CAN I HELP YOU?

"CAN I HELP YOU?"
"YES, I THINK WE'RE LOST. IS THERE A SUPERMARKET NEARBY?"

I watch as the two 11-year-old boys whose names I have yet to learn propel each other backward with their screams, escalating their simple textbook dialog to something out of The Fast and the Furious. (From what I can tell, that is, never having seen that movie.) Their faces inches apart, each line takes them halfway across the classroom, as their momentarily line-less fellow actor and the rest of their giggling class look on.

I guess this is what it looks like when you make learning fun?

The assignment was simple: two teams of three volunteers each, act out the dialog for your classmates, who will then vote for the "best" performance. I envisioned, and encouraged, grand theatrical motions and exaggerated voices, and I did see some of those. But even so, no two performances were the same: some took the straight route, while others went for funny; some groups had boys and girls playing boys and girls, while others had boys fighting against (and then loving) pulling falsettos and girls barking out their lines; some involved long, not-quite-whispered conferences on how to perform, while others went completely by the seat of their pants, assigning roles and immediately diving in.

Though it was a system I set in place, and without which no doubt the creativity and drive my kids showed me would not have existed, I came to regret, somewhat, the final vote which elevated one performance over the other. In some classes, the tally was grossly lopsided, like 4-16, when in actual fact both teams had performed extraordinarily well; even when the scores were close, I found myself wondering how much the vote had to do with what the students saw and how much had to do with who they hung out with outside of class. So far, though, I can't think of a way to eliminate that particular pitfall, and even those not chosen today seemed unfazed by the judgment.

The experiment in creativity continues tomorrow, with 6th graders--today was 5th--and it will be interesting to see how they react to the task; whether they'll participate willingly, or whether they'll consider themselves "too cool."

But I'll be honest: I'm hoping for another friendly screaming match.