CYS

in Schools Residency
Helen M. Hefferan Elementary School
4409 W. Wilcox St. Chicago, IL 60624
www.hefferan.k12.il.us
773-534-6192 773-534-6190 (Fax)

Goals

Chicago Youth Shakespeare (CYS) will work to support the language arts curriculum of Hefferan
Elementary’s 3rd-grade classes through active and creative engagement with the plays of William
Shakespeare. During their residency, CYS teaching artists will work alongside classroom teachers
and students to introduce Shakespeare through performance, cultivating an appreciation and
understanding for the language and themes of Shakespeare’s plays through workshops and
lessons designed specifically for Hefferan’s 3rd-grade curriculum and student goals.

In alignment with state and national teaching and learning standards,* CYS will aim for students
to:

Determine the central message, lesson, or moral of a play and explain how it is conveyed through

the text (CCSS RL 3.2)
Describe characters in a play and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events

(CCSS RL 3.3)
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a play, distinguishing literal from

nonliteral language (CCSS RL 3.4)
Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a play performed or read aloud (CCSS SL 3.2)

Compose narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events (CCSS W 3.3)

Create roles, imagined worlds, and stories in a dramatic work; imagine and articulate ideas for
costumes, props, and set pieces for the environment and characters in a dramatic work;
and collaborate to determine how characters might move and speak to support the story

of a dramatic work (NCAS TH:Cr1.1.3.a,b,c)
Participate and contribute to physical and vocal expression in a dramatic work (NCAS

TH:Cr3.1.3.b)
Apply the elements of dramatic structure to a story and create a dramatic work while investigating

the incorporation of movement and voice (NCAS TH:Pr:4.1.3.a,b)

Participate in a variety of physical, vocal, and cognitive exercises in a group setting that can be

used for a dramatic work (NCAS TH:Pr:5.1.3.a)
Examine how connections are made between oneself and a character’s emotions in a dramatic

work (NCAS TH:Re:8.1.3.c)
Identify verbal, physical, and situational cues that indicate how others may feel (SELS 2A.2a)

Analyze ways to work effectively in groups (SELS 2C.2b)

*
CCSS = Common Core State Standards; NCAS = National Core Arts Standards; SELS = Social and Emotional Learning
Standards; CPS FFT = Chicago Public Schools Framework for Teachers
CYS will also aim for teachers to:

Establish a culture for learning, conveying expectations for students who assume responsibility

for high quality work (CPS FFT 2b)
Manage efficient classroom routines and procedures while engaging volunteers and professionals

in tasks that make a substantive contribution to the classroom environment (CPS FFT 2c)
Use questioning and discussion techniques to enable students to engage each other in rich text-

and performance-based investigation and dialogue (CPS FFT 3b)
Engage students in learning with intellectually engaging and developmentally appropriate tasks

and activities (CPS FFT 3c)
Reflect on teaching and learning, analyzing many aspects of the activities and lessons and their

impact on student learning (CPS FFT 4a)
Use new knowledge to enhance teaching practice, welcoming and using feedback from
educational partners to improve practice and advance student learning (CPS FFT 4d)

Program Overview

In advance of the CYS Youth Ensemble outreach performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at
Hefferan on December 7, 2015, CYS will facilitate a pre-performance workshop with students to
introduce them to Shakespeare and to the play. This will be followed by a series of four workshops
on Shakespeare and performance over four days, including lessons on creative writing and
performance, Shakespearean swordplay, ensemble building activities, and partner work. These
workshops will culminate in a performance by the students to demonstrate what they have
learned over the course of the four days.

Workshops
1) Play in a Day | Pre-performance Workshop

CYS teaching artists will introduce William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to
Hefferan’s 3rd grade students through the use of visual storytelling (via storyboards), and active
storytelling through narrative improvisation. In narrative improvisation, students are the actors,
directors, audience members, and technical crew in this collaborative, paraphrased, in-class
performance. Roles are assigned, and as the narrators (teaching artists and classroom teacher)
read aloud the descriptions and character interactions for each scene, students listen, respond,
and help each other to act out the events as they hear them read. This includes reciting select
quotations, and free use of a variety of props and costume pieces.

2) In Their Own Words | Creative Writing Workshop 1

CYS teaching artists will work with each section of 3rd grade students for one hour to help students
develop and draft original poetry based on the themes, tone, and mood of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. Students will learn the basic principles of verse and rhyme while channeling thought and
emotion into creative writing. Students will also practice reciting their poetry as a crucial aspect of
the composition and revision processes.

3) In Their Own Words | Creative Writing Workshop 2

Building on the lessons of the first creative writing workshop, this session will focus on amplifying
the performative dimensions of composition and recitation. Students will explore the relationship
of movement and expression to their written work as they discover creative ways to perform their
original texts for an audience.





4) Putting it Together

CYS teaching artists will facilitate a 1hr. “run-through” with both sections of students before the
3rd graders perform their culminating theatrical piece for their teachers and peers. Students will
have seen their work develop from composition to rehearsal to final performance, achieving an
understanding of the dramatic process, the relationship of movement to text, and the thematic
and expressive mechanics and meanings of poetry. They will also have developed social and
emotional learning skills through partner and ensemble work, relating to other members of their
group through empathy, understanding, and cooperation.

Post-residency evaluations: Following the residency period, CYS will provide a brief evaluation
survey for students, and another for classroom teachers to assess learning outcomes and gain
feedback regarding CYS’s residency work with Hefferan Elementary students.