• Describe the progress have you made so far. (You may need to review the skills and knowledge area for the unit, either on your cover sheet or at the top of this wiki).  Describe the story elements and techniques that you used and how successful it was.

• What are the strengths and weaknesses in your scene as a whole and as an individual?

• Is your scene successful? Why or why not?
  

• What could you do to further improve your artistic process?  

• First of all, above is my Drama Speech, about holidays. My topic is about going to Ishigakijima with my friend Kento. I am going to reflect myself based on my progress on the speech.

• In our first week in the Unit, we had a 10 minute discussion about what makes a good conversation. As we talked, I started to understand the basic conversations, as well how to create a god conversation. Next lesson, we had our first practice speech. It was considered as a fun activity, and it was a 1 minute one. My topic was water, and I talked about why dogs drink water and not coke or soda. As the Unit progressed, I increased my understanding towards speech, as well as various things we learned about. We watched some videos, and we were able to expand our knowledge about hooks, etc. We also had some opportunities to practice the speeches. In the second practice speech, I was probably very nervous, so I think I did not make a very good speech. On the final speech….. Never mind, I will talk about it in the reflection later.

• Describe the progress have you made so far. You are encouraged to compare/contrast it to your first speech.
• I think I made a good progress varying my tone and modulation, enlivening the speech. In my final speech, in the first part, I noticed myself varying the tone when asking a question, compared to somewhere different. I think I was able to vary my tone, and not make the speech boring and tiring. In my first practice speech, I was also able to use a hook to catch more attention from the audience.

• What are the strengths and weaknesses in your final speech?
• My strengths are my tones, just as mentioned before. I was able to change my tones in various occasions, such as in the hook, conclusion, and the middle of the speech. I gave an impact to the audience by changing the tone. My weakness, is that I had some word mistakes. One is that I was very nervous, but the main reason, is that I was not very ready making the cue cards, and I did not put the important parts in the cue card.

• Is your speech successful? Why or why not?
  
• I think my speech was successful, because I think I covered the basics of the skills in speech. I was able to vary my tone and enliven the speech. I was also able to talk in a loud voice, (not too loud) so that the audience would not miss words. It is because if one word misses, the speech might get confused and it would not be a good presentation.

• What could you do to further improve your process and speech? 
• I would like to use more sophisticated language, decrease fillers, and start using advanced skills. Decreasing fillers is probably the easiest thing to fix up. If there were no fillers, it would definitely be a better speech. Then, more sophisticated language is important to give a meaning to the audience. Start using advanced skills, is very important to increase the level of the speech as well.
• Lastly, thanks to Mr. Curkovic for organizing the unit!!

First of all, above is a group of students in a video performing each other’s speeches. These speeches were taken by Mr. Curkovic.

When I reflect back on my speech, I think my hook was appropriate. I asked a question about the iPhone, and I remember people staring at me when I asked the question. I think my strength there was my tone of voice, and how I started off the speech. It was only temporary, but my tone of voice was clear until the last part. I think I started off the speech well. I consider that the beginning is the most important part in a speech, because the beginning sets the mood and the atmosphere. I think my weakness was that I lost concentration towards the end of my speech. I lost my words, and eventually had the worst conclusion. Even though I didn’t do a good job on this speech, I always start off a speech well. I don’t want to pat myself on the back or criticize myself, so I will attempt harder on the actual speech. Although I was really nervous when I performed and I failed in this speech, I think this opportunity to practice performing a speech was a great idea. From this, I have gained a lot of experience, learned various techniques. A lot of speeches inspired me to talk with more enthusiasm, except for when I am not talking about a fun speech. The actual reason why I lost my words was because my idea was too small.

Overall, I can improve further more in my speech techniques by having a larger idea, and talking more about a topic.

• Describe the progress have you made so far. (You may need to review the skills and knowledge area for the unit, either on your cover sheet or at the top of this wiki)
• I think I did make a good progress on the skills shown in the unit. In the mime scene, I communicated well non-verbally with my group mates, Daniel and Amanda, with using actions that looked obvious. If the actions were obvious, it would be easy to understand, and the other people would know what reactions they would have/what would they do after. This way, we didn’t any problems as the scene progressed. I also did well portraying the character attitude. If I watch the scene video again, I can see I am expressing my character attitude. I was supposed to be an acrophobic businessman, who always creates various problems. I think I did well on that. I am also satisfied on how I created situations, and manipulated imaginary objects. Although imaginary objects weren’t the main idea on our scene, but creating situations were fit to my character attitude, so it was quite simple. In the first part, there was a situation where I couldn’t find my airplane ticket. I think I showed how I was rushing when I realized I dropped my ticket. Also when the plane was about to take off, there was a situation where I couldn’t put my seatbelt on. I actually didn’t make it a big problem, because it may catch more attention if I was the only one who did something different. I know that it is funny if someone is concerned alone in a scene, because of previous experiences in Drama classes. For knowledge, I did understand some. I think I know how non-verbal communication is powerful. I think that if there is verbal communication, you wouldn’t have to express ideas so much because you can use words and we can talk. If it was non-verbal, you would not be able to use words and talk, so you would have to communicate differently. Here, gesture and facial expressions will start to be important. In non-verbal communication, you would have to show your gesture and your facial expressions to tell what you want to say to the audience or the other characters. It means, in non-verbal communication, the style of communication starts to change. Also, if you don’t concentrate in what you are doing, the actions might tell a different thing; it would be confusing to the audience if it looks like you are not doing something you are supposed to. If you do concentrate and if you are confident on what you are doing, the actions would be right and it would lead to a better conclusion than in a situation where you are not concentrating.
• What are the strengths and weaknesses in your summative piece of work? 
• I am sure that in the scene I did explain well on what I wanted to tell the audience. One strength is that we communicated well by using actions as a sign. For example, when I sat on the seat after my head bumped the suitcase, Daniel had a gesture of “Are you okay?” and tapped me. It was a sign, and if Amanda saw that, she had to start announcing about the safety guidance. Also, when we started eating, when my third sip of the soup was almost starting, it was a sign of the beginning of turbulence. One more strength, is that I did well on showing concerns and reactions clearly. The last strength was as a group, but this one is individually. If you see the video above, you would see the preferences (Our group is the very first one, and I am the guy who wearing glasses) (the last explanation was for people who don’t know us) in the scene. I am confident with that, because I heard little giggles and laughs when I was acting. I was just happy because it means my actions were funny and interesting, but I was also happy because I noticed that my actions were understood by the audience. Some weaknesses. I think I needed to keep the same pace when I acted. Sometimes I was fast, some were slow, some were good. I need to keep the pace “good”. I also need to keep facing the audience and let the audience constantly see our facial expressions.
• Is your scene successful? Why or why not?
  
• My scene is successful, from my perspective. I think I improved and fixed problems Mr. Curkovic mentioned when we showed our scene (practice). I am satisfied with what a did, I just need to wait for a good score. (I don’t know if I am, but I hope…) When we practiced, we planned a lot of stuff, as mentioned before, for example taking actions from signs. Our scene progressed well, I think, but I am satisfied myself. I don’t know if Amanda and Daniel are happy with what we did, but I guess they are.
• What could you do to further improve your artistic process?
• If I would work on the same scene, I can improve by researching various problems in an air flight. If I do, I can create further situations and make the scene more realistic. I can also research what happens if an acrophobic person looks out the window and sees cloud below. I can create various reaction and different conclusion from a single situation. I also can improve what wrote above on the section where we had to write about our strengths and weaknesses. I can fix the weaknesses, practice more, and learn how to be more confident on stage.
• Overall, I am satisfied with my progress throughout the unit and what I have learned about mime, although I had some missing parts that I could cure from now on.

I think Gene Kelly’s dance was awesome, because he used all elements:props, rhythm, expression, and moving. He used the umbrella like it was his part of the body, and I liked the part where he gave his umbrella to a person who didn’t have an umbrella, which was really precise. I think he matched his umbrella with the rain. I think his tap dance was really good. The rhythm was perfect, it was the beat as the music, Singing in the rain. Our group danced with music, and I was conscious about being a excellent dancer in our dance. We were really nervous, but when it started, I was actually having fun. We succeeded on the dance, our group was really proud. We think we had communication, and the use of props were good. Used on the climax. The link to our video is on the bottom:

6C Final Dance on Vimeo

I did my LAMDA practice (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) in Drama class. We used palm cards to be ready to perform our speech, but I did not use a palm card because I had self-confidence that I remembered my speech. This is my speech linked below;

6C Keigo-LAMDA from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

My Drama teacher Mrs. Erickson pointed out that my Clarity, Audibility, Tone, Conclusion was ok, but I think I need to work on body language.

After I finished my LAMDA Exam, I didn’t have any regrets, because I got a phrase and I was proud of it. It was: “Great job Keigo!!” I think I succeeded in my speech. I want to improve on vocabulary and speech skills, and next year, I hope I can say a speech with no regret again.

Keigo 6A on Vimeo

When I looked at my speech, I thought I could improve a little more. The reason, is because I should’ve spoken with only little amounts or no fillers.

Next time, I will try not to say fillers, and talk smoothly.

6C finished their first unit in Drama on improvisation. This has been a great way to start the year. Please see the details of our unit below and go to the Grade 6 page in this blog for more about assessment of the unit. Please view the videos of the our Theatre Sports Event.

Significant Concept: Responding to an external stimulus, one needs to have immediate action where there is a suspension of thought.

Guiding Question: How can I suspend habitual pondering and re-act without thinking?

Summative Task: Improv Theatre Sport
Students will engage in summative Improv Theatre Sport Event. 3 theater sport games will be chosen from 6 theater games practised during the unit. Students are divided in 3 teams. Each student has a sheet with rubric to record the minimum of 2 games joined.

Knowledge
•Be aware of dramatic instinct.
•The importance of the ensemble.

Skills
• Making an offer
• Accepting offers
• Giving the stage to others
• Move the action on (advancing)
• Creating a location

Space Jump 6C Group 3 on Vimeo Statues 6C Group 3 on Vimeo