Democracy through Drama Eu Project
Mimesis applied to
the reading
of Italian Twentieth Century poems
lesson devised by Professor Scaramuzzo
To create oneself as
a work of art, becoming poetry
A lesson for a class
of thirteen-year-old students.
Objectives
1. To provide the
approach to poetry and it reading poetry an ethical action.
2. To make poetry
more accessible and relevant to a young readers’ life.
3. To foster an
intimate comprehension of the meanings of the poem.
4. To avoid analysis
that could obstruct the experience of encountering poetic language and to bring
out concepts (e.g. hermetic poetry) and patterns of the poetic-rhetorical
language (e.g. similitude, oxymoron) from the expressive dynamism experienced
during the class.
5. To experience a participatory
learning community where different interpretations facilitate shared
understanding.
6. To experience the
relevance of expression and understanding in a democratic coexistence inside
and outside the school environment.
Expected
results
Students will:
- Make the mimesis of
the words of the poems using all of their body.
- Observe attentively
the mimesis of classmates.
- Experience pleasure
during the class.
- Identify, in the
poems, concepts, meanings and figures of speech.
- Read the poem
expressively, creating a congruence between meanings and pronunciation of
words.
- Experience how
learning is enhanced and deepened by the relationship we have with each other,
in this case by witnessing and participating in the expression of another.
- Verbalize, in an
original and authentic way, the experience of this cooperative learning
process.
- Make reflections on
the relevance of what they have experienced in class to life outside the school
environment.
Materials:
Poems Veglia (Wake) and Soldati (Soldiers) by Giuseppe Ungaretti.
Veglia
Un'intera
nottata
buttato
vicino
a
un compagno
massacrato
con
la sua bocca
digrignata
volta
al plenilunio
con
la congestione
delle
sue mani
nel
mio silenzio
ho
scritto
lettere
piene d'amore
Non
sono mai stato
tanto
attaccato
alla vita
Wake
A
whole night
thrown near
a massacred companion
with his mouth
grinding
facing the whole moon
with the congestion
of his hands
penetrating my silence
I have written letters
full of love
I
have never been
attached to life
so much
Soldati
Si
sta come
d'autunno
sugli
alberi
le
foglie
Soldiers
Here
we are
like leaves
from trees
in autum
Methodology
1) - Reading aloud
The teacher reads the poem aloud without giving any
information to students.
The teacher reads the poem again, this time asking
students to move a hand according to the meaning of words of the poem (i.e. making
with one hand the mimesis of each word).
On a third reading
aloud, the teacher asks the students to make the mimesis of words using their
entire body.
NB: Throughout the
activity the teacher refrains from showing any movements to the students.
2) – Observing the mimesis of the other
The teacher divides
students in two groups and reads the poem again. One group of students make the
mimesis of the words with the body; the other group observes the mimesis of
their classmates, and then vice versa.
3) – Verbalization
Students express in
words feelings and emotions experienced whilst creating the mimesis and
observing the mimesis of others.
4) - Concepts /
meanings / figures of speech
The teacher draws
links between the reflections of the students and the concepts, meanings and
figures of speech identified by scholars and critics in the poem, giving
explicit explanations (see the report at the end of these notes).
5) – Feeling the
feeling of others
The teacher
facilitates a reflection on the relevance of mimesis (becoming similar) for
understanding intentions of the poet; and of the relevance of participating in
the mimesis of others in order to deepen the research of meanings.
6) – The poem read by
students
Students in turn read
aloud. Mimesis is now, for the reader, an inner movement; classmates explore
with their body the interpretation of the reader; whilst reading the reader
pays attention to the expressions of the others, trying to harmonise the pace
of reading with their movement.
7) – From class to
life
The teacher
facilitates a final discussion on how expression and understanding are related;
and on how we can apply the knowledge we are gaining from class to life in
order to improve the quality of relationship in the coexistence.
Analysis
In this approach, to
foster civic skills and to teach a scholastic topic are not separate actions.
The educational practices we use are paths to follow in order to build a
democratic coexistence. Mastering mimesis can make possible the translation
into life of any school subject.
In studying poetry,
by making the mimesis of each word with all the body, students can enjoy the experience
of becoming what they are saying and of saying what they are with all their
being. In this approach poetry is a fundamental path in which to participate in
the mysterious harmony of both a democratic society and life itself.
The Migrating Humanity
Lesson devised by Dr Flavia Gallo
To create
democratic spaces for different cultures and languages
aimed at
teachers and at young people
Summary
Starting from
the word ‘memory’ in participants’ mother tongue, and from other words
connected with ’memory’, we will propose a ‘mimetic exploration’ aimed to trace
a common history of migration. We will build a shared drama through Mimesis in
Education methodology. A score for bodies and voices that will take its cue
from oral stories of an exodus told by students in their own mother tongue; the
exodus they, or someone else, have lived or just an imaginary one.
Objectives
1. Lowering linguistic and cultural
barriers by meeting other languages and cultures;
2. Widening intercultural competences
starting from the enhancement of each person's mother tongue;
3. Reducing the tendency to stereotyping
foreign students as people with a deficit; and making the best use of their
expressive, linguistic and biographical resources for the purposes of a
multicultural democratic political co-existence.
Rationale
This workshop is important as we can see evidence of listening capabilities
disappearing from civic life? What if we enhance the capabilities to perceive
and to appreciate similarities and distances amongst idioms?
Starting from linguistic and cultural differences, participants
create a poetic score: this workshop is important as it provides an experience
for young people to meet other cultures by working within a bodily frame.
The participants live the concept of the ‘other’ in order to come to an
understanding of themselves through the listening.
Methodology
1. Each
participant writes down the word ‘memory’ in his/her mother tongue and makes
the mimesis of it.
2. Each
participant makes the mimesis of the words of the others: firstly, coping the
mimesis that the other has done, then proposing a new mimesis.
3. Each
person writes, in his/her mother tongue, a list of three other words that, in
his/her opinion, could be associated with the word ‘memory’.
4. Each
one chooses two words from other participants’ list, and explores those through
mimesis (working in pair);
5. Participants,
working individually, creates a small physical score using the mimesis of
‘memory’ and the mimesis of the other two words explored;
6. Each
physical score is shown to the class;
7. Pairs
are formed: in turn each one observes the score of the other and on the basis
of this observation he/she writes in his/her native language a little monologue
about a migration story;
8. Participants
read aloud all the stories created;
9. Dynamic
direction of the group to juxtapose voices and bodies carrying stories in
sequence, placing them temporally and spatially;
10. Following small written track, short
feedbacks of the experience in English.
Materials: Marker pens, colours, big paper.
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