Reflection #12: Field Experience

What we are doing in field is doing our lesson plan where we are trying to integrate process drama in 6th grade on the Ancient Rome unit. We told the story, "Roman Diary" where it is about a young girl that is Greek and she is on her way to Rome as a slave. She describes her experiences in her journal entries. She tells about the things she has witnessed and seen and how she has felt. We had the students act out being at an auction for auctioning her off to a master, there was an activity of a role on the wall where we had the students write the feelings of a Roman soldier going off to war. We had them write the feelings the soldier might have had being in this parade. Alot of the students wrote down that they thought that soldier might be scared and worried to go to war. On the outside of the soldier's outline, we had them write words that people watching the soldier in the parade might have felt. Most of them wrote down, proud, handsome, courageous, etc. We had an activity where we pantomimed them going throughout different places in Rome. The young slave girl rescued a baby in a fire and we had an interview with the three heroines and the class asked questions while they gave their best responses as if they were the slave girl.

So at the end of the lesson, we had the students make a journal entry of their own writing down their life as a servant and see how it would have been for them. Many students shared and they were really good! They truly got a feel of how it might have been being a slave in Ancient Rome. I think the activities helped them to understand those feelings.

Now the students have a better idea of what life was like for someone their age, but maybe at a very different social class than they are in. It helped them to gain a better perspective and appreciation for the people of Rome and their lives. It helps them to realize who they are in their own lives and how they can be aware of others and their needs and be more sensitive to them. Overall, I think they were grateful to enjoy the experience and the activities in process drama.