Will Whitten

Statue(ing)/Frozen Moments:

Description:

Using the characters from the book introduced during the gallery walk have the students begin to walk around the room with purpose. The teacher will begin to give some guided meditation (e.g. “Think about who you would be if you were a character in this book.”). In this case students can choose to think about characters that are presented in the book or other characters that might exist in the world of the book that we aren’t introduced to. As the students continue to walk and think about their character the teacher gives an action prompt based on the tect (e.g. “How would you look as the man washed up on the beach and you saw him for the first time?”). The teacher now asks all students to freeze in that pose. At this point the teacher can ask the students to resume walking with a purpose. The next prompt is to take that same moment and turn the volume up (i.e. increase the levels and expression;if you are low  take it lower, if you are mad be more aggressive). Depending on the response the students can do one more walk and turn up the volume even more or at this point the group can share by having one side stay in pose and the other observing and then flip flop the students.

Application:

This is a great start for students to embody characters. As they walk they are focusing on their body and how it is moving within the space. As the teacher provides prompts they start to think about how they might change their body, their action, their expression to begin to represent the character. When the teacher asks the students to “turn up the volume” it challenges them to further internalize the characters motivation and personality.

Variations:

• This can be done without a link to the text necessarily. The students can choose to represent other types of characters through the guided meditation provided by the teacher (e.g. Think about a bully. How do they walk how?  How do they look?)

Notes: