The virtual environment that we find ourselves in has got me missing teaching and having the opportunity to create so many new things. I like your approach of aligning the class to have similar content at different depths of knowledge! Keep that up. Perhaps you will need to look for common themes that emerge in the standards and make a priority list of the key takeaways you want your students to have at the end of the course. I always liked developing some essential questions for my courses and then backwards mapping strategies that will help students at each level answer that question (check out Understanding by Design if you haven't - it changed my entire way of looking at teaching when I read it).
Sometimes though, you are correct that finding the common things might not always work and there is something unique you want one specific level to learn or do. In those cases perhaps you can lift up a unique thing that one group is doing and have the other groups journal about it and even give feedback. Look at ways to embrace peer to peer discussion, even if they are working on different assignments. That could provide some interesting perspective since the new set of eyes were working on something different. Our school system is implementing a combination of synchronous time and asynchronous time for activities. If you have the ability to assign asynchronous work, that could be an excellent way to fill in some gaps as well.
When I was teaching theatre classes we often had level 2-4 together as well as 3 levels of technical theatre students. Trying to look at the big picture was key in keeping everyone moving forward, however, sometimes if there were very few of one level of student, I would do much more independent study style activities with them. If your school system is providing any "office hour" or "drop-in" virtual sessions, you could have some of those smaller groups meet you at some of those times.
Finally, don't feel like you have to have all of the answers to how the course should flow before it starts. This forum is a great place to come and get ideas. Also, let the students help organically influence your planning as the weeks move forward. Trust in yourself as a professional to make strong choices. Theatre teachers across the world have combined classes similar to this and they are all re-imagining the ways they teach these classes in a virtual environment. I am excited to read about other people's ideas and hear about how things go as the new school year gets started!
Best wishes on a great start to the new school year!
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Steven Fleming
Columbia, MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-15-2020 15:32
From: Marie Miguel
Subject: Teaching multiple levels in one class
Just need to pick some brains. Although I don't have any rosters yet, and have no idea how many students i will have, I will be having my Drama 2-5 students in the same class. My original plan was to have the entire group produce a play the second half of the semester, use the 1st half to "teach" what I need and then they can apply it the 2nd half. We are completely virtual for the 1st nine weeks, so that makes some of the skills stuff really difficult, especially for the tech theatre class. I think I am still going to try to have them produce a show the second half-hopefully we'll be back to in-person then. My question is some suggestions of how to teach the 4 different levels at the same time, especially virtually? I've tried to make the curriculum align for each class so that they are doing similar things, just at different levels, but it doesn't always work. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Jennifer Miguel
Chesapeake, VA
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