Rasa Sculptures

Now that students have gotten an opportunity to experience rasas, to get them in their body as it were, it is time for them to engage with a complex listening and speaking activity that will generate a significant amount of language. In the introductory video you can see me modeling the sculpting process. The other videos show the process in various stages as well as the “finished” product—presentations. With mainstream drama students this activity is done silently and is based on a common theatre game called sculpting. One student is the “clay” the other is the artist. The artist sculpts the clay through physical manipulation of the body—placing the “clay” body into a position, which reflects the sculptor’s interpretation of the Rasa. In addition, in a drama class context, a sculptor can demonstrate what they want the “clay” to do by modeling, placing their own body in the desired position. But for a language development activity we prohibit physical content and modeling and the sculptor can only use words. As always I provide a scaffolded structure so students that are brand new to English are supported and students that are more experienced with English are challenged. Sculptors that are struggling with words to describe their desired outcome can call on others to assist them by “modeling” and getting others to put into language directions that will achieve the desired result. So much language is generated in this activity and you can see in the sample videos the buzz of language in the room. An example of a scaffolded support sheet is included below. As I circulate around the room, helping students, I provide differentiated instruction—coaching and nudging, helping students to expand their language. I also have students write down words and phrases they used or that I helped them develop. In this way each student is supported and challenged to the best of my abilities. After the practice sessions the students present their statues to the entire class. In the past, when I wasn’t videoing the sessions, I would write on the whiteboard, or have advanced students write, the language we generated. Verbs like put, reach, place, make, close; nouns like chest, foot, hand; adverbs, determiners like a little, a bit more, etc. So many language possibilities and extensions can develop from this process.

In my academic language development class we extended this activity to include “academic speeches” and the “Sculptor” developed a 1-2 minute speech incorporating target academic vocabulary.