MCA Title:  Drama Machine
Grade Level:  2nd Grade
Authors:  National Theatre Standards Writing Team
Artistic Processes:  Creating, Performing, Responding, Connecting 

Task Description:  Students will collectively and collaboratively use body, voice and imagination in a teacher-led machine to express elements of a main character in a story. The students’ work in the guided drama exercise will demonstrate an ability to creatively respond to teacher side-coaching, questioning, and open-ended suggestions with body, voice and imagination. The students’ reflection on the drama exercise will demonstrate an ability to make connections between self, culture, and community.

"Drama Machine" demonstrates ways to measure student learning in theatre, using the creation of a collaborative machine as a tool for instruction and assessment. This Model Cornerstone Assessment (MCA) is based on a unit which was piloted in a variety of classrooms across the nation. Although in an MCA the emphasis is on the evaluation tools, an MCA does offer enough information for any teacher to create a similar unit of their own. Click on "View the full MCA" below to see strategies for embedding in instruction as a guide for re-creating this unit and assessment customized for your classroom. 

MCAs model effective assessment practice and demonstrate that teaching theatre is specific, rigorous, and measurable by sharing a glimpse into one teacher's classroom. The MCAs on this website come packaged with a suggested strategy for assessing student learning, types of evidence to collect, model rubrics, and samples of student work demonstrating their process and learning. The samples of student work illustrate the unit in action by providing a snapshot of a moment in time showing student response to instruction. 

View the full MCA

Drama Machine Performance Rubric

 

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