Resources

by Frank Perez

Frank Perez is a playwright and director for theater and film. He has worked with various arts-in-education programs throughout New York City. His published writing includes biographies of the actor Raul Julia and union activist Dolores Huerta, articles in Jump Cut, Latin New York, and Latino Film/Video Collaborative News, and a number of original plays.

Breaking The Ice

You really need to “break the ice”—that is, make sure that teachers and students are comfortable with you—before you embark on a residency. So what do you do? Well, on the first day of a residency, I always ask the teacher to tell the students about my visit prior to my arrival. I’ll ask the teacher to emphasize that a special guest is arriving—someone who isn’t a teacher, but a poet (or in my case a playwright). The teacher should stress that it is a privilege for the class to be selected and it can also be taken away if they do not cooperate or participate.

Don’t be afraid to ask the teacher about a possible “problem student” you have observed during class. This will show the teacher that you’re aware of an individual student’s characteristics, and will help you connect with your teacher all the more. As for the students, try to find out who they are and what they like to do. The following exercise that I use every time I initially meet a class (in grades 9 through 12) always gives me back plenty of information about my students in a short period of time.

1) After the introduction by the teacher, tell the students in your own words who you are, what you’re doing in the class, and what the culminating event (i.e., an anthology of student work, a staged reading, a party, etc.) will be. If you like, show students samples of your work or read them a short poem or story. I emphasize “short” because many students have been turned off by poets and playwrights who proceed to read their new second act or latest opus for an hour! Keep your presentation short and sweet.

2) Next—and most importantly—ask students who they are and what they like to do. The best way to do this is to go around the room prompting students to give out three bits of information; their name, age, and favorite thing to do. You’d be surprised how many students may not know each other even in the same classroom. You’ll also find out who are the readers and writers, who’s articulate and who’s not, and so on. You’ll find out who is shy and who will be your eternal volunteer—a good student to depend on!

3) The next step is to find out how well students write. What I like to do is have the students think about and visualize a favorite place or room at home, be it a living room, bedroom, kitchen, or bathroom. Then the students describe their rooms, emphasizing the shape, size, color, and diversity of things in their rooms—make sure students provide the reader with as many intricate details as possible. You can prompt students by asking them if there are posters on the wall (of who?), computer games (what kind?), CDs (what kind of music?), and so on. Also emphasize that you want a whole paragraph of complete sentences, not a list, which is sometimes the first option students like to take. This will tell you a lot about the individual student’s life at home.

4) After this is done, have students turn their pages over in order to draw sketches of their room using their written descriptions as guides or “maps.” This kind of drawing exercise is usually pretty fun for students, in that it helps them associate writing with other genres—writing is associated with visual art, not just reading, book reports, essays, and other “boring” stuff. This part of the “Breaking the Ice” exercise also will help you find out who the artists are in your class—make sure you remember who they are, and have them do artwork for your anthology.

5) The final step is to take the students’ writing and read it out loud without divulging individual students’ names. It’s fun for students to hear their work being read aloud and while you are reading, they have fun guessing whose room is being described—also make sure to hold the paper up high as you read, so the students in the class can view the artwork on the back of the paper.