This week, I chose to use the Charlie Reads SmarT strategy in my DRA 115 class and my Theatre Production class. Being an Acting major, I really don't have any classes besides CLS that use textbooks, so I have chosen two classes for which I have to read plays.
In my Intro to Theatre class this week, we were assigned to read the play Oedipus Rex. Oedipus Rex is an ancient Greek tragedy written centuries ago about Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who, due to a prophecy, accidentally kills his father and marries his mother. It's hard to believe someone could actually accidentally do such a thing, but if you read the play, which I hope you all will because it's brilliant, you'll get it. The play is 18 pages long, so I decided to read 9 pages at a time, just so I knew that my attention wouldn't have time to vanish. I "CHUNKED the task" so that I could read 9 pages, go to dinner, and come back to finish it up. This was a great way to read, as I didn't have an opportunity to get bored, but I did find myself going back to reread sections of what I had read in my previous session to clarify things that were happening in the second 9 pages. Because I am an Aural learner as well as a Kinesthetic one, I got together with two of my friends who are also performance majors to read the play out loud. I read Oedipus's part, which proved to be pretty amusing to all of us :) After I finished the play, I created a list of scenes and SUMMARIZED what happened in them, including which characters were in them. Here is the first page of the final product:
After I made my scene breakdown, to TEST, I came up with a few questions that the professor could possibly ask us. Here they are!
After doing all of this, I feel much more confident in my knowledge of the play than I would have had I simply just read it.Next, I used the same strategy in my Theatre Production class! In this class, we are making Vision Books, which are scrapbook-like books that directors use to organize their vision for the play they are directing. For my vision book, I chose to create a vision for a production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. It is a gorgeous play, and I am so excited to create my book. But before I was able to create a vision for it, I had to read it. So, naturally, I used the Charlie Read SmarT strategy again, since it worked so well on Oedipus. I used the same adaptions I made to the strategy for Oedipus, and found that it worked just as well with The Glass Menagerie. I CHUNKED the reading, and once I finished, I created another scene breakdown. The play only has four characters, so I didn't include which characters were in which scenes. Here's my scene breakdown:
I just love this play so much! You all should read it! After I did the scene breakdown to SUMMARIZE, I created some questions to TEST myself on the play. Here they are!
All in all, I found this strategy to be very helpful, with the adjustments I made to help it fit my learning styles and classes. I feel prepared for the work I have to do using these plays, and I am eager to use this strategy again for other readings in the future. See you all tomorrow!
Very cool! I found the use of Charlie Read Smart with your plays very relatable since we're both working with narrative readings (check out how I used this strategy with my short stories in Spanish).
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