The Process 

Digging Deep, Uncovering Theme

What is REALLY important to us? About what do we REALLY care?

Oftentimes, we find what is dearest to us at the intersection of joy and pain. These two emotional paths accompany us as we journey through life, twisting, turning and intertwining.

A primary goal of the opera is to deliver a powerful message that kids feel a strong desire to share with the public. This message emerges from exploring the opera theme in-depth and determining a point of view, or thesis. To arrive at a theme, one that resonates with every company member, we discuss that which “brings us great joy” and that which “hurts our hearts.”

As a homework assignment I asked the students to bring in a special object that represents something meaningful to them, something about which they care deeply. The conversation that ensued as we sat in a circle clutching our precious commodities was emotional and enlightening. Little people think and feel profoundly.

A Logo for Lightning

    These questions led us to contemplate, design and defend a company logo.  Every student drew how Lightning Strike should be represented visually. After casting an attentive eye, students voted. Three logos quickly gained approval as best representing who we are.  With articulate defense and another round of voting, we had a winner.  

“Every strike represents us.  The yellow part represents the power to grow and to show people who we are inside.”  Angel 

“Lightning is one of nature’s most dramatic displays.”  Emmah quoting from Thunderstorms and Lightning 

“We strike people with ideas.  The ice particles in the clouds are like our ideas.  They churn in the clouds and make electricity.”   Adrian 

“We are positive and negative charges coming together to make a flash.”  Devon   

“When we do good, we strike and people applaud.”  Jianna  

“We are powerful.”  Ashley   

“We strike people with our amazing words.”  Sofía  

“All of the little lightning strikes are making big lightning.  It’s like us.”  Dominic  

“We give people electricity.”  Philip  

“When we are positive ice particles, we go up.  When we are negative, we go down.  Just like lightning, we have a positive and negative side.”  Destiny 

“Lightning gives us the strong power to accomplish hard things.”  Raneem 

LIGHTNING STRIKE Kids Opera Company . . . What’s in a name? 

Who are we as a group?  What do we represent?  What is our purpose?  What face do we want to show the world?   

LIGHTNING STRIKE says it all.   

Spending four weeks getting to know one another has given rise to a host of amazing metaphors that led us to determine our company name. We began this process thinking about our common experiences, the books we have read, the team exercises and challenges we have worked through and the songs we have sung.   The idea of who we are began to surface as we thought of ourselves through metaphor.   

The most powerful metaphors were a mirror, presented our first day of school while thinking about what we see, a dot, coming directly from Peter Reynold’s inspirational children’s book, and lightning, an idea generated through an experience with a Congolese fishing song.   

“You look in the mirror and see yourself as you change.  You see your life in the future.”   

“The dot represents a masterpiece where all of us as tiny splattered dots come together to create a huge unique work of art.” 

 Lightning presented us with the most vivid, striking representation of who we are as a group.  The more we read about lightning, the more we realized our commonalities.   

•  We are positive and negative charges colliding. 
• When there is friction, we heat up. 
• We are bright. 
• We are conductors of energy. 
• We are powerful. 
• When inspiration lights us up, we get the energy to push ourselves.   
• Our final step in the process was to craft a name that would not only describe who we are as a group, but would also draw the attention of our public.   

Among the finalists were the following ideas: 

•  Lightning Bolt  
• Bright Lightning  
• Lightning Power 
• Lightning Strike 

 All company members defended, verbally and in writing, which of these ideas they thought would best represent the company.   

An overwhelming choice became apparent. 

Lightning Strike Kids Opera Company would be our name . . . 

• “It’s a strong word.  It has more action.”  Devon 
• “We will zap everyone with the energy inside us.  Everyone’s brain will change.”  Raneem 
• “The strike is so bright that we light up the whole wide world.” Destiny  
• “We strike people with our energy.  We pass it to the audience.”  Rachel 
• “We strike people with our work and progress.”  Philip  
• “It can make people get up and be prepared.”  Linda   
• “It is powerful.”  Katie 
• “When lightning strikes, we come together as a group.”  Jianna   
• “We are shocking people with a bolt.”  Emmah   

http://youtu.be/u0ZYwiKyNEU  

The Magic Carpet . . . No Joy Ride 

We cannot design, create, produce and stage an original opera without collaboration, without teamwork.  We must acquire these skills in order to apply them FOR REAL. 

Working to accomplish a collective goal with twenty-four students is no easy feat, especially when the teacher steps away, leaving the kids to work through the trials and tribulations that accompany a group challenge. 

A large plastic tarp lay on the floor, a magic carpet.  The company has been flying for quite some time on this filthy, reeking, germ infested rug and can stand it no longer.  The company challenge  . . . to turn the carpet over, revealing its clean, fragrant side, without stepping off.  If someone steps off or touches the floor in any way, the company must start the challenge again.   

Imagine twenty-four kids at one time, talking over one another with ideas, suggestions and strategies to put into practice.  No one is listening, everyone is moving, some take it seriously, others play around.  Occasionally, there is a saboteur or two.  Then, someone falls off.  Most are frustrated, angry and want to blame someone for their mutual errors. 

We stop, sit in a circle around the carpet and discuss what is happening.  At this time, students share honest, heartfelt comments that make us all think about who we are, why we are here together and what we are doing.  In this way, we build trust in one another and realize we must share our feelings in order to move forward.  These circle conversations also produce concrete, viable strategies and observations that ultimately lead to accomplishing current and future challenges. 

Creating a culture that encourages students to express and process their emotions in a healthy manner is essential to problem solving and building personal relationships.  A critical component to processing emotions is recording our thoughts and feelings in writing immediately following a common experience.  After an intense emotional session, students cannot contain what’s inside of them.  It has to come out.  As a result, an authentic purpose for writing emerges.   Once students discover this outlet, that they can say and write whatever they think and feel without judgment, the floodgate opens. 

Life lessons learned through group challenges:

• It’s not about ME.  It’s about WE.
• Blame is counterproductive.
• Getting frustrated and angry is okay.
• Working together is not easy, but necessary.
• Sometimes we must let go of our own ideas.
• Making mistakes is part of the learning process.
• There’s no giving up.  Others are depending on us.
• Our thoughts and feelings have value.

With two attempts to accomplish the challenge, the company has yet to be successful on The Magic Carpet.   But we persevere.

Mark Your Calendars

In order to become true mathematicians and critical thinkers, we must first understand that not every problem has only one correct answer and there are multiple ways to arrive at a solution.   In the process of creating an original opera, students encounter daily opportunities to apply their math thinking in authentic contexts.   

The first day of school we posed an open-ended question to initiate the process of solving multi-step problems and to introduce the concept of the opera.  We presented a problem that would naturally and logically incorporate the skills and strategies of our first quarter math curriculum. 

How much time do we have to prepare for our opera?    

Having this information is imperative in order to plan for the opera.  Our purpose was clear.  We needed this information FOR REAL. 

With this question, students immediately began to respond and ask questions.   Where do we start?  What do we do?  It was completely up to them.  They determined fairly quickly what information they needed to set them in motion . . . the date of the opera premiere, May 7.  They listed tools they might need to help them, such as a school calendar, counters of different types, a hundreds chart, etc.  Working collaboratively in partners or small groups, they set to work.  Every day they shared strategies and ideas as they moved closer to determining a solution.  By talking with one another they deduced what made sense and what needed further exploration and processing.    

As they worked, misconceptions, arithmetic mistakes and gaps in understanding became evident to me.  In the same way I could see what they knew and exactly how they were thinking as they explained their respective strategies and solutions.   

Most students were eager to find a solution, but were reluctant to record their work.  Training them to explain their thinking in writing and to show specific strategies on paper is certainly a process that develops over time, one that is critical to deeper understanding.  We all know that kids love shouting out, “I’m done.” They will soon learn that there is always something to improve or revise.    

Using student work as examples for instruction is powerful.   

Every day I searched for student samples to demonstrate a particular skill, strategy or mathematical understanding.  The first student to realize we could not include Saturdays and Sundays in our calculations for preparation days, shared his discovery and the rest of the group acknowledged this fact and changed course.  The same then followed with holidays.  Without me spoon feeding a predetermined strategy to solve the problem, students were forced to reason, to think on their own.   

Take a look.  What do YOU see?