Dr. Wayne Brinda

Department of Instruction and Leadership in Education, Duquesne University

 

March. 22 (Thurs.), 2007,

4:00-5:30PM,

Berger Gallery 207 College Hall, Duquesne University.

  Abstract:  A growing number of urban students find the assigned literature incomprehensible, irrelevant, and irritating. The dilemma is compounded with a pre-determined, demanding curriculum that offers few opportunities for teachers to make literature and the process of reading enjoyable.  The Odyssey Project is a literacy/theatre study project grounded in research and experiences that support the use of theatre to help teachers address aliterate and struggling adolescent readers.  The National Middle School Association (2001) determined that the period between the ages of 10 and 14 is when most students "refine their reading preferences; become sophisticated readers of informational text; and lay the groundwork for the lifelong reading habits they will use in their personal, professional, and civic lives."  Before we lose young people to a world without the pleasures of reading, it is essential to create programs that help teachers address these challenges.  Rosenblatt (1976) wrote: "The greater the reader's ability to respond to the stimulus of the word, and the greater his capacity to savor all that words can signify of rhythm, sound, and image, the more fully will he be emotionally and intellectually able to participate in the literary work as a whole." Theatre is an effective medium to address these issues.  By presenting living collages of multiple images, sounds, words, emotions, and ideas, theatre "creates a virtual world" or mental model "from the textual symbols called words" (Wilhelm & Edmiston, 1998).  Drawing on Reflective Practitioner models of qualitative research, the researchers illuminate their interactions with Sto-Rox middle school students and their teachers to discover, un-cover, interpret, adapt, and enjoy a classical work of literature.  

MINUTES of  March 22, 2007 meeting:  Professor Wayne Brinda, Department of Instruction and Leadership in Education, Duquesne University, gave a presentation about "The Odyssey Project" and his use of qualitative research in relation to it.  The project involved helping student literacy through the students' dramatization of literature. After Professor Brenda's presentation, we discussed the many aspects of this interesting and socially laudable project.  The participants felt that CIQR should keep abreast of its progress and perhaps have another session on it in the future.