Corey Marino
Unit Title: Forgiveness in Drama
Unit’s Big Idea: Drama and Forgiveness Intertwined
Section I: Title and Rationale
Title: Drama and Forgiveness Intertwined
Rationale:
Forgiveness isn’t something that comes easily or naturally. How many times as a kid did your parents make you forgive a friend when you really didn’t want to? Usually it went hand-in-hand with a forced apology from the other kid’s parents. Making up after a conflict is never easy and it is something that comes with age and maturity.
Students in middle school are still metamorphosing into adults. With the hormonal and social changes from elementary school to middle school and next year to high school; students must not only learn their curricula but they must learn to grow into proper adults. One lesson, which my students will be learning to make their transition easier, is the ability to forgive.
The “Big Idea” that this unit will get across to my students is that although forgiveness may not seem easy, it is usually the right thing to do. Through exploring forgiveness in text and remembering times of forgiveness in their own lives, students will learn to be thankful for the freedom that comes with the opportunity of receiving second chances and the ability to give them.
Although the “Big Idea” promotes forgiveness, the unit will not support blind forgiveness. Students will learn the balance between forgiving and forgetting versus forgiving someone while still holding them accountable for the wrong that they have done, the difference between acting like it never happened and modifying how one acts towards the person they’ve forgiven. They will also learn how to decide what is forgivable and if anything really is unforgiveable.
The unit will explore all aspects of forgiveness such as the difference between emotional forgiveness and behavioral forgiveness. It will also remind students that forgiveness doesn’t always have to involve others, but may involve only oneself. Students will also learn stages of forgiveness such as seeing the other person’s point of view, letting go of anger, and moving on.
Students will be interested in this unit because it is something they may have never thought of before. Students can either forgive themselves for something that has been eating them up inside, or else students can easily apply forgiveness to their social lives. Either to make amends with lost friends or to help them with struggles they may currently be having. Social forgiveness doesn’t just stop at friendships however; becoming a forgiving person may also solve family feuds and other social adversities. Also, since according to Mrs. Cole one of the Special Education teachers of Manheim Township Middle School (MTMS) many of the children come from a Christian background, many students can relate forgiveness to their religion.
The unit will ask them to analyze all sorts of different situations including situations from their own lives. Forgiveness will be related to their texts A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Touching Spirit Bear as well as: current events, film, classroom discussions, and children’s literature/folktales. Looking at forgiveness in all of these aspects will show students that conflict is everywhere and that with conflict often comes forgiveness. Students will also be challenged to think what the world would be like without forgiveness.
Using A Midsummer Night’s Dream students will relate what they learn about forgiveness to Drama. Before students can relate the theme to Drama, they must understand what Drama really is.
This unit will encourage students to study Drama as a variant performing art. Any production of a play can change based on how the director chooses to portray the text. Students will learn how a director changes a Drama to suit their audience or to suit their own creative facets. By exploring areas of Drama such as: characters’ portrayed emotions, characters’ body language, props, backdrops, and setting, students can discover in a hands-on way why Drama is an art as well as a writing form.
Overall, students will learn that forgiveness is a necessary part of life that must be used wisely, with caution, and with their whole hearts. The students will relate this new knowledge of forgiveness to a few Dramas, but mostly to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Unit’s Primary and Secondary Texts
Primary: Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen and William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Secondary:
“Don’t Pay Bad for Bad” by Amos Tutuola (Folktale)
“Salmon of Knowledge” (Folktale)
“Rapunzel” by The Brother’s Grimm
“One Egg” (Drama on YouTube)
Tangled Disney’s movie and script