'Geeking Out to Hanging Out'  with William Shakespeare Star Wars
EDER 679 Reflection 1
Riley Ohler

A grade nine director watches carefully, as the grade eight actor changes and adapts their choices as an actor playing Hans Solo. As the actor playing Hans finishes the scene, the grade nine director stands up, in deep reflection, pauses and says "I think that was your best run so far, I liked the choices you made in how you stood as Hans Solo, and that when Guido entered your reactions were quite authentic. Maybe try it with your hand on your hip ready to shoot at any moment. Do you think Hans was prepared to fire long before he actually did?" A pause in the conversation, it eventually digresses for a minute as they debate the quintessential Star Wars question: 'who shot first?'

“I pray thee, sir, forgive me for the mess/And whether I shot first, I'll not confess.
- Han Solo (Doesher, 2013)"

These types of conversations happen on a regular basis during the annual performance of William Shakespeare Star Wars, by Ian Doesher (2013) at Calgary Arts Academy.  This student led performance is a precursor to the work that the grade eight and nine students will be completing throughout the year, and is a chance for students to work as collaborators in directing, set building, stage management, acting, dramaturgy and all of the many roles and responsibilities it takes to create a professional level performance in a school setting. 

This work has another spinoff that is incredibly important for the greater Calgary Arts Academy community. The students build community and relationships based on their interest of Star Wars, eventually leading to stronger friendships through their ongoing discussions and work on the performance. Ito et al. (2009) describe this phenomenon as the students identifying with and participating in social networks and cultural referents through, in this case the cultural mechanism of Star Wars. 

This common interest between students will often lead to students getting together to go to events such as comic-con, interacting in online communities related to Star Wars, and going to Star Wars movies together to watch and discuss the movie. It is not unusual in the months following the performance to see students wandering the halls of the school with plastic light sabres or wearing small portions of a costume related to their favourite Star Wars character. Usually these pieces of clothing serve to show that they belong to a particular group of Star Wars fans. 

These 'networked publics,' that students create stay together through social media groups, communication in online forums, and have a keen interest in following the future of the Star Wars story online. They allow for open participation from others outside the walls of school, and some of the groups have even accepted parents and other trusted adults into their network. This allows for students to become creators of costumes and other artifacts that relate to the Star Wars universe, and collaborate and mentor other less experienced participants, a phenomenon described by Ito et. al. (2009).

This amazing experience for students is key to developing a stronger community and allowing students to feel a sense of belonging in school, at home and in the online environment.

References

  • Doescher, I., & Lucas, G. (2013). William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a new hope. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books.
  • Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., Cody, R., Stephenson, B. H., Horst, H. A., ... & Perkel, D. (2009). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media. MIT press.




Comments

  1. StephFebruary 3, 2019 at 3:40 PM

    This concept of students mentoring those less advanced in the field, nurturing each other's development and reaching out to the outside community themselves is inspiring. Besides all that you described, this also shows students taking initiative, respectifrully giving and recieving constructive criticism, and building community through a learning experience. I find myself now thinking about how this situation could be replicated in other subjects and schools ie. with my students. PBL and other inquiry learning is a great place to start, though I love the scale and extended timeline you described.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ebrownoramaFebruary 11, 2019 at 10:50 AM

    You have depicted a great example of the building of a community of practice (CoP). This real example illustrates the impact that such a community has on the growth of individuals and in turn, as a community. Such a powerful CoP is also important among educators. Technology is available to promote the connection, growth, and collaboration of a CoP, but it is equally important to include our face-to-face colleagues and others into our community of practice. Time is often a huge factor for educators to avoid nurturing their CoP, researching, connecting, collaborating on professional projects or designing learning for their students with a colleague elsewhere in the world. There is rich learning available with this approach!

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