Upper Elementary School Unit

Standard: Students will create simple art works demonstrating an understanding of the elements, structures, materials, and design principles for dance, music, theater and the visual arts

Indicators of Achievement: Students will:

• analyze the physical, emotional, and social dimensions of characters
• remain in character, create dialogue, demonstrate physical attributes required to communicate characters different from themselves
• review non-locomotor (e.g. bend, twist, stretch, swing) and locomotor (e.g. walk, run, hop, jump, leap, gallop, slide, skip) movement and use movement to interpret a story
• create a collage using line, color and texture to communicate character relationships and emotions
• critic work by describing what they saw and heard and the meaning it has for them

Materials:

• YELLOW BIRD AND ME by Joyce Hansen (NY,NY: Clarion Books, 1986) copy for each student or read the book in class
• Doris relationship triangle for each student for days 1 and 2 (see below)
  
• music that suggests doing chores to accompany movement for day 3
  
• collage materials--poster board, colored paper of various weights/wrapping paper with designs, various youth magazines, newspapers, clothing catalogues, scissors, glue, pencils for day 5

Background: Doris Williams, the narrator within Joyce Hansen's YELLOW BIRD AND ME, misses her best friend, Amir, who has been relocated to a foster group home many miles away from their old neighborhood. The novel begins with a letter from Doris to Amir.

Letter from Doris to Amir

October 20

My Dear Amir,

163rd Street is dingy and gray even though the leaves on the trees are gold and red and orange. I bet upstate is much more beautiful. I still feel sad when I think about how you had to go away. It was wrong that your foster family put you in a home and didn't take you with them to California. Anyway, at least Syracuse is closer to the Bronx than California is.

I'm glad you was put into the eighth grade where you belong. What is it like in the group home? Do all of you live in one big building? Like an institution or something? Did you find any of your brothers and sisters yet? Hope you do soon. Did you make any friends or do you stay by yourself like you showed me how to do?

Everything changed since you left. I don't be with Mickey and Dotty, the twins, and Lavinia much anymore. They all stuck up and mean this year.

Big Russell, T.T., and Yellow Bird haven't changed though. They the same--playing basketball and bothering decent people. Russell lost some weight but he's still the biggest kid in the sixth grade. And Yellow Bird with his pale, long nose self. He still flies around like a little bird. Lately he's been acting silly as ever and bugging me about helping him with his school work.

Are you lonely, Amir? I guess you are. I am too. Seems like I have no one to talk to the way I could talk to you. I'm going to figure out how to come up-state to visit you. It ain't been the same here since you left.

It's imperative (new word we learned from our teacher) that you write soon. I don't have no one else to talk to. Anyway, I don't let things bother me the way I used to. I'm doing real good in school so far and I hope to make the honor roll. I haven't been under punishment for a month.

I'm sending you a poem. Maybe you can draw a picture to go with it. Do you still draw beautiful pictures? Please, please, please write soon.

Your friend to the end,
Love,
Doris

DAY ONE AND TWO

Preparation: Read Doris's letter to Amir (p.1-2) with the students. Discuss who wrote it, who reads it, why it was written, what they know about Doris and Amir from the letter, for instance the use of language, the reference to other students, etc.. Have the students individually choose one word to describe the emotion that would describe the letter (e.g. sad, lonely, etc.)

Activity: Warmup, stretching. Have students shake out hands and arms, feet and legs, shake out whole body and freeze into a pose that shares the word they choose to describe the letter. Repeat asking the students to find a different body shape to express the emotion. In a circle have the students, one at a time, complete:

1. "I am good at ________.",
2. "This year I will accomplish______________."

Have the students download the Relationship Triangle and complete #1 on the Relationship Triangle by writing what Doris is at good and and something that she hopes to accomplish.

Download Relationship Triangle .pdf (Requires Acrobat Reader)

Stop and Go Exercise. Round 1: have students stand and walk until teacher's command to stop. Round 2: walk looking for a lost object; side coach thoughts so looking for specific object and specific places. Freeze. Round 3: walk looking for a person they've lost in a very busy place; side coach their thoughts. Freeze. Returning to desks, reread Doris's letter to Amir and have students complete #2 of the Relationship Triangle.

Assign or read Chapters 1 and 2.

Activity: Warmup stretches. Have students find a partner. Have them image themselves as one of Doris's classmates who has just read her poem to Amir. On your signal have them whisper to their partner about the poem.

Create a tableau. With the students standing in a circle next to their partner, have one student volunteer to be Doris and enter the center of the circle. Have each pair enter the circle taking a pose to share what they were saying about the poem. Discuss how Doris feels.
Have students complete #3 on the Relationship Triangle expressing how Doris feels about school at this point.
Discuss with the class what they know about Doris so far.

Assign or read Chapters 3-7.

DAY THREE

Activity: Discuss where the Bronx is (show on a map) and what the neighborhood on 163rd street would be like.
Warmup. Side coach students through nonlocomoter and locomoter movements (see standards above). Have students, each in their own space, pantomime Doris doing a chore. Have them start by imaging where they are, the weight, size and shape of the objects they are going to use. On "Go" have them start their pantomime. Share some of those that clearly illustrate the action.

Explain that dance maybe "abstracted" pantomime. Have them repeat their pantomime, making it bigger and simpler. Clap a rhythm of 16 beats and have them start and complete their action in this time frame. Play music that suggests the mood of "doing the chores" and have them repeat their movement sequence several times.

Discuss how the music influenced their movement. Discuss when and why they listen to music. Share their experiences of performing or creating music.

Assign or read Chapters 8-11. Choose an activity from the novel to create a movement piece, discover the feelings the character had at this point, select music that expresses the mood of your character from what is available at home, practice the movement--limit to 90 seconds. Bring the music to class. (This, of course, can be done in class.) (Suggestions: Chapter 8, p. 63: Bird walking into the classroom behind his father; Chapter 9, p. 74-75: Yellow Bird leaving Doris' apartment after studying or Doris walking back to the kitchen table after studying; Chapter 10, p. 82: Mrs. Baker catching Yellow Bird with the note during the test or pp. 83-4: Yellow Bird being accused by Mrs. Barker; Chapter 11, p. 85: Doris looking for Yellow Bird on the school grounds or pp.89-90: Yellow Bird sharing his signs with Doris or p.91: Doris at work in The Bee Hive)

DAY FOUR

Activity: Warm up with non locomotor and locomotor movements. Have the students practice their individual movement phrase, reminding them to make it large and simple, to give it a beginning, middle and ending. Clap 16 beats for the movement phrase. Divide the class into groups of four. Have them share their movement with their group members. Have them decide an order for a presentation. Have them select one piece of music for the whole, and then teach their movement to their group. Share the movement sequences. Discuss what emotions were communicated through the movements and how this corresponded to the novel. How did the music contribute?

Assignment or read Chapters 12 through 17.

DAY FIVE

Preparation: Discuss the chapter headings--done to remind the reader about the problems of dyslexia. Discuss change. Ask, "How did Doris change throughout the story? Yellow Bird? Mrs. Barker? Doris's parents?"

Activity: Assign each student a role from the book, e.g. Doris, one of her parents, Miss Bee, Mr. Washington, Yellow Bird, Mrs. Barker, Lavinia, Russell (more than one student may have the same role). Tell the students it is three years after the story ended and you are going to interview them for the neighborhood newspaper to see what they most remember from when they or the students in this story were in elementary school. Discuss which characters were believable, what portions of the interviews represented what happened in the book.

Give the students collage materials and a place to work. Divide the class into groups of three; let each group decide if it wants to do a collage about Doris or Yellow Bird. Assign #1 in each group to think about how their group's character thought about her or himself and the other characters at the beginning of the book, #2 at the point where Yellow Bird is put in the special class, #3 at the end of the book. Have them share their ideas with the group. Discuss with the students that color, words, lines/shapes, texture can share moods and feelings--a sense of being alone or reaching out to others.

Have each student create his or her collage, tearing or cutting and pasting paper. Allow the students to draw in images. When they are finished, have each group share their collages, explaining why they chose colors, images, words, etc. to share their understanding of their character.

Assessment: Work with the students to create rubrics to assess their work 1) as an ensemble, e.g. willingly participated, contributed ideas, listened to others, was willing to collaborate; 2) completion of homework assignments; 3) movement; 4) creation of dialogue; 5) creation of the collage. Have the students use the rubrics to evaluate their work for the unit.

Have the students write an essay: What Doris learned about "reaching out" to others and when I have been able to reach out to someone--or when I could have done so.

Based on a unit by CiCi Aragon and Patrick Elkins-Zeglarski, ASU Department of Theater