My time at Spotswood High School observing the Musical Theater class was a very

interesting experience for me. I have had many experiences in musical theater classes and
rehearsals, so I was really looking forward to my time there. The class started out with
lengthy general morning announcements, which seemed almost unnecessary and could
have been accomplished in two minutes. The teacher was nice enough to let the students
introduce themselves to us, and give us a run down on the different projects that they had
been working on this year, as well as what was coming up for them in the last two
months. The class was comprised of about 1/3 seniors, and 2/3 freshmen, which made for
an interesting dynamic in the classroom. The seniors seemed to be there because they had
a free space open in their schedule, and this seemed like a fun, low-stress class. The
freshmen seemed to be there because it was a cool looking class that I am sure was
different from their middle school course offerings. I noticed that the two classes
separated themselves, and there was little interaction during the 90-minute class. About
45 minutes into the class, Mr. May started their rehearsal. They were laying down the
groundwork for their Spring Showcase in May, and were working on the songs "It's a
Hard Knock Life," and "I think I'm Gonna Like it Here" from Annie. The rehearsal
process was a little hard for me to watch, because the students were incredibly
unengaged, and seemed to take advantage of their teacher's nonchalant approach to
teaching. Mr. May tried to get them to sing with the effort he has heard before by
repeating the songs over and over, and singing with them, but nothing encouraged them
to work harder. It was 9:00 in the morning, but there was no excuse for how lazy they
sounded. There were many times throughout the rehearsal that I wanted to interject
something to help the students get into character, but it was not my place to do so.

My biggest takeaway from this experience was the student engagement, and how to
combat what I saw in the classroom. I understand that students have bad or off days, but
the teacher should have ways to lift the spirit and get work done in the classroom despite
the preexisting energy. I hope that whatever I plan to teach in this class is motivating to
the students, and successfully accomplishes my goals.

Questions for the teacher:

- Is the classroom dynamic always this low in energy?
- What kind of acting techniques could have been incorporated into the rehearsal in order
to motivate the students to sing with intention?
 Practicum Teaching

Understanding statements:
• Students will understand that all music is trying to portray a message, and it is up to the
performer to deliver that message the way they see best fit.
• Students will understand that vocal warm-ups, physical warm-ups, and creative warm-
ups set up the rehearsal to have supported energy.
Learning goals. Articulate these to state or national standards: (TI stands for Theater
Arts Standards)
• I can project my voice. (MCI.3.4,9,10; TI.3.3)
• I can identify and portray an emotion in a piece. (7.5.2, HCB.5)
• I can participate in an improvisation game. (TI.2)
Materials:
• Sheet music for "It's a Hard Knock Life," "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here," and
"We Go Together."
• Piano
Detailed procedures:
• Announcements done by Mr. May (10 minutes)
• 3 rotations (students will count off by three's and split up into the following
groups, 7 min each): (25 minutes)
David: vocal warm-ups, and work on projections
Kathryn: Improvisation games (catchphrase, freeze scene)
Jenny: Physical warm-ups
• Start rehearsing music:
• 20 minutes:
David take 'leads' (Annie, Molly) off to the side to work on character
development in "It's a Hard Knock Life."
Kathryn and Jenny rehearse the music with the rest of the ensemble,
focusing now on projection, articulation, character development,
and emotion in "It's a Hard Knock Life."
Rehearse the whole scene with the music, and Mr. May playing the
piano.
• 20 minutes
David take 'leads' (Annie, Molly) off to the side to work on character
development in "I think I'm Gonna Like it Here."
Kathryn and Jenny rehearse the music with the rest of the ensemble,
focusing now on projection, articulation, character development,
and emotion in "I think I'm Gonna Like it Here."
Rehearse the whole scene with he music, and Mr. May playing the
piano.
• 15 minutes
Kathryn, Jenny, and David rehearse "We Go Together" from Grease,
playing special attention to the solo spoken rhythmic lines, and
overall energy of the piece.
Assessments
Students will be assessed based on their participation in the class.
- Is the student projecting their voice to the best of their ability?
- Does the student show interest towards the music?
- Does the student have an idea of the meaning of the piece?
- Does the student collaborate with their peers to create interesting and authentic
blocking?

Adaptations:
For vocal warm ups, the teacher should be monitoring the students to make sure they are
not over singing, or the exercise is too hard.
For physical warm ups, the activity should be modified for students who are unable to use
their feet. If walking around, try to make the activity focus on how they can use
everything but their feet to create the same feeling.
For improvisation, if a student feels uncomfortable in a certain role in the game, swap
them out with another student, and give them a role that will challenge them without
leaving their comfort zone.
For rehearsal, the student will be encouraged to act and sing as they see best fit for the
characters, as well as themselves. Music with different colors can be provided if needed,
with permission from Mr. May.

Reflection:
I am so proud of the work that we did with this class. I am not entirely comfortable with
calling myself a musical theater 'expert,' so I was a little nervous to teach a class with the
experience I had. However, I love musical theater more than most genres, and I noticed
that my love was showing through my teaching. While leading the improvisation games,
I was carefully assessing each student to test the vibe of each group that rotated through,
and some seemed more energetic than others, so I went with that. We played a game
called 'Catchphrase' which allowed for more outgoing students to take off with a scene,
and some shyer students to still participate without having to come up with clever lines
on the spot. This would have been a game I hated in high school, but as the facilitator, I
was having a blast watching what the students came up with, and was willing to help any
time a student got stuck. This was clearly an acting exercise, but I think by using my
previous theater knowledge, I made a very convincing 'expert,' for at least a few minutes.
When we started rehearsing the music, our intention was not just to run a regular
rehearsal, but to take this opportunity to provide the feedback we had wanted to give
during our observation times. My focus was to get the students moving, and make them
care about the music. We explored different emotions that "It's a Hard Knock Life" could
contain, which motivated the students to sing louder, and sincerely act. Mr. May gave us
feedback after our time, and he said that I had an interesting technique of teaching where
I got up in the ensemble's faces (appropriately) and yelled out directions on how to
improve during their singing. This was always how I instinctually motivate students
while running rehearsals, and Mr. May seemed to think I was very successful. By the end
of the class, the students went from sounding like sad, weak, high school freshmen to
sounding like angry, fed up orphans, which was the character they decided they were
going for. The energy seemed to build with each passing note, and I saw sparks in the
eyes of some of the students that I had never seen before. A student came up to me
afterward and told me that that was the most fun that she had had in a class in a long
time, and that comment alone reminded me why I got into this profession in the first
place.