Tableau (Freeze Frames) What is Tableau?

Students make a series of frozen pictures to help break down a story, analyze the sequence of events, identify the important aspects of the story, and bring it to life. Their expressive faces, body poses, and how they pose in relationship to one another creates a living picture or sculpture. In its simplest form students simply freeze to capture a moment in time. Teachers can apply this strategy to history, literature, or visual art, and they can expand the strategy to include dialogue. Teachers can use Tableau with all ages. Tableaus tell a clear story about events, people or place. Tableaus develop empathy or emotions of characters in the story. Tableaus require students to focus their attention and freeze their bodies and faces to show action. Tableaus require attention to composition: - position of bodies to create interest and understanding - varying of body levels ( high, middle or low positions)

Why Use Tableau?

Tableau is an effective strategy to develop student comprehension because students must envision the action and events they read about in the text. This strategy supports students understanding. In the process of creating Tableaus students are involved in developing their senses, building and activating background knowledge, asking questions, determining what is important, making inferences, and synthesizing the material they have read. It also introduces the actors tools and skills of body, voice, and imagination. Research support: Dramatic activities are crucial to early literacy development because children can be involved in reading and writing as a holistic and meaningful communication process (McNamee, McLane, Cooper, & Kerwin, !"#$% &n addition, researchers have discovered that the mental re'uirements for understanding drama are similar to those for reading% (or instance, the meaning of a reading is generally grasped in a transaction between the reader and the te)t% *+rocess drama* refers to a teaching method that involves children in imaginary, unscripted, and spontaneous scenes, in which the meaning is made from the engagement and transactions between the teacher and students (,chneider & -ac.son, /000$% &n addition, reading can also stand for a *process of interpreting the world,* which endorses drama as a powerful learning medium because it provides a conte)t for children to relate to
Tableau as a Strategy to Increase Reading Comprehension Arts for Academic Achievement / March 2008

their lived e)perience% &n writing development, children who e)perience drama also appear to be more capable of ma.ing appropriate linguistic choices as well as e)pressing opinions or suggesting solutions (McNaughton, !!1$%

Teachers need to know that being fun, interesting, and entertaining is only one dimension of drama and theatre, which provides engagement for students to learn and to discover. As McMaster (1998) advocated, drama can be an invaluable teaching method, since it supports every aspect of literacy development. From developing their decoding knowledge, fluency, vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, discourse knowledge, and meta-cognitive knowledge to comprehension of extended texts. Drama and theatre in many ways educate children as a whole.

Implementing Tableau in the K -8 Classroom

How can I use my face and body to share my understanding of a story?

possibly stated as Enduring Understanding: Students will understand how face and body can communicate a story. (FREEZE FRAME) For Beginning, Middle, and End Storytelling STANDARDS: (taken from the Minne ota Elementary Standard ) In the Arts The student will understand and use artistic processes to create, perform, and respond The student will: Understand the elements of theater, including plot, theme, character, language, sound, and spectacle Use movement, sound, and language to create images and express ideas; Create characterizations of animals, objects, or shapes Create a character based on fiction or life experience using movement, voice Communicate a story and character using voice, movement and imagination. Through the Arts Language Arts Standards The student will use a variety of strategies to develop and expand reading, listening and speaking vocabularies.

Tableau as a Strategy to Increase Reading Comprehension Arts for Academic Achievement / March 2008

The student will actively engage in the reading process and use a variety of comprehension strategies to understand the meaning of texts that have been read or listened to. Demonstrate literal comprehension by asking and answering questions about narrative and informational text. Make predictions about story content. Relate texts to prior knowledge and experiences. Demonstrate literal and inferential comprehension by asking and answering questions about narrative and informational text. Make predictions of outcomes and verify from texts. Make simple inferences and draw and support conclusions.

!B"E#T$%E: ,tudents will use their prior .nowledge, senses, infer, and synthesi2e information to retell the beginning, middle, and end of a story% ,tudents will use the actor3s tools of imagination, body and facial e)pression (and voice when cued$ and the actor3s s.ills of focus and cooperation to interpret the thoughts and feelings of a character and4or the dramatic action of a .ey moment in a story% &R!#ED'RE: % Choose a te)t 5o begin with, choose a te)t with which students are familiar% &t should be simple &nclude events 6nd be a story that can be done by a group of / or more /% 7)plain the tas. to students8what is your intended learning or focus9 ,e'uence of story :eginning, middle and end Develop summary of the story8what is important9 Develop comprehension of place, character, or plot, main event 7tc% ;% ,hare the assessment rubric% <% Do warm=ups> support focus, develop same space, comfort, awareness of the group% #% ?ead, reread the story% @% Discuss the story 6s. 'uestions to elicit impressions> Ahat do you remember9 Ahat words or phrases do you remember9 Ahat colors did you see in your mind3s eye, your imagination9
Tableau as a Strategy to Increase Reading Comprehension Arts for Academic Achievement / March 2008

Ahat sounds did you hear9 &f you were to title this story what might it be9 6s. 'uestions to elicit responses pertaining to comprehension and clarity> Ahat happened9 Aho are the characters9 Ahere does the action ta.e place9 6s. 'uestions about what might be a beginning4middle4ending picture%

1% Describe tableau guidelines% Define acting area> where they perform, classroom Bstage%C 7)plain tableau cues> eyes closed, hand claps, chimes% Clarify e)pectations for cooperative wor.> o every person on their team has to be in the tableau o listen to every one3s ideas o be respectful and supportive of your team members o we agree to imagine together8to be in the same story at the same time 7mphasi2e focus, fro2en stance, and silence of tableau scene% "% Divide students into three groupsD students can count off by threes% 7ach number will create a tableau for the appropriate scene in the se'uence% !% +rovide time for planning and rehearsalD teacher may coach individual groups in the use of the actor3s tools and s.ills% 6ctors 5ools and ,.ills> :ody, face, voice, and imagination (physical, emotional and psychological$ 0% Eather students to present tableau> 7)plain e)pectations for respectful audience members and appropriate response at end of each tableau% ?eference assessment chec.list% % +resent the tableau% 7ach group will present while remaining groups serve as the audience% Cue the student actors to begin the tableau% Fiew the tableau% Cue the student actors to end the tableau% 6udience responds> Descriptive review (mini F5,$ Ahat did you see9 Ahat do you thin. is going on9 Ahat do you see in the tableau that ma.es you say that9 /% ?eflect on the tableauD use assessment chec.list to invite discussion of tableau% ;% ?evise the tableau% <% ?e=create the tableau%

Tableau as a Strategy to Increase Reading Comprehension Arts for Academic Achievement / March 2008

Resources:
Clyde, -ean 6nne, :rea.through to Meaning> Gelping your Kids :ecome :etter ?eaders, Ariters, and 5hin.ers, /00@, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH. Eric Digest: Using Drama and Theatre to Promote Literacy Development: Some Basic Classroom Applications, Prepared by: Ping-Yun Sun. Kelner, Lenore :lan., 5he Creative Classroom> 6 guide for Hsing Creative Drama in the Classroom, +re. I @, !!;, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH. Kelner, Lenore Blank, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension: Strategies and Activities for Classroom Teachers, 2006, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH. The Kennedy Center, Living Pictures: A Theatrical Technique for Learning Across the Curriculum, 2002, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Stages Theater Company, Freeze Frames, In My Own Voice- Responding to Life and Literature Through Playwriting. Ailhelm, -effrey, &magining to Learn> &n'uiry, 7thics and &ntegration 5hrough Drama, !!", Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

Tableau as a Strategy to Increase Reading Comprehension Arts for Academic Achievement / March 2008