All Stars!

Overview

Now that students have had a taster of a variety of performing arts, they are given the opportunity to establish their own extra-curricular clubs. These clubs will collectively form the basis of your school’s All Stars Stage School.

Description

Ask them to form groups according to whichever activity they preferred e.g. acting, dancing, singing etc. These groups should then produce a digital presentation (video, audio, text) that will encourage others to join their club. Tell learners that whilst they can only be founder members of one club, they will be free to join any or all of the clubs if they wish. It is also important to tell them that whilst they may wish to join the drama club, for example, they may wish to be set designers, producers or writers, rather than actors.

Ask them to choose a name for their club e.g. Glee Club, Folies Bergère, Spotlight Players, The Bolshoi Boys. Emphasise that their presentation should be as innovative as possible (no monotone PowerPoints Please!). The presentation should reflect the artistry and ethos of the club… so the Glee Club presentation might create a music video using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker and the art club might create an Animoto video gallery http://animoto.com or a Moovly video www.moovly.com. Each club must present to other classes and groups of students in an attempt to recruit more members.

Finally, they need to set days and times when the groups will meet and set themselves termly goals e.g. perform an end of year, show, drama, exhibition etc. They may wish to cooperate with other groups and plan joint performances of, say, an evening of music and dance.

Time needed 2-3 hours.

Resources

Access to IT equipment, including computers, digital cameras etc.
Several members of staff from several departments to help co-ordinate and lead the clubs (at least initially).
Access to several performance spaces and suitable resources e.g. art room.

Hints and tips

It will depend on the age and maturity of the target group whether students are able co-ordinate and organize themselves. Of course, one of the aims of this programme is to encourage increasing levels of independence amongst students. However, this does not mean prolonged periods unsupervised! At this stage, teachers will be facilitators and advisors rather than leaders, only stepping in when problems or issues arise.

Further guidance is available by typing these into your browser