Image Theater and Experiential Learning

In our next history lesson, Sneha and I explored the feelings of social unrest that contributed to the Revolt  of 1857 through Image Theater. 

To bring the students into our world of imagination and to connect to the previous class’s objective to understand leadership, Sneha and I opened the lesson by reading the story, Free the Children, as 5 students created frozen tableaus (or frozen scenes) of each part of the story. 

This exercise was a challenge for the students. They found it difficult to be imaginative in their physical depictions of the story, for instance it took them a long to comprehend the idea of embodying an inanimate object. 

After reflection, Sneha and I thought this opening activity may have been more beneficial had we given the students an example of a frozen tableaux or frozen scene from a video.

After completing our physical reading comprehension, Sneha led the students in a word blast on the idea of change. 

The students shouted out some really interesting perspectives, like the fact that we embody change “when we stop doing bad things and use self control” and that we can bring change when we “become the leader.” This idea prompted the students into a discussion on the added responsibilities that come with being a leader, and how becoming a leader affects your relationship to others.

After the word blast we delved into the academic ‘meat,’ i.e. the specific details of discontent among the people and discontent among the soldiers that spurred the revolt. However, we wanted the students to discover these specifics themselves. 

To do this, we divided the class into two groups - the Indians living under British rule and the English living in India during 1857. We then instructed the ‘Indians’ to sit completely still and silent and prompted the English to go over and take any possession they wanted from the ‘Indians.’ (Note - we did tell the students to handle possessions with respect and to not touch them anymore after bringing them back to their desks). 

After the ‘English’ had taken their fill, we asked the ‘Indians’ to reflect on how it felt to have their things taken without being able to do anything about it. The overall consensus was that it felt “bad,” but after further guiding questions Uday made the beautiful comment that the English were not good leaders because they were not treating the Indians as human beings. (See video below.)

Capitalizing on this newly divided class culture, Sneha read “Discontent Among the People” and instructed the ‘Indians’ to create a frozen tableaux as the ‘English’ analyzed what they observed. We then read “Discontent Among the Soldiers” and repeated the image theater exercise with the opposite groups. By this time in class we found the students to be more open to physical interpretation of the story and quicker to demonstrate their listening comprehension. 

Our plan was to then reflect by creating one giant tableaux as a class to show how we felt about the lesson. Unfortunately, as the best ones often do, our plans went awry and we ran out of time. Nonetheless, it was exciting to see the students teaching themselves through their own experiences and deepening their reflection and analysis skills. 

Session #2	Objective: SWBAT understand the events that led to the Revolt of 1857
Activity	Description	Materials
Opening	Read the story about Free the Children (see below chart for the story). Exposure Value - leadership	Copy of the story
Icebreaker/Spark	Call up 5 students and ask them to create a frozen image with their bodies (tableaux) without speaking based on the story that has just been read. Ask the other students to share what they see in the tableaux.
Investigation	Word blast - Change Guiding questions: When do you see change in your self/classroom/community/country? How does the change make the self/classroom/community/country different - better or worse? Who brings about change? How do these people act to bring about the change? Can you think of one big change that has happened or is happening in our country?	Writing surface
Main Game	Divide the class into two groups - the Indians living under British rule and the English living in India in the early 1800s. Instruct the ‘British’ to go take whatever they want from the ‘Indians’ and keep it for themselves.  Reflect - How did it feel to have your things taken? How did it feel to take others’ things? How does it affect the culture of the classroom to have one group taking advantage of the other? Now read “Discontent among the people” and do the following activity in the two groups Image Theater - Instruct the Indians to create a frozen tableau (scene) of how they feel as that person in society and ask the students in the other group to think critically and analyze what they see; do the same with the English group Now read “Discontent among the soldiers” and do the same Image Theater activity with critical thinking	Textbook
Reflection/Closing	Image Theatre reflection - create one giant tableaux as a class for how you felt about today’s lesson. Can go one by one and enter the tableaux with your shape or can do it altogether on the count of 3.