Holy Cross Science College

International Projects

Using Video-conferencing for International Drama Projects

The background to the event
As a result of the 'Kabuki Gift' project, an international drama performance by video-conference, drama is now available as a new subject in the Japanese National Curriculum. This is just one very exciting result of the highly successful sister school agreement between The Holy Cross School Surrey, UK and the Ikeda Junior High School, Osaka, Japan

To support this new drama work in Japan, the two schools have collaborated since 1998 in a number of ways, and the following international lesson is offered as an example of how to use drama for developing cross-cultural understanding, as well as sharing teaching ideas across the world.

It also makes learning great fun!

The Drama Lesson
On Wednesday 16th November 2003, from London, Lesley Sedgwick, Head of Drama at Holy Cross, gave the following drama lesson 'live' by video-conference to: 13 Year 10 GCSE drama students in London, and simultaneously to 16 drama students in Osaka

The Theme
The theme chosen for the drama session was Shakespeare’s The Seven Ages of Man, from the speech by Jacques, in 'As You Like It'. In this way, the students could explore cultural differences in the two countries.

Lesson Outline

• Mirroring exercises as 'warm up activities' (copying movements)
• Dressing as old and young people in Japan and the UK, first as young people, then as older people
• Tea drinking:
  • in Japan (Formal Tea Ceremony explained - turning the bowl to show the lovely pattern in the ceramics)
  • in the UK, boil the water, add the milk first
  • in the USA (Texas) made in a coffee maker...
• Games played at different ages (skipping, chasing, and sports)
• Giving presents - different presents for different ages, with different responses and reactions
• Discussion of these differences
• A final dramatic performance of Jacques’ speech by the Holy Cross Y10 students.

Japanese and UK students all learn how to make cold Texan tea, in a coffee maker....

Here, Jocelyn, a Holy Cross student, describes her learning experience:

Video Conference with Japan
During the past term, I have been studying drama for GCSE. Last week, we had a videoconference with school pupils in Ikeda, Japan. It was an unusual drama lesson and very different from what we are used to! I was anxious to how it would work, as I had never done anything of the sort before.

It started early at 8.30 and would finish at 10.00. We have strong links with the school already, so their drama teacher, who knew Mr Williams well, introduced himself and his class to us. Mrs Sedgwick, our drama teacher, introduced herself and our class to them. They had two chairpersons who could speak very good English and could translate into English for the rest of their fellow classmates.

Recently, we had been concentrating on the Seven Ages of Man and a sonnet by William Shakespeare. We used this as a guide for our lesson with them.

Firstly, we warmed up and used miming because it is simple, and they knew what to do. We had our own partners and did the miming exercise together, but then we had an English pupil and a Japanese pupil, standing face-to-face looking at each other through the television screen. They then had to follow each other’s actions. At first I thought, 'This is never going to work because the different connection speeds,' but it ended up working very well and they were able to copy each other’s mimes easily.

We then did other exercises with our partners. One would be a young age and the other would be quite old, so we could see the different movements in each person. We had already done this in a lesson before hand, but the pupils in Ikeda had not, so we had to explain it to them, but they got the hang of it quickly.

Tomomi, their chair person explained later to us in an email, how many of their older people were fairly active and so their movements were very similar to the younger person, but with us, we acted so that our old person’s movements would be very slow, and tiring, and be fragile.

One thing we concentrated on was making tea because how we make tea is very different from how they make tea. For us, we boil the kettle, and once the water was boiled, pour it into a teapot with a teabag, then leave it to brew. Then we can put milk or sugar in a teacup if we want, and pour the brewed tea into the mug or teacup. For us to make tea it is very simple but when they made it in Japan, they had different routines that they had to carry out. For example, once they’ve made their tea, they have to turn their tea cup around, so the pattern on the cup or bowl is facing outwards, for others to see. Instead of using a teabag like us, they used a powder. We showed our different ways of making tea to each other and then explained it so that they could understand.

After that we went into groups and had 'an age' given to us, for example, twenties or teenagers. We then had to act out a game that the different ages would play. After we had practised it, we showed it to them and they showed theirs to us.

In a lesson last week, we had also concentrated on what our reactions would be when opening a present. One group showed us theirs, and then Mrs Sedgwick picked my group to act out ours. When we were studying William Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man, we had to act out something to go along with it. At the end, one group in our drama class showed them their Shakespeare act and the Japanese students really enjoyed it. That was the last thing we did before saying goodbye.

It was a very good experience and I am glad I was able to be part of it. It was very different and exciting, something I never thought I would be doing. I learned a lot from it and enjoyed seeing their acting skills on the other side of the world.

By Jocelyn Galloway

Japanese student "dressing" in the morning

The response from Japan

Subj:
Re: Drama lesson
Date:19/11/03 16:48:52 Central Europe Standard Time
From:princhan@mse.biglobe.ne.jp

To:mailto:LAWRENCEHX@aol.comLAWRENCEHX@aol.com

CC:ryuzo@wonder.ocn.ne.jp, hiroyuki@cc.osaka-kyoiku.ac.jp

Sent from the Internet (Details)

Dear Mr. Lawrence Williams and Mrs. Lesley Sedgwick,

Thank you very much for your wonderful drama lesson at the video conference. We had a lot of fun, and learnt many things at the same time. I think we students at Ikeda are extremely lucky to be able to experience a live lesson through the high technology network, and we are really grateful that we have the chance to communicate with people on the other side of the world and learn the same things at the same time.

I, as one of the chairpersons at this conference, learnt many things, too. We felt that the students in Holy Cross had a lot more ways to express themselves than the students in Ikeda. This may be because Japanese people are usually quite shy. I was really impressed to see how the students in Holy Cross acted clearly and in quite big movements. It was easy for us to understand what you were doing behind the screen, and we thought it was a really good thing.

In Japan some older people (around 60) play sports to keep themselves healthy. Those people are usually quite fit, and move around a lot. On the other hand, there are old people who are feeble and weak, and not able to move around as much. When we did a mirroring of climbing a tree, student who acted as a healthy old person, like the ones who play sports, moved quite quickly and acted not sop differently from younger people. However, students who acted as a weak old person moved slowly and stopped once in a while to rest. I think the speed of movement and amount of movement depended on what kind of 'old person' the student was playing, and that is probably why quite a few students in Ikeda seemed like young people when they were actually acting as old people.

I thought that maybe we can't really categorise people just depending on their age; the person's lifestyle and mind make the person 'young ' or 'old'. However, there are obvious differences between young people and old people, and the activities we did today were really good exercise to express those differences and learn a lot about each other's culture. After the conference, students in Ikeda were all saying 'The girls in Holy Cross were really good at drama! We should study more about drama to be like them!!' We all had so much fun, and it was a really good exercise for our English, too.

The students here are all looking forward to seeing you all again at Christmas!!

Yours sincerely,

Tomomi

Explaining and discussing the improvisations

Reactions from an American observer

The video conferencing drama lesson I was able to attend was remarkable. I participated within the lesson on cultural traditions. Both the English and Japanese side of the teleconferencing contributed dramatically to the lesson. I don’t feel that the distance or logistical issues were any real problem.

A part of the lesson was devoted to the different ways that various ages make tea. The England students showed their usual way of making tea. Then added a most unusual flavouring of milk to their tea. The Japanese demonstrated a tea ceremony and discussed their traditional movements. I was then asked to explain how Americans in Texas often make their tea. I showed how sun tea is the most common during the warmer months and that we always add ice cubes.

The lesson was a learning experience even for me. The lesson centred around the Seven Ages of Man from Shakespeare and at the end of the lesson several of the English students did a dramatic interpretation of the piece. I was startled at the difference in interpretations from English verses and the American versions I have seen.

I was also startled to learn about the differences in basic diet. The Japanese students were asked to demonstrate how they would make their lunch for school. The Japanese students proceed to show the English students how to make rice balls and the English students showed their companions how to make chocolate spread sandwiches. After the interactions the students discussed the reasoning behind the cultural differences and I feel learned a lot about being part of a global community.

I have no doubt in the effectiveness and excellence of a globally interactive community program. The idea of placing a face and experience behind our studies of humanity has a hugely positive effect on students. Not only were they interested in the lesson but also they discovered the similarities and differences between vastly distanced cultural traditions. This type of lesson encourages interaction and understanding that could never be duplicated by just a textbook.

I plan to make a sincere effort to develop a Global Citizenship and human community program once I get back to the USA. The usefulness of this type of project is limitless and can be used across all subject areas. It is my hope that once I begin teaching a speech class, perhaps we could organize an international debate.

Global Citizenship creates an enhanced understanding of world and fosters a responsible human community. The continuation of such a program is one of the first steps to healing the divisions of the world village. Global Citizenship has proven itself a very effective way to teach more than just a lesson: it teaches about humanity.

Jennifer Calcote,
Secondary Speech, Debate, and Government,
Observing High School Teacher from La Vernia, Texas in the U.S.A
Global Citizenship Teleconferencing Lesson, Nov 19, 2003

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