Middle school theatre challenges
This is my first year teaching middle school theatre (and hopefully the only year, not my age level of choice, I taught two years of high school previous to this) and I'm encountering some large challenges with my sixth-grade classes at the moment. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very appreciative.
At my school, all sixth-graders take five-week rotations in each elective class, including drama, so they don't get any say in what their classes will be. That's OK with me, but the middle school curriculum in my state is largely based on group learning and ensemble drama, and with the sixth grade broken up like this, my classes are from 6-14 students per rotation. Especially during flu season when so many kids are out, it's hard to find group games to accommodate only five or six kids! We don't do plays with the sixth- or seventh-grade students, because the eighth-grade musical is a big deal, kind of a rite of passage. I'm in my fourth rotation of kids at the moment, and this is the toughest one yet because half of one of my classes is made up of special education kids who literally cannot read or write yet aside from their own names. I've talked to the special ed teachers at length about this, but they're at just as much of a loss as I am. This particular group can't do vocabulary puzzles without me writing down the word beside the blank for them and letting them just rewrite it into the space (which makes the rest of the class mad--and yeah, I know it's not the rest of the class's business, but it embarrasses the special ed kids) and they're so shy that they hate participating in improv games, more than once to the point of tears. I have two weeks left with this particular class and I really don't know what in the world to do with them. I've done simple monologues with my previous sixth-grade classes, but I don't know how I can do a memorization project with a class when half of them haven't learned to read yet (which also pretty much eliminates readers' theatre). I'm really at the end of my rope. Any ideas? I'd be so grateful.
At my school, all sixth-graders take five-week rotations in each elective class, including drama, so they don't get any say in what their classes will be. That's OK with me, but the middle school curriculum in my state is largely based on group learning and ensemble drama, and with the sixth grade broken up like this, my classes are from 6-14 students per rotation. Especially during flu season when so many kids are out, it's hard to find group games to accommodate only five or six kids! We don't do plays with the sixth- or seventh-grade students, because the eighth-grade musical is a big deal, kind of a rite of passage. I'm in my fourth rotation of kids at the moment, and this is the toughest one yet because half of one of my classes is made up of special education kids who literally cannot read or write yet aside from their own names. I've talked to the special ed teachers at length about this, but they're at just as much of a loss as I am. This particular group can't do vocabulary puzzles without me writing down the word beside the blank for them and letting them just rewrite it into the space (which makes the rest of the class mad--and yeah, I know it's not the rest of the class's business, but it embarrasses the special ed kids) and they're so shy that they hate participating in improv games, more than once to the point of tears. I have two weeks left with this particular class and I really don't know what in the world to do with them. I've done simple monologues with my previous sixth-grade classes, but I don't know how I can do a memorization project with a class when half of them haven't learned to read yet (which also pretty much eliminates readers' theatre). I'm really at the end of my rope. Any ideas? I'd be so grateful.