The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Students learn about theater, feelings
Cleveland Play House comes to classroom
The acted emotions of performers on stage can teach students how to deal with their own feelings.
That’s the view of the members of an educational troupe that landed April 19 at Lorain City Schools’ Admiral King Elementary School.
Teaching artists from Cleveland-based Compassionate Arts Remaking Education, or CARE, took to the stage in the classrooms for first, third and fifth grades at the elementary school.
The program started as a partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cleveland Play House and the U.S. Department of Education.
CARE “draws on lessons from social emotional learning theories, traumainformed care and evidence-based literacy learning for students in grades K-8,” according to the official description.
In the classroom, it’s drama that serves as a lesson, not a distraction.
“It’s not designed to make the next great acting phenomenon,” said Abraham Adams, actor and one of four teaching artists in the program. “That’s not what we’re about.
“These are skills that are the foundation of every other skill you’re ever going to learn in your whole life: identifying emotions in us, in others, and what do we do when they arrive?” he said. “And we use theater as that vehicle to teach those skills.”
Adams was joined by CARE teaching artists Cassey Fye and Colleen Longshaw-Jackson, with CARE Project Manager Thomas T. Kazmierczak III. The audience included Cecilia Render, executive director of the Nordson Corporation Foundation.
The program has been boosting academic performance for the Cleveland students. The Nordson Corporation Foundation sponsors the CARE program for all of Lorain City Schools’ first-grade classrooms, but Render had not seen the performances in grades three and five.
“I just figure, the earlier you catch them, the better they’ll be, so if you teach them social emotional intelligence at first grade, then they’ll know how to act in second, third and fourth grade,” Render.
At the school, Adams headed for a first-grade classroom, Fye for third grade and Longshaw-Jackson for the gifted fifthgraders.
It was a good match between teaching artists and their audiences.
“Very engaged — scholars immediately began to be engaged,” Kazmierczak said.
“One thing that I enjoy about it is that there diversity in the classroom and I think it gives us a way to have a conversation that bridges those gaps and let’s people share in a safe space,” Longshaw-Jackson said.
Longshaw-Jackson, Fye and Adams agreed the school had manageable class sizes, which gives more children an opportunity to share because the teaching artists ask a lot of questions in their programs.
First grade
In the classroom, Adams introduced himself and in a few minutes had the students around him in a circle on the floor. He read a book to them, with breaks for lessons about feeling angry.
“Have you ever felt angry?” he asked. All the students raised their hands and Adams did too.
“I’ve definitely felt angry,” he said.
He guided the children on taking three deep breaths to calm down. They had plenty of suggestions about the adults they could talk to about their feelings, instead of yelling or screaming or hitting.
“If you’re at school, you could tell the teacher,” one student said.
“You could tell the teacher if you’re at school, yeah, absolutely,” Adams said. “You guys, this is awesome.”
Third grade
Fye led the third-graders in a script with characters who get to perform at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
They practiced the line: “It’s like a dream come true.” The students shouted and threw their hands up in excitement for one version, then used a softer tone, like they could not believe it was happening.
“Beautiful,” Fye said.
Then came a game of “Night at the Museum.” She portrayed the night guard and the students became “statues” that could move only when her back was turned to them.
Fifth grade
Longshaw-Jackson started with a video of “And the Winner Is,” with a monologue by actor Lavour Addison, directed by Kazmierczak. He portrayed a man learning he was named employee of the month, with a bonus of tickets to a Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game.
That was the springboard to begin discussing dramatic dialogues and monologues, then instances when the students made other people happy.
Longshaw-Jackson asked the students to think about the video monologue and how the actor’s body language changed with his emotions. Then she challenged them to make a plan to do one thing to make someone in the room happy.
“So before this day is over I expect you to do something to make somebody feel good,” Longshaw-Jackson said. “What do you think that could do? If everybody got something done for them that made them feel good, in this room, on the same day, how would that change the dynamic in this room?”
One of the scholars answered: “Everybody’s going to be happy.”
“It was wonderful,” said gifted fifth-grade teacher Karen Davis. “They need to know they can be nice without giving somebody something. I don’t think they connect those two things.”