TIE - Part 19

This Thursday we had our second performance of the TIE piece. Overall, this performance went better than the previous performance - I think this was because I had a clear structure on how to talk to the TA when directly facilitating and talking to them. This performance we had a lower ability group, however, I think they had the same excellent grasp on Macbeth that the higher ability group did and were able to engage in the piece with ease - I think this was because we catered to their ability rather than the higher ability. Moreover, I felt that I pronounced words better than I had done in the previous performance. I will evaluate my performance below: 

• The thoughts section received fewer laughs on my part, however, it was still effective. 
• The translation of Act 1, Scene 2 was accurate as it was last week. 
• I made sure that my speech was much clearer and much more pronounced during the reading of quotes from Act 3, Scene 4. 
• My discussion with the TA part of the way through Act 1, Scene 7 was much better than it was last week. This was because I stuck to the structure that I had established in my previous blogs which allowed for better conversation and a better understanding of ideas. The girls who I was talking to easily grasped the concept of the sliders and were able to find quotes from this scene and later on in the play to solidify their ideas.
• My facilitation after Act 1, Scene 7 I think was much better than last week. This is because we had organised a way to get students' opinions on the matter. Moreover, I repeated what the students were saying and related back to what they were saying later in my facilitation when speaking to Bella after the facilitation. This repetition also made me listen more to what the students were saying which aided me in my facilitation. 
• My discussion with the TA after Act 2, Scene 2 was much better because the students had to look for all the quotes. This meant that they were more engaged. Moreover, the girls who I was talking to were able to answer my question about other quotes that could be related to the quotes we had on the board. 
• My facilitation of the hamartia section wasn't as good as my other sections of facilitation. This was because I fumbled on which slider I was talking about, however, I did recover from this.

Thus ends our TIE journey. I believe that we covered the majority of the client's needs and engaged our TA pretty well. There were a few things that I would want to adapt in the piece such as the explanation of the witches' prophecy and to make it so that it is focused more on Macbeth's character development and how this is shaped by other things in a much more structured way. Nevertheless, it achieved its aim and our TA is better prepared for their exam next week.  

TIE - Part 18

After the performance last Thursday, we made some slight adjustments in order to amend mistakes made and to further enhance our facilitation. The amendments we made on Thursday after the performance and on Wednesday at N2C were mainly how to facilitate and the ending of the piece.

For the facilitation on Thursday's performance, we found that we didn't know how to ask appropriate questions to allow our TA to develop their understanding as our client wanted. Moreover, we found that in some aspects the facilitation was too complex in that we weren't explaining it appropriately or it was too simple for the higher ability students. The complicated section was during the character mixing desk where Leah spoke rather fast and thus the meaning was lost; the speed of talking and clarity of voice was something that we needed to improve on as a group. We were reminded that not all of our TA can differentiate between the characters and thus we needed to pronounce our words appropriately. Moreover, a good proportion of our TA have English as their second language so may not understand the character's names or what we're trying to get them to do. Thus, Leah has been told to slow down her words and have more enthusiasm and variation in her tone. The 'easy' section is our modern version of Act 2, Scene 2 - we felt that especially for higher level students that this was too easy and this could be similar to lower level students. Thus we asked them to find all quotes including the bonus quote and then afterwards we can single out the quote that we had before. This allows our TA to stay engaged in the piece. Additionally, Chipp has suggested that during the feeding back portion of the facilitation - that Leah, myself, and Maya engage in - we repeat and clarify what our TA mean in order to further their understanding. This allows the whole of our TA to hear what has been said and have the interpretation stick in their head.

At the ending of the piece on Thursday, three people spoke at the same time which our TA became confused at because they didn't know who to listen to. We decided to change it in order to allow our TA to know who to listen to and allows the things we're saying to be clarified.

Throughout the piece, we've made subtle adjustments in order to clarify our speech for the reasons suggested earlier in the blog.

TIE - Part 17

On Thursday we had our first performance of the TIE piece. There were certainly moments that worked well however, in some aspects there were limitations. I'm going to evaluate my own performance in relation to this:

Positives 

• My role as one of the thoughts achieved laughs thus catering to the humorous element; this section clearly related to much of our TA and can be regarded as a success. 
• During the general facilitation at the start of the piece, I focused on the person who was talking. 
• My translation of Act 1, Scene 2 was clear. 
• My reading of specific lines from Act 4, Scene 3 were emphasised correctly; moreover, I remembered them accurately. 
• To some extent the 1st facilitation went well as I talked to a Y11 named 'John' who responded to my questions well enough. 
• My explanation of what to do in the post 1,7 facilitation was clear. 
• I covered for Leah in the Witches section effectively. 
• The TA reacted exactly as we thought they would when confronted with the hamartia quote/physical representation which helped in the lack of enthusiasm when we said 'quote to prove it'. 
• I remembered my quote during the argument - I am oft prone to forgetting it in rehearsal. (They have tied me to a stake I cannot fly but bear-like I must fight the course.)

Negatives

• My facilitation of Act 1, Scene 7 could have been much improved; I didn't stick to the structure set out in my previous blog and thus the conversation wasn't as good as I was expecting to have and thus was a little awkward. 
• During the post 1,7 facilitation, I talked to a group of girls; the questions and explanations I offered weren't as clear as I would've wanted them to be and thus it felt awkward. Moreover, I feel like I impacted negatively on their understanding. 
• There were no laughs when I was killed by Lauren as Duncan. 
• My 2,2 facilitation was poor. 'John' immediately got the right answer and I forgot to ask my follow up questions and so I was stood in silence for most of the facilitation part. In the next performance I must stick to the structure I set out in my previous blog. 
• I felt my facilitation post-hamartia could have been better and a lot clearer. 
• I don't like the physical representation of the quote that Bruce gives - I think we should all just clear off the stage allowing more emphasis to be put on the quote. 
• The part at the end where we all give advice was too complicated as there were 3 different people speaking at once and our TA didn't know who to look at. 

Overall, I believe this was an effective first performance. I do think that my facilitation methods could be improved upon however, in general, the TA understood where I was coming from and knew the answers immediately. It's the follow up questions that I appear to have an issue with to extend their learning. Most of the things that need to be improved are a group thing or don't involve myself that much. Thus I believe the performance was somewhat effective. 

TIE - Part 16

A major aspect to our TIE Macbeth piece is the use of facilitation. During the rehearsal period, when we've reached the point of facilitation (i.e. actually talking to our TA) we haven't been really discussing what we want our TA to be led to or how we're going to do this. The facilitation is potentially the most important part of the piece because it allows our TA to think for themselves and solidify the knowledge that they already have.

Before our first performance on Thursday, we discussed the importance of facilitation and how it should factor into the piece. The points of direct facilitation/contact occur at:

• The Character Mixing Desk for Act 1, Scene 7; occurs part of the way through the scene (whether the TA believe Joel has put the sliders in the correct place) and also at the end of the scene (whether the sliders stay the same throughout the scene or if they change).
• After Act 2, Scene 2 where we discuss where the modern day English quotes match up to the Shakespearean version. 
• After hamartia, where we ask our TA what they believe Macbeth's fatal flaw is. 

It is important that we get the hang of getting the TA to shape their responses around the point that we are trying to make which relates to the client's vision and need. This ideal of shaping our TA's responses can be done during the feeding back portion of the facilitation, where the main facilitator who remained onstage can ask further questions; this can also be done when making contact initially as asking further questions will solidify our TA's opinions and thus we are achieving the aims of the client. It must be noted that facilitation is much different than normal acting because you have to make contact with the TA and engage with them; thus speech has to be slower in order to help them understand both the task that we want them to complete and also to solidify their knowledge.

In class, we went through the above points of facilitation and predicted the answers that we may get from our TA and found ways to which we could deepen their understanding with secondary questions to make them think better. It's good to structure questions so that when getting feedback we get good responses.

At the moment, I do feel that we are massively up against time. As Director's Challenge ran on for a little longer than expected and with focus on the Y12 BTECs' performance of The Pillowman it has been hard to merely focus on TIE. Moreover, I do feel that we discussed for too long on certain aspects and didn't discuss enough on others. For example, we had massive debates on whether we needed 1,7 and 2,2 because of the similarities between the scenes but we didn't discuss much about the impact of Banquo nor the impact of the Witches and as a result these latter sections have been more rushed in the devising process and don't have the same level of thought behind them. Additionally, as this moment in time I don't believe we're fully prepared for the facilitation and discussion with our TA aspects of the piece because, as I mentioned earlier, we've been skipping over these bits in rehearsal - arguably, these are the most important parts of the piece. Nevertheless, with our first performance on Thursday it is important that our facilitation is to the best of our ability, although I do not know how I'll react when confronted with a room of Y11s!

Facilitation 1 - Correction of Joel's sliders

This is the first point of communication with the TA as a whole and as a result it needs to be quite strong in what we say and the questions that we ask. It must be noted that we are not trying to be teachers and as such should approach the TA as a friend - in some aspects this will be simple because we are of similar age to our TA (2 years difference) - but we still must appear knowledgeable in the subject. I think this may be a bit of an issue because I do think that a good majority of our class haven't done appropriate research into the topic and as such have limited knowledge - it could transpire that our TA know more about the subject than us however, on the other hand, this may be expected because they have been studying Macbeth for 2 years whereas our class have had about 3 months. Nevertheless, we must appear knowledgeable and this will assert our status for the rest of the piece.

Initial questions that we could ask are:

• Do you understand what we're doing? (In order to reinforce the task; if they don't understand it, we should explain further and relate it to our slider.) 
• Where do you think the slider should go in the extract that we've just watched? (Allows them to not make single word answers although this is a closed ended question.) 
• Can you pick out a moment in the scene we've just watched that shows this? (Directs the students to a specific point - asking a why do you think that question would only make them say 'I don't know' and this would be bad in aiding their understanding.) 
• Are there any key quotes from this section or in the whole play that support this? (Makes them think a little more - relating to the whole play is something that they will have to do in their exam thus reinforcing their learning.) 
• Do you think your slider is impacted on by the other sliders? (Allows for relation to different themes and may help them pick out what the overarching character trait of Macbeth is.)
• Other questions can be asked dependent on what the students say but this structure to questioning may be good. 

Facilitation 2 - Whether Macbeth's sliders change in the scene? 

Although I am not completely active in this facilitation because I am the main facilitator and so remain on stage, it is important to ponder what questions I could ask our TA if I see someone who's sat doing nothing. The questions for myself to begin with should be whether the sliders do change - the fact that we're asking the question does mean that we expect our TA to say that they do change. Indeed, I believe that all the sliders fluctuate but the main interpretation that we want to achieve is that ambition increases, guilt decreases and morality jumps around - this will be aided if we ask about the impact of Lady Macbeth. 

Initial questions that we could ask are: 

• Do you understand what we're doing? (Explanation for this as before.) 
• From watching the 1,7 how do you think the sliders changed? 
• Was there anything in particular in the scene that made you think this? Any quotes from this scene or actions? 
• Are there any quotes that you can link this to from the rest of the play? 
• Can you link the change to other sliders? Does one slider changing affecting yours or does your slider affect another slider? 

Facilitation 3 - Modern to Shakespearean English 

This facilitation has been done to enable our TA to better understand the quotes and so that they can be used in the exam with their proper meaning - allows our TA to not be confused. Moreover, this section allows our TA to stay engaged in the scene as they're looking for a specific translated quote. 

Initial questions that we could ask are: 

• Have you found the quote? Where about is it in the piece? (If they've not found it, I could ask them to translate the quote and then ask them where they think they heard something along those lines.) 
• What do you think Shakespeare was trying to imply/suggest through this? Do you think you could relate this to the sliders from earlier? 
• Have you found the bonus quote? What do you think Shakespeare was trying to suggest through this? 
• Are there any other quotes or moments in the play that can relate to this quote?

The ability to explain what a quote means allows our TA to write better in their exam. 

Facilitation 4 - Hamartia

I don't engage in this facilitation because I remain on stage.