what connections were you able to make with Kim’s presentation? What questions do you have? How would you answer your questions?! What would you have your students do after thinking about this presentation?
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DREAM Institute 
I understand better how to help kids connect with a character and go though the process of bringing them to life.
I really appreciated the details on how to get into the character’s mind and emotions by first listing what is a fact about the character, and then inferring more. I also like the ideas of what the characters are doing before they come on stage to set the mood.
Tons of energy and a lot to say. It would be fantastic to get that type of energy out of our students. Making the connection to artistic thinking and making progress as an individual. Clown horn.
I have a better understanding how to bring a character to life.
I made a connection with character analysis. In my classroom, we analyze characters by what they do, say, or feel and I like how she separated it into facts vs. inference. What do we actually know about the character and what can we infer by their actions? I enjoyed her presentation and I like how her ideas for bringing characters to life from an actual scene from the book or one that could happen.
I loved her passion for arts in education as a way to inspier creativity.
I liked her ideas on having the students infer about the characters and their actions. It will really get the students thinking about that character, and analyzing their behaviors in the story.
The sentence stems were students can relate a character’s feelings or actions to their own personal feelings or actions were great as well!
Use the facts, relationships and inferences about a character will help students to understand characters within a story. Knowing the character better will allow students to do some creative writing about the character or continue the story after the ending.
Thinking, thinking, thinking………..what an awesome idea to think about! I love the idea of sharing concepts with our students that will lead them to the ability of “thinking for themselves”!
I like using the sentence frame idea. I’m thinking that I might start each day with writing something about the story character and having students respond relating to them.
It was great to hear her speak about keeping arts in our schools. I liked how she gave us ways to help students get in to and relate to characters in our stories.
It was eye opening. The idea of teaching our kids that the arts is not to become an actor or someone famous, but that it’s to teach artistic thinking. This whole process was genius. Right now I’m still trying to process all the information. It will take some time before I can actually think how I’ll use this info in the classroom.
Wow! What passion! I really think that she should think about teaching a class for teachers. I really enjoyed the part about the desire and conflict to put into their acting and writings. It is a way that the students can make connections and inferences into who their characters are and as to why they chose their actions and why the students may have/have not liked the stories based on how they perceive the actions of the characters. Great presentation!
Kim’s presentation reinforced how important it is to make students think and we can do this acting and using characters to make predictions of what they would do.
Kim’s passion is evident in all she shared. I especially appreciate the connection to how important it is to teach kids to thinking. I believe so much of education, my necessity, switched from thinking to just doing (and here’s how to) when test results became the mark for success.
I hadn’t made the connection of acting helping kids to make that leap to critical thinking. In 3rd grade it is such a hard year for the kids since they are expected to make that leap and many kids are developmentally not there. Acting and asking the questions that Kim shared is another way to help the kids make that leap.
Kim’s character development reminds me of our math program, when students are consistently asked, “Is that reasonable?” I appreciate the focus of Kim’s presentation, when she expresses that character actions should be based on unquestionable facts.
I really appreciate that basic premise of teaching kids to THINK and apply what they know about a character to a new situation. The creative thinking is so important and really integrates so much. To view arts in this way really shows the value of arts in, the thinking process, in a person’s life.
Wow! Definitely the highlight of the week so far. It almost felt like a culminating activity, too. Boy, I wish she had been my teacher when I was learning how to act!
I loved how everything she talked about was rooted in the realities of the story/text, and the desires of the characters. Truth as the basis for everything. It’s a powerful way of looking at all art (and literature). I can’t wait to get my students making all those text-to-self connections, and challenge them to take that truth outside the story.
Creating an environment in which kids feel safe to try different things is important. Trusting the teacher to be fair and accepting of different backgrounds/circumstances/cultures.
Inference is one of the hardest things to teach 8 year old children, by developing a character what it wants, what is being inferred from the facts, as a way to develop the character, I see many possibilities for the students to finally help them understand inference. I loved all her techniques and enthusiasm. I think that as a personal goal I might want to take an acting class to be able to better help my students!
I liked the “what if” component of the acting process. Too often my students take things at face value and never look any deeper. That is one reason that reading comprehension is so low. If they can think beyond the printed words, their reading will be so much richer.
“You want your students to learn TO THINK” what an amazing concept to take back to class with you. It will make learning so much fun and they won’t know that they are thinking and learning. Thank you for inspiring us!!!! 🙂
The advice on how to get kids to speak louder was great!
I appreciate Kim’s thoughts on assessing the process not the performance. I agree with others as well that there is an excellent lesson in inference here; listing all the facts first, then making sure all inferences are completely supported by those facts. I’m glad there are intelligent and eloquent people in the arts out there advocating for arts in schools. It’s the artistic thinking and the process that matters more than the product, at least in a school setting.
I completely agree with you Julie. We need to assess the process more than the product. Yes, the product needs to be assessed, but all too often we focus on the end. A great reminder.
She made great connections and emphasized the true value of the arts in education. What a powerful tool to teach inference.
The part that impressed me was how Kim shared that before she became an actress she was a depressed student who wrote black poetry and was isolated in class.. After seeing Kim’s bubbly personality and listening to her, I now have a better idea that these students might be very bright and full of wonderful ideas just like anyone else.
I liked what she had to say about the arts giving children a voice- it’s a way for them to express themselves. It also teaches thinking, which is something that I don’t think I have really considered before. I think that children need time to be creative.
I liked what she said about the character having a desire and the pursuit of that, and what keeps the character from getting what they want. That may make more sense to some of our students.
We need to address the needs of ALL learners. Art is one way we can! We need to get our kids to think and give them critical thinking skills.
I liked how Kim explained that it is important for students to really understand the characters. As a class we would brainstorm the given circumstances to include the obvious, her environment, relationships, etc.
I also like her advice on getting students to project their voices and what to do in case they don’t want take a part.
Thanks!
I will use how her suggestion on how to have the children speak louder. Loved her passion!!..
loved her passion!
Me too!
I liked Kim’s connection with the Arts, Math, and Literature.
I had never really thought about setting the base for characters before starting to practice the play. This was a really great thing for me to learn because I love reader theatre, but never really did a great job setting it up.
I also loved Kim’s honesty — hysterical! She was my facebook update last night!