Dear IB DP Theatre Teachers -

My name is Kim Guzowski & I teach DP Theatre at the Dwight School in New York City, NY, USA.  I also teach MYP 7 & 8 Theatre. This page has some resources that I have put together for new DP Theatre teachers. ***Please understand that I am just an IB DP teacher like yourself and the information below only represents how I teach. There are many ways to teach the course and there are many wonderful DP Theatre teachers who will make similar information available to you if you ask them to on the Facebook group. I am not an IB trainer, and I encourage you to do the full DP Theater trainings with ISTA and use MyIB online (as well as the FB group) for your questions.  That said, I hope the information and ideas below will be useful to you.***

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. I hope the below helps!

Kim Guzowski

DP & MYP Teacher, Dwight School New York 

kguzowski@dwight.edu

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KEY RESOURCES: MYIB, ISTA, DP THEATER TEACHERS' WEBSITES & FACEBOOK GROUP 

• MYIB has good resources to help you teach (you have to login to MyIB in order to access the links below):

  • •  Teacher Support Materials (TSM)  - This has excellent resources to help you create lessons.

    • Subject Reports - Each year, IB puts out a subject report twice a year after the examination results are in. You must read these subject reports - they will help you teach the course and help you to understand updates as they happen.

    • Subject Component Upload Requirements 2025  - This document tells you what you need to upload. It may change, so check here for upload requirements a few months before uploads are due.

    • The DP Theatre Guide - This is your handbook. Print it, read it, & keep it on hand.

    • Samples of Student Work - these samples are useful to look at yourself and to show your students. They include the examiner grades and reports. I am also happy to share samples of my students' work. My school pays IB to get all of our evaluator reports, so I can give you those with my samples.

• ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association). DP Theatre Teacher training is done by ISTA. ISTA also holds events for students (MYP & DP), as well as publishes a variety of very helpful resources. I highly recommend that you do Category 2 teacher training.

  • • I highly recommend that you purchase ISTA's guidebook for the DP theatre course: IB DP Theatre Student Handbook Though the title says it is for students, it is wonderful for teachers, too.

    • They also have an online store of materials to help you teach the course (posters, books, etc): store.istaglobal.org/ 

    • Your school can also hire an ISTA mentor, which I recommend in your first year. Just contact them at: office@ista.co.uk

IB DP THEATRE TEACHERS WHO HAVE CREATED RESOURCES

• Read Kieran Burgess's resources on the four assessments - you can download these for free, but if you have any money, there is a way to donate a few dollars to Kieran for his work and generosity on his site. Kieran is also available to be hired as a mentor, I believe.

  • Gretchen Nordleaf-Nelson has created wonderful resources that you can find here: West Sound Academy's DP Theatre Resources 

  • Go to the Facebook group called "IB DP Theatre Teachers" and ask your questions, also, peruse the file section of this group. Here you will find many resources and teachers who have good guidance.

  • DWIGHT DP WEBSITE: This is a website I use with my students. It needs a bit of re-organizing right now, but it is useful to have everything on a website for students and yourself to reference easily, so I encourage you to make one of your own. I also give each student a website to house their work (these are easy to make on Google Sites).

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Kim's Course Layout, Notes on the Assessments & Some Lesson Plans

Dwight New York's DP Theatre Course Set-up:

• I teach HL, SL, non-IB, Year 1 & Year 2 students in the same room, but you can use the below resources in single strand classes, as well.

• My combined class is usually about 14 students. My classroom is a 50 seat blackbox theater where we have props, costumes, professional LED lights, sound and three projectors. 

• Link to Kim's 2-year DP plan spreadsheet -  This spreadsheet will show you my overall 2-year teaching plan. It has notes on some resources I use and some ways that I teach. 

  • You should customize your own plan based on your own situation, but I hope my plan gives you a starting point. My classes for HL students are (4) 55 minute classes spread over 5 days and (1) day with a double period of 110 minutes (so, 6x55minutes in all). We're on a 6 day schedule (if that means anything to you). We also have mandatory afterschool and weekend rehearsals leading-up to a exam performances and other school showcases.

 My biggest warning about the course is that the course is VERY specific. You really do need to study the guide and make notes for yourself about what is important. Also, look at the resources on MyIB. 

****Plan your performance dates carefully with your school and make sure to arrange for a good recording of your performances, as these are submitted to IB.**** 

The Four Assessment Projects

You can teach theatre many ways in this course, but you must, ultimately, submit the four projects below.

The submission dates are the ones we have used for 2024, but check the dates every year to see if they change.

TCAF - THEATRE CERTIFICATION OF AUTHENTICITY FORM

• TCAF (link):  This is the theatre certification of authenticity form that you fill out along the way for each assessment. On the TCAF, you will make notes on three check-ins per assessment. The TCAF is submitted when you submit the collaborative project. 

WORLD THEATRE RESEARCH PROJECT (RP)  - SUBMIT MARCH 15  

• 15-minute recorded oral presentation/demo (think of it like a TedTalk that includes a demonstration while talking section). 

  • There are three sections to this assessment that total no more than 15 minutes. 

  • Students can tape in three separate sections or as one 15-minute presentation. 

  • They are allowed to re-tape as many times as you will let them until they are happy, but you can only give them feedback on ONE draft of each section. Be careful about time management here, as students often want to re-tape quite a bit and then you end-up losing time for other parts of the course.  

  • Citations: Research Project: In-text citations as they speak and on any resources they use (like powerpoint if they use one). Resources get uploaded after including a works cited (which can be part of the powerpoint if they use one or just a separate document of works they cited). Materials submitted to IB: video and resources that include works cited.

• WORLD THEATRE RESEARCH PRESENTATION NOTES

  •   My students think this will be easy because it is like what they do in other courses, and then they find it's difficult because each section is SPECIFIC and because they find they have so much to say that they go over time

  •   Focus them on the PERFORMANCE CONVENTION: something a performer DOES with body and/or voice - gesture, movement, voice 

  •   Each section should be roughly equal in time in the presentation - don't have an overly long A1 section

  •   They must do in-text citing while presenting their report. They need to know this and make sure to practice this.

  •     Learning to perform a convention of a wold theater form takes time! My students get in trouble if they stay in the computer research mode and don't move to on their feet work quickly. I encourage them to study with experts outside the school. i put money in my budget to help subsidize trainings for the students.

  •     I teach a prep unit using TWO contrasting forms which helps them to understand how to approach their own project. 

PRODUCTION PROPOSAL (PP)  - SUBMIT APRIL 15 & 20    

• This is a "paper only" project - no performance. 

• Students create a production proposal for a published play that includes the student's plan for how they would direct and design the play. Students can use a one act or a full-length play, but musicals are NOT recommended. 

• The document is a MAXIMUM of 12 pages and with an indicative word count of 4,000 words (they can go over the word count, but shouldn't go over by much). The page count is a MAXIMUM, there are no minimums. 

• The Production Proposal is the Internal Assessment that you grade and will submit the justifications for your grades to IB. IB will ask you to upload five students' works and your grade justifications for these five students. IB picks which students you upload. More information on this is in this email below. 

• Citations: Production Proposal: Works Cited at end of document with references to these citations throughout. Citations do NOT count in page total. 

• Materials submitted to IB: Paper/proposal with works cited as last page. (also, your predicted grade for the course will be submitted with the Production Proposal). By April 15 or earlier submit your Predicted Grades for the course, Your Grades for the Production Proposal. A few hours to a few days later, IB will tell you which 5 students' work they want you to upload. You then upload those 5 Collaborative Projects + your grade justifications.

• PRODUCTION PROPOSAL NOTES

  •  This is unexpectedly difficult for many of my students. They think it is going to be easy and get tripped-up on the layers of thinking that are asked for and on the time it takes to layout a proposal that uses images, diagrams and text so intricately.

  •   Key elements to teach before the assessment:

    • • how to define a "moment" of theater

      •   blocking annotation education

      • SEEING LIVE THEATER - can't do the assessment without seeing live theater, HOWEVER, it is permissable that they see video of live theater (though not preferable)

      •  teaching TEAM - they have to use the TEAM vocabulary in their writing or are docked points

      •  time for layout and even lessons in layout, if they need them

      • in Year 1, my students study a one act together and do a complete practice production proposal. In Year 2, they do the final assessment project in the fall.

COLLABORATIVE PROJECT   - SUBMIT APRIL 30 

• Original devised collaborative performance (7-10minutes) and audience feedback after performance. Paper (10 pages Maximum).

• Make sure to schedule the performances smartly and arrange for good video taping.

•  If you do audience feedback through a talkback, make sure to factor this into the length of each performance and have the students prepare talkback questions. 

• There is a specific IB cover sheet for this project that must be used. COLLABORATIVE PROJECT COVER SHEET (link): There is a specific cover sheet for the Collaborative Project that many of us have difficulty filling out because of how the form is set-up, so do a mock cover sheet for yourself and make sure that you know how to instruct your students to best fill out the form. The difficulty is usually in inserting the image and the text required. There are various strategies for this, so ask for help in the FB group, if you need it. So many people have had trouble with this form that IB may issue a new form for 2026, so be on the lookout for that.

•  Citations: Collaborative Project: Works Cited at end of document with references to these citations throughout. Citations do NOT count in page total. 

• Materials submitted to IB: cover page, video, and paper (works cited are last page of paper) (also the TCAF gets uploaded with the Collaborative materials)

  • TCAF (link):  This is the theatre certification of authenticity form that you fill out along the way for each assessment. On the TCAF, you will make notes on three check-ins per assessment. The TCAF is submitted when you submit the collaborative project. 

• COLLABORATIVE PROJECT NOTES

  •  if they get deep into technical design elements this can be time consuming, so they have to give the time for this or they should not make something so design heavy.

  •  it is essential to give them journal assignments to help them document their process well (needed for paper)

  •  if you have time, have your students research professional collaborative companies and have them do a presentation on their company and run a practical workshop using the company's techniques.  This is not a requirement of IB, but it does help them create their work AND helps them to decide on their ensemble groups.

  •  ***IMPORTANT: ensembles are chosen after they have done their professional collaborative company research and this research should be a part of how they choose ensemble groups. ***There must be a process they go through to choose ensemble groups - they have to write about this in the portfolio.***

SOLO PROJECT  - SUBMIT APRIL 30   HL students only. 

• For the Solo Project, students choose a theatre theorist to research and then use an aspect or aspects of the artist's theory to create a 4-7 minute performance, a talkback at the performance and then they write a paper about their research, process and performance. In order to write the paper well, the student must journal their process all along the way.

• When you do your unit (before the assessment), you can either choose a theorist or theorists you don't know well and explore with the students OR choose a theorist whom you know well and guide the students through their explorations. I teach these lessons in my unit:

  • • an overall quick look at several theatre theorists

    • an in-class exercise in which the class is divided into groups. Each group creates a theatre theory and then creates a piece using another group's theory. This is always one of their favourite activities in the entire course.

    • we do a deeper dive into a theorist (or two) together - usually one whom I know well whom I do not think any of my students will want to do. When I do this depends on how many students I have and the pace of the course around our school calendar. Sometimes I do one of these in year 1 early on (September). I also do this in Year 2 right before they choose their assessment theorist.

• IMPORTANT: Because this is an assessment, you are allowed to only give ONE feedback on the performance (a draft) and ONE feedback on the paper (paper draft). That said, you can absolutely set journal assignments that you can give feedback on. 

• Peer feedback is essential in the creation process. I use this time to coach the students in what to look for so that their feedback is useful.

• There is no definitive list of theorists, BUT the student is assessed on aspects that the assessor can verify as clearly used in the performance, so some theorists are easier to use than others for this purpose. Also, this is a SOLO piece, so the student cannot use other performers or audience members as performers. Practically, the way this works out is the usual Western Internal Theater Theorists are NOT recommended to be used for this assessment: Stanislavski, Meisner, Adler, etc. when used are usually not able of attaining the highest scores. Theorists who have very clear external aspects, such as Lepage, Wilson, LeCompte, Bogart and many others tend to be easier for assessors to assess how the student uses the aspects and also for the student to write about. That said, there are NO restrictions on which theorist a student can use, other than that they have an explicit theory/theories they have documented (primary sources - books, articles, interviews, etc.), that their theory/theories have been written about by others (secondary sources) and that other practictioners have used their theories (this last one is, I think, part of the definition of a qualifying theatre theorist, but I may be wrong - though you will find that any theater theorist who has good primary and secondary sources is a theorist whose theories have been used by others). If you don't know theater theorists, you can look at the resources above (Kieren's Solo Project resource, Gretchen's Solo Project resources, the Dwight DP Website) and find lists of theorists and/or ask in the Facebook group. Below is a list of theorists whom my students have enjoyed working with in the past few years:

  • • Pina Bausch

    • Augusto Boal - Important: Much of Boal's work depends on audience interaction, and the student cannot use those forms, but they can use Image Theater & Newspaper Theater.

    • Anne Bogart

    • Anna Deveare Smith

    • Robert Lepage

    • Robert Wilson

    • Rudolf Laban

    • I have also have had students enjoy using Adler & Stanislavski, but I only allowed them to use these theorists because they very much wanted to investigate these techniques and did not mind that they would not, most likely, be able to earn high marks. That said, I believe the Adler earned a 5 and the Stanislavski earned a 6, but both of these were on the legacy curriculum.

• Choosing a theorist: I teach an overall quick look at several theorists so that they can get some ideas of whom they might be interested in using for their assessment. I also interview my students and recommend 5 theorists to start looking at, but they can look at any theorist who interests them.

• Make sure to schedule the performances smartly and arrange for good video taping. Students must be allowed to walk through their piece with the person who is videotaping before the final performance. 

• If you do audience feedback through a talkback, make sure to factor this into the length of each performance and have the students prepare talkback questions. 

• Citations: Solo Project: Works Cited at end of document with references to these citations throughout. Citations PAGE does NOT count in word total, but citations in the document are counted. 

• Materials submitted to IB: video and paper (works cited are last page of paper)

SOLO PROJECT NOTES

        *   my students enjoy this project very much

        *   it is incredibly time-consuming when they decide to do theorists with intense technical requirements, but if they put in the time, then these projects go well. We hire outside help for some of these because of the expertise needed sometimes. That's not an IB requirement, but we are a New York City school with ample experts around us, so it makes sense for us.

        *   making sure they are rigorous in their academic writing and CITE THEIR SOURCES WELL - they need good primary & secondary sources

        *   it is essential to give them journal assignments to help them document their process well (needed for paper)

        *   having them do a presentation on their theorist with a workshop on their aspect is well worth the time - this is not a requirement of IB, but is something we do to focus them and raise the stakes on their research and explorations

        *    I encourage them to study with experts outside the school depending upon their theorist. i put money in my budget to help subsidize trainings for the students.

CITION NOTES

The work that goes to IB is anonymous, so:

• • NO references to your school THIS INCLUDES NOT WEARING CLOTHES WITH THE SCHOOL NAME ON IT WHEN RECORDING THE RESEARCH PROJECT OR THEIR PERFORMANCES

  • Made up names for classmates and teachers or Student 1, Teacher, Audience #1, etc..

  • When citing themselves, use "Artist" or "Student" or "Self"

GRADING & MARKBANDS The Subject Report has the markbands used by IB for grading. These can change each year, so check the subject report in the fall to see what the markbands are. For instance in May 2024, an HL student had to earn 83-100 points total to earn a 7 in theater. That might range of points might change year to year. May 2024 was the first grading of this version of the course, so this point range may be more generous than it will be in other years. The Subject Report has the points for each component, too, so you use these to guide your grading of the individual assessments. For instance a level 7 in 2024 May was:

• Production Proposal: 19-20 points (out of 20 possible points)

• Research Presentation: 20-24 points (out of 24 possible points)

• Collaborative Project: 21-24 points (out of 24 possible points)

• Solo Theatre Piece: 20-24 points (out of 24 possible points)

TEACHING DP VS. MYP

I found that teaching DP is different than teaching MYP in that:

• you must stay on track with your units and assessments so that you finish on time. The pacing of the course is very important

• the rubrics and tasks are strict. You must understand the rubrics and tasks clearly so that you can guide the students appropriately.

• I have to teach my students how to write well about their work and process in order for them to succeed in the exams.

ADVICE ON TEACHING THE COURSE

JOURNALS:  ***IF THEY DON'T KEEP A GOOD JOURNAL, THEY CAN'T DO THE WRITING PART WELL !!! ***Student journals are essential to success in this course. They develop work over a long period of time and then have to write about their process for assessment, so you must insist they journal. I assign journal prompts most weeks and keep an expectation of independent journaling, as well. I do journal checks regularly to see that they are using their journal well and consistently. Unless my prompt asks them to journal in a specific way, their journaling can be bullet points, sketches, collages, notes or essay format - whatever helps them to notate their process and progress their work artistically. Journals can be paper journals, online google folder journals or each student can have a website or you can do a combination. Students can also do video entries, if you have a digital format. Very important to stress to your students that the journal is essential. They will NOT be able to write successful papers or do the World Theater research presentation well if they do NOT journal throughout their process.

READING PLAYS: In my plan below, you will see that I start with 11th graders reading a one act together and using this to do an intro to design, directing and acting. After this, I ask my students to read a play a month on their own (sometimes I downgrade this to a play every other month - this depends on our production and school schedule). This helps them to choose their play for their production proposal and gets them familiar with different plays. You can have them write a review or fill out a form.

VIEWING PLAYS: We look at sections of plays online in class and full plays for homework. I ask my students to view live plays online or in person every other month on their own and to see three plays during the summer between 11th & 12th grade. This helps them understand creating theater better - especially directing & design & what kind of theater interests them. To do this well, it's useful to have a good online resource for them, like The National Theater, Digital Theatre Plus or Drama Online.

TEAM: TEAM is an acronym for Tension, Emotion, Atmosphere & Meaning. Make sure your students use these terms regularly and can identify these moments in theater and how they are created. They will have to use these terms in assessments and some of the assessment rubrics ask them very specifically about TEAM.

WRITING & SPEAKING ABOUT THEATRE & THEIR OWN ARTISTIC PROCESS: So much of the grading in this course from IB will be determined by how well the students can write and speak about how they researched, created and evaluated their own work, so do practice writing throughout the course that you can garde and give them feedback on. In the final assessments, you can only give feedback on the draft ONCE, so build assignments in that let you see their writing and coach them along the way before they assemble that final draft. For the Research Project, they will be speaking about their research and process of learning, so give them practice exercises you can give them feedback on before the assessment, because, again, you are only to give ONE feedback on a draft. This is also true of their performances - feedback on ONE draft.

ONE FEEDBACK ON DRAFT PER ASSESSMENT: Because final assessments are exams, you are only allowed to give feedback on ONE draft of each major component. For instance, in the collaborative project, you give feedback on one DRAFT of the performance and one DRAFT of the whole paper. You can assign smaller assignments that you can give feedback on that help them to put the bigger written drafts together. 

PERFORMANCES & AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: Two assessments have performances with audience feedback: the Collaborative Project and the Solo Project. Performances have to be early enough that they have time to write, hand in a draft, get feedback and do revisions before the April 30th submission deadline (and you should plan to have everything in to you by April 26th, at the very latest - try to upload by April 28th). I have public performances with audience talkbacks, but you can, I think, do final performances in class or just for another theater class, I believe, but check the guide. Students may have technical help during their performances, but all design ideas must be their own. Audience feedback can be done through talkbacks or other means, such as written or online forms/surveys, etc. My students use audience talkbacks which we record so they can listen to them later. They may also do additional forms/surveys, if they wish.

NO DOUBLE DIPPING:  Students CANNOT use material for assessments that has already been taught to them in theater or other courses or that they are using for assessments in other courses. For example: Student cannot use A Doll's House for a lit assessment and a theater assessment; student cannot use any demo material that was taught to them or that they used themselves in DP theater. So, if you teach Pantomime for the World Theater example, they can't use that for their assessment.

ASSESSING: Always assess with the rubrics (attached to this email).  If a rubric point says "to what extent did the student do A, B, C OR D" then the student just has to do one or more of those things. Pay close attention to how some rubrics are aligned between the paper and the performance. For instance, in the Collaborative Project B1 in the paper and C1 for the video are aligned as are B2 and C2. Also, in the Research Project B2 is about how the student PHYSICALLY AND/OR VOCALLY DEMONSTRATES not just talks about how they experimented with applying their convention to traditional material. Rubrics are attached to this email.

FINAL EXAM in Year 1-  In Year 1, your school will probably have final exams at the end of the year. Make sure that they allow you to book an exam and use as much time as your school allows, as well as the review session. Use this time to help your students with whatever assessment project makes sense. For instance, my students choose their video moments for the Collaborative Paper and answer essay questions that they can use as a base for their Collaborative paper, which they write over the summer. The final exam allows me to look at their ideas and writing and give them advice before they write their draft and helps me to better evaluate their predicted grade for the course.

MOCKS when you get to Year 2 - In Year 2, your school will run mock exams. Make sure that they allow you to book a mock exam and use as much time as your school allows, as well as the review session. Use this time to help your students with whatever assessment project makes sense. For instance, depending on the time of year, my students use the mock to write draft sections of their paper or present draft performances.

UPLOAD PREPARATION, DUE DATES & ORGANIZATION

The IBIS upload portal opens usually in late January (for Northern Hemisphere), so you can start your uploads then of any materials you already have finished. For instance, my class finishes the Research Project in Year 1, so I can upload that in January to get it out of the way and upload the other materials as they finish. We then do the Production Proposal in the fall of Year 2 (with revision a little later), so that I have it ready for uploading for the early April date and have time to do my grade justifications. OR, you can just upload it all at the same time. 

UPLOAD DATES

• March 15 Research Project (RP)

• April 12th/20th Production Proposal (PP) & Predicted Grade for the course. ***You will enter the Predicted Grade for the course for each student and your grades for their Production Proposal earlier than the 20th and then within a day or two (sometimes more quickly) a window will open telling you which students Collaborative Projects, your marks and your grade justifications you will upload with teacher's evaluations - this is called the Internal Assessment, so you grade your students' work and then IB will ask for up to five samples that you fully upload with your justifications for your grades to be moderated. "Moderation" means that IB will check your grading to see if you are correct or if they think you are too harsh or lenient. Either your grades will stand or they will move them down or up. The "Predicted Grade" is the grade you predict they will earn in the course. This is another check for you on how accurately you are grading.

• April 30th Solo Project (SP) & Collaborative Project (CP) with TCAF. The TCAF is a form that you fill out information that you have for three checkpoints with the student on each assessment. You don't have to put too much on each form, but you do need to do this for each student. The checkpoints are: near the beginning, near the middle, near the end of each assessment.

Upload requirements: always check these requirements each year, because sometimes they change a bit. For instance, last year, the Collaborative Cover sheet and paper were one document, this year they were submitted separately. Subject Component Upload Requirements 2025  - This document tells you what you need to upload. It may change, so check here for upload requirements a few months before uploads are due.

• Research Project: 2 upload slots: Video & Resources (any resources they used must be combined into one document and must include works cited)

• Production Proposal: 1 upload slot: Production Proposal (Works Cited must be last page(s) of the Production Proposal)

• Collaborative Project: 4 upload slots: Collaborative Project Cover sheet, Collaborative Project Paper, Collaborative Project Video, TCAF

• Solo Project: 2 upload slots: Solo Paper & Video of performance

ONE WAY TO ORGANIZE UPLOAD MATERIALS:  Create a Google Drive folder for each student (you can do this in class and have the kids make these, if you wish)

• • Inside each folder, put a folder for each final assessment upload and label the folder with what needs to be inside the folder for uploading to IB

  • Make a sheet that has all the requirements for uploads on it and put a copy of that sheet in each student's folder. Put the schedule for uploads on this sheet. Go over this sheet with them and let them know that they have this sheet in their folder.

  • Link to Example Folder(s) - In this folder you will find upload information for assessments and blank copy of TCAF. Please double-check the upload information google doc I made, as I just made this on the fly and have not proofed it.

• Make a separate Google Drive folder for yourself the TCAFs and fill out TCAFs as you go along

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SAMPLE UNIT PLAN: KIM'S UNIT PLAN FOR SOLO PROJECT 

SOLO PROJECT (HL Students Only)- I introduce some theorists, design, staging and the idea of solo work threaded throughout the course, but most of this is taught as the last unit in senior year and through my Year 1s learning how to be peer mentors to the Year 2s during the winter of Year 1.  **Some  DP teachers do a lot more teaching of theorists than I do throughout the course. If you are teaching the years separately, I recommend to teach a solid theater theorist intro unit in Year One.** We lean heavily on the website I created for the course for this project.

• Step 1: Brief explanation of project. Introduction to theatre theorists and solo projects. We take a quick look at many theorists and take a deeper look at one or two. (They will also have done something similar in 11th grade)

  • I often use Anna Deveare Smith, Boal & Bogart for deeper theorist explorations (unless a student wants to use one of these). Sometimes I will use a designer instead of an acting focused theorist for this deeper exploration. Anna Deveare Smith works nicely because she is both Solo artist and theorist.

    • sections of Anna Deveare Smith's work Fires in the Mirror

    • her work based on Studds' Turkel's work and her TedTalk on creating Four American Characters

    • a short video in which Anna Deveare Smith talks about how her work is about identity  Search Avatar image Anna Deavere Smith on Identity, Racism, and Disrupting the System with Her Work

• Step 2 : 

  • In-class exercise that both Year 1 & Year 2 students do together: Create a short collaborative project using a theater theory created by their peers: AFTER the intro to theorists, class is divided into groups; each group creates a short theatre theory in class; groups trade theories; each group creates a short piece from the theory; present the short piece; class discussion on the aspects observed and use of aspects in the performance.

• Step 3: Re-visit the project steps.

• Step 4 : Research-at-a-glance. Choosing a theorist. Provided  a list of 50+ theorists with support pages to jump start research. Each student is given 5 recommended theorists, but able to choose from others if they wish.

• Step 5:  Deep research on their chosen theorist using "jump-start" research and own research. - They must answer the questions on this Research sheet. I may cut this research sheet down, as the new curriculum doesn't require such a thorough background.

• Step 5.5: Conversation with group about their theorist with EMPHASIS ON THE THEORY AND HOW THE ASPECTS ARE USED. This is a very important step for my being able to check that students have correctly identified the theory and aspects and have some understanding of how the aspects are used in the context of the theory. 

• Step 6: Choose aspect.

• Step 7: Experiment with aspect. (This step is no longer required by IB, and if I keep it, I will modify it to be in the context of the theory.)

• Step 8 : If we have the time, students run workshops on their aspects and theory. Sometimes this has been included with the earlier conversation.

• Step 9: Choose/create content for performance.

• Step 10: Develop a production plan.

• Step 11 Develop solo piece through bringing content and aspect(s) together.

• Step 12: Feedback - giving and receiving.

• Step 13: Further development of piece.

• Step 14: Develop and submit production/design-specific paperwork, publicity and program elements.

• Step 15: Performance of solo piece with audience feedback.

• Step 16: Formal Assessment Paper DRAFT written using IB task specifications and IB rubrics. Student must also edit video to cut out introduction and talkback. Time Codes submitted in DRAFT should be from final edited video.

• Step 17: Assess DRAFT and give ONE feedback in writing and ONE feedback conference (I have a spreadsheet I use to give comments, as well as give comments in their Google Doc).

• Step 18: Student revises paper and readies paper and video for upload.

How long I take really depends on how early we start this unit. For me, the Solo Project lays out like this:

• first weeks of December in Year 2, before winter break: introductory unit (this coincides with our fall production, so I keep it as light on homework as possible)

• winter break - optional explorations into theater theorists OR required explorations - depends on how fast I feel we need to move when we return.

• January:

  • a few days: decide on theorist

  • 10 days-2 weeks: research on theorist

  • 3rd/4th week: group conversations/presentations/workshops on chosen theorists (depends on the year and what I feel they need and we have time for). The workshops yield the best learning. WRITE SECTION A DRAFT.

• February

  • 4th week: explorations of aspect/theory and developing content 

  • 5th-7th weeks: developing piece - JOURNAL along the way with paper in mind

  • 7th week: drafts for feedback

  • 8th week: performances

• March - off for mocks, but in their theater mock they write sections of paper, so that they have a start on their draft

• Mid-March-Beg of April: Spring Break: writing draft, OR waiting until first week of April

• April

  • week 1: finish draft

  • week 2: I read and feedback

  • weeks 3 & 4: revision

  • submit to IB by April 27th

This experience is interrupted by two breaks for me and two mainstage shows, so it is a bit spread out. You can compact this.

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INTERNAL ASSESSMENT GRADING & UPLOADING PRODUCTION PROPOSAL (INTERNAL ASSESSMENT)

The Production Proposal is the internal assessment, so you grade these and must upload your grades and your grade justifications  (you do not submit your grades for the other projects to IB, you only submit your Predicted Grade for the end of course).  

• upload your grades for the final production proposals

• within a day (sometimes immediately) IBIS will tell you which FULL proposals they want you to upload. Usually, they choose 5 projects for you to upload which are often two highs, two lows and a middle, though, sometimes the distribution of what they ask for is different.

• When you upload the materials, you will then put justifications for the grades into IBIS. The justifications should be based on the rubric and use rubric language. An IB moderator will then re-grade and check the grades. The grades will either stand, go up or go down. If you had a larger class in which IBIS was only checking 5 of your papers, but you had 10 students, how IBIS judges the marking on the 5 papers then affects the grades on the others. For instance, my DP coordinator was grading too harshly and had all of his IAs raised, but sometimes it goes the other way. My grades have always stood. This is IBs way of doing checks on every teacher to see how well we are teaching the course and helping us and our school know if we need to adjust our teaching/assessing.

• Here's an example of what I do. The comments below were for an IB 6 paper.

  • A1: 4 points - Excellent: The student explains the ideas presented in the chosen play text, with reference to the play text. Student clearly explains four core ideas/themes in the play text with substantial examples from the text.

  • A2 2 points - Adequate: The student outlines their intentions for the staging of the entire play. Student has an excellently clear theatre maker intentions statement. Student includes audience-stage orientation and requirements for the theater to accommodate the use of the two-level set. Student mentions some stylistic considerations for the staging and performance style, but is too vague to earn the mark of describing. 

  • B: 3 points - Good: The student presents their visual production design ideas with a description of how production elements will be used to achieve their intentions. Student describes the set and costume design in detail for the entire play with some reference to theatre maker intentions. Student explains the props and their use very specifically in terms of student's theatre maker intentions. Student outlines use of sound and lights with reference to theatre maker intentions.

  • C1: 4 points - Excellent:The student explains how they would use performance elements to effectively create tension, emotion, atmosphere and/or meaning (“TEAM”) in the moment they have chosen to stage. The student clearly describes and somewhat explains using blocking choices to create a clear moment of tension, emotions and atmosphere. Student uses explanatory photos of a lab done in class to show the tension, emotion and atmosphere of the moment as directed by the student in class. 

  • C2: 3points - Good: The student describes how they would use production elements to create tension, emotion, atmosphere and/or meaning (“TEAM”) in the moment they have chosen to stage. The student explains the use of lighting and sound to create atmosphere and meaning. The student describes the use of the set to create tension, emotion and atmosphere.

If you have questions or want samples of my students' work, feel free to reach out: kguzowski@dwight.edu