality traits and emotions. At the end of class it was suggested that it would be fun to chose one word from each column and make up a new character, writing a short monologue of their own.

Principal, Maureen Arbeznik, dropped in to see the series in action. “Look at the enthusiasm for learning that these youngsters demonstrate with these monologue performances. It’s wonderful to use this approach to reach every student and give them the confidence they need to continue their success in other areas of learning.”

Ms. Sullivan said. “I hope to use the My First Acting Series again after Easter break. The students really enjoy being active and up on their feet while learning!”