leslee s ilverman: artis tic direc tor - mtyp. seuss study guide.pdf · · 2012-11-29leslee s...

STUDY GUIDE

L E S L E E S I L V E R M A N : A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R

L E S L E E S I L V E R M A N : A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R

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Study guide prepared by

DR. SEUSS • GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS PAGE 2

Introduction

This guide is designed to help you and your students get the most out of your theater experience. We have included all the information you need to select and schedule your show, as well as suggested activities to expand your theater experience beyond the show. Feel free to select the ideas that work best with your classroom and curriculum needs. We would appreciate knowing which activities you used and how they worked for you.

Before Your Show

Find out what your students know about the subject matter in the story. Have they read any other books by Dr. Seuss?

Have they seen a film or television program based on a Dr. Seuss story? Have they seen a production performed on stage before?

Create a classroom display about the show you will be seeing. You can include the information from this guide, newspaper reviews, and related books. Invite students to make connection with stories they know and bring in those materials to add to the display.


At Your Show

As audience members, your students have an import role to play in the show. Using basic theater etiquette will help ensure a wonderful performance for everyone.

Students can play their role by:

Making bathroom trips before or after the show, or during intermission

Remaining seated throughout the performance

Giving their full attention to the activities on stage

Responding appropriately to activities on stage by laughing at things that are funny and responding to actors if asked

Showing appreciation for the actors by applauding

Showing respect for the actors and audience by not talking with neighbors or making inappropriate comments

Giving the actors a standing ovation at the end of the performance

After Your Show

Have students reflect on the performance and how all the individual elements came together to create the show.

What did the sets (backdrops, scenery) look like? How did they help establish the different scenes in the play?

What did the costumes (clothing, makeup, wigs) tell you about each character?

What was the funniest part in the play?

What did your students learn from the play?

What questions or conversations did the play bring up for your students?

What role did the audience play in the production?

If you were an actor, what role would you want to play?

There are lots of people who make a play who are not actors. What kinds of things do you think they do?


Theater Vocabulary

Actor: A person who performs a role in the play.

Audience: The group of people that watch and respond to the play.

Backstage: The area of the stage that cannot be seen by the audience.

Blocking: The planned way actors move on stage.

Cast: The group of actors who portray the roles in the play.

Character: The role, or personality, the actor portrays.

Costume: The clothes worn by the actors on stage.

Design: The creative process of developing and implementing how the play will look and feel. Costumes, lighting, sets, and make-up are all designed.

Director: The person who oversees the entire process of bringing the play to life on stage.

Dress Rehearsal: The final practice performances when the play is done in full costume and with all of the technical elements (light, sound, effects) in place.

House: The area where the audience sits.

Performance: The live event shared by the cast and the audience.

Play: A story written for the stage.

Playwright: A person who writes stories for the stage.

Prop: Any item on the stage used (carried, moved, manipulated) by the actors.

Scene: A section of a play, also called an act.

Set: The physical environment that creates the time, place, and mood of the play.

Stage Manager: The person who coordinates all aspects of the play during production and performance.


Born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts, Theodor Geisel published his first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, under the name of Dr. Seuss in 1937. If you want to pronounce the name the way his family did, say Zoice,not Soose. Seuss is a Bavarian name, and was his mother’s maiden name: Henrietta Seuss’s parents emigrated from Bavaria (part of modern-day Germany) in the nineteenth century. Theodor Seuss Geisel — known as “Ted” to family and friends began signing his work under the mock-scholarly title of “Dr. Theophrastus Seuss” in 1927 as a magazine cartoonist. He shortened that to “Dr. Seuss” in 1928.

After a year of scraping by, Ted stumbled into the career that would make him famous: advertising. For a 1928 issue of Judge magazine, Seuss drew a cartoon in which a knight says, “Darn it all, another dragon. And just after I’d sprayed the whole castle with Flit!” Flit was a popular insecticide at the time and the wife of an advertising executive saw the cartoon and asked her husband to hire Seuss to write ads for Flit.

In a typical Flit cartoon ad, Seuss used the phrase, “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” and the Father (Henry) looked for the Flit to save the day. Dr. Seuss’s ad campaign was a hit. “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” became a catchphrase that everyone knew. Seuss went on to create ads for many other products, large and small and for the next thirty years, advertising would remain his main source of income.

About Dr. Seuss

The Cat in the HatThe Cat in the Hat (1957) was actually Seuss’s thirteenth children’s book. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat because he was worried that children were not learning to read. He was challenged to write a story that first grade children could not put down.

The book was an immediate hit. Published in March of 1957, The Cat in the Hat sold nearly a million copies by the end of 1960. The book’s runaway success inspired Seuss to found Beginner Books, a division of Random House that would publish books designed to help children learn to read. In the fall of 1958, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and four other titles launched the Beginner Books series, which would soon include P. D. Eastman’s Go, Dog. Go! (1961), Stan and Jan Berenstain’s The Big Honey Hunt (the first Berenstain Bears book, 1962), and Seuss’s own Green Eggs and Ham (1960). This book is his best-selling title. The Cat in the Hat is in second place, followed by two more Beginner Books: One fish two fish red fish blue fish (1960) and Hop on Pop (1963).


Seuss’s LegacyAt the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts, a bronze Ted Geisel sits in a chair next to the Cat in the Hat. Nearby are some of the other characters he created— the Lorax, the Grinch and his dog Max, Yertle the Turtle, Horton the Elephant, and Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose. Seuss’s second wife founded the Dr. Seuss Foundation, which provides primary support for over one hundred medical, cultural, and socially active institutions. As curator of the Seuss legacy, she reminds us that — in the words of the Lorax — “UNLESS someone like you / cares a whole awful lot, / nothing is going to get better. / It’s not.” Through the art and poetry of his books, Seuss encourages us to think creatively, participate in society, and do what we can to make it better.

Nel, Philip. “Biography.” Seussville. Random House, Inc, 2010. Web. 12 May 2012.

Cahn, Robert. “The Wonderful World of Dr. Seuss.” Saturday Evening Post, 6 July 1957: 17–19, 42, 46.

Cohen, Charles D. The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss. New York: Random House, 2004.

“Dr. Seuss.” 2012. Biography.com 10 May 2012, 05:16 http://www.biography.com/people/dr-se-uss-9479638

Lathem, Edward Connery. “Words and Pictures Married: The Beginnings of Dr. Seuss.” Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Apr. 1976: 16–21.

Minear, Richard H. Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Introduction by Art Spiegelman. New York: New Press, 1999.

Morgan, Judith, and Neil Morgan. Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel. New York: Random House, 1995.

Nel, Philip. “Biography.” Seussville. Random House, Inc, 2010. Web. 12 May 2012.

Nel, Philip. The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats. Random House, 2007.

Nel, Philip. Dr. Seuss: American Icon. New York and London: Continuum, 2004.

Turvey, Debbie Hochman. “All-Time Bestselling Children’s Books.” Edited by Diane Roback and Jason Britton. Publishers Weekly, 17 Dec. 2001: 24–27.


Online Resourceshttp://www.catinthehat.orgVisit this site to view information and pictures about the National Memorial and Sculpture Garden dedicated to Dr. Suess.

htp://www.suesville.comThis site has so many wonderful games and activities all dedicated to Dr. Suess. You can even create your own Who! For teachers, find learning activities, reading lists and more!

http://www.drseussart.com/Visit here to view some of Dr. Seuss’ art and illustrations.

http://pbskids.org/catinthehat/A site dedicated to the PBS Kids show based on the adventures of the Cat in the Hat.

Bibliographic ResourcesKrull, Kathleen. The boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel grew up to become Dr. Se-uss. Random House, 2004.

Cohen, Charles D. The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss: a Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Random House, 2004.

Kudlinksi, Kathleen. Dr. Seuss: Young Author and Artist. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2005.

Fensch, Thomas, ed. Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss : Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel. McFarland and Co., 1997. Print.

Weidt, Maryann N. Oh, the Places He Went: a Story About Dr. Seuss--Theodore Seuss Geisel. Carolrhoda Books, 1994.


Learning ActivitiesPre-K-2nd Grade: Let’s See How We Are Alike!

Objective: Students will read The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, which illustrates the concept that natural and human characteristics can be expressions of uniqueness. This book also shows us that although we have differences, we are also very similar. Dwelling on differences can cause unnecessary conflict. The students will identify and describe the behaviors of the characters and explain why physical differences do not affect one’s personal worth.

Duration: One 30 minute class period.

Procedure:

Ask the students to look around the room at how they are different from each other. Ask students to move to opposite sides of the room based on the characteristics you name. Each time the class sorts, count the groups and record the numbers on the chalkboard. You may use characteristics such as such as dark hair or light hair, oldest child in the family, ate cereal for breakfast, wearing jeans, etc. Ask the students whether these attributes make them better or worse than the people around them. Tell the students that you are going to read a book in which these kinds of differences really do matter to the community. Let’s see how they deal with differences in the book, The Sneetches. Read the book aloud to the class. Be sure to encourage your students to be involved in the story by having them name items and characters in the illustrations, label the feelings of the characters, etc. Students will consider if physical differences should make a difference in how people are treated.

Assessment:

Note and record as appropriate how children:

o Discuss and label the feelings of the characters.

o Discuss the problem in the story and how it relates to experiences in their own lives.

o Illustrate two people who look different but get along together.

o Communicate a benefit of showing respect for others.

o Brainstorm a list of physical differences, such as hair color, skin color, length of hair, wearing glasses, using a wheelchair, shape of eyes, etc.

o Brainstorm a list of things children like to do for fun. Ask each student to choose one of the activities and draw a picture of two children doing that activity. The two children should look as different as possible physically (using attributes from the list above) from each other, but the pictures should show them playing together.

o Discuss the importance of respect for others. Have students give examples of how children will act toward one another if they have respect for each other.


Pre-K-2nd Grade: Fun-in-a-Box!

Objective: Students will create their own box of fun, like the Cat in the Hat!

Materials:

o Blank paper for each student

o Writing utensils

o Construction paper

o Art supplies

Procedure: First pass out blank paper and a writing utensil to each student. Remind learners that the Cat in the Hat kept Thing 1 and Thing 2 in his great big wooden box of fun. Ask the students to write down what they would keep in their box of fun if they had one. Once students have created their list, pass out art supplies and construction paper and allow them to create their own 2 dimensional box of fun.

Assessment: Each student will have a list of items for the box of fun and completed art project.


3rd-4th Grade: Factions in Dr. Seuss’ The Butter Battle Book

Students will identify factions in society and recognize the problems/dangers/benefits of factional activities and/or fighting.

Objective: Students will identify factions in society and recognize the problems/dangers/benefits of factional activities and/or fighting. Students will learn to define the term “faction,” explain the cause of “factions,” and identify an example of “factions” in current world events.

Duration: One 45 minute class period.

Materials: The Butter Battle Book, by Dr. Seuss

Procedure:

Read The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss aloud to the class, and then facilitate a discussion on the following questions:

o What happened to the community in this book? o Why did this happen? o What was the difference of opinion about? o What was the result?

• Use the results of this discussion to lead to the introduction of the term faction (a group with a common interest that is often quarrelsome or self-seeking). This definition should be written on a card and posted.

• Dividing into Groups (see below), play a game to divide the class into factions.

o Designate two (or possibly three) separate locations within the classroom.

o Announce choices by which the students can classify themselves, for example, “Everyone who prefers chocolate ice cream, go stand by X; everyone who prefers vanilla, go stand by Y.” (Students should be encouraged to make a “forced choice” of one or the other.) Children who have special circumstances may remain in the center, for example: “Anyone with allergies to ice cream…”

o Announce other categories and tell children they must move each time to the location that signifies their choice. These categories may be created by the teacher, according to the population of the class.

o Examples of categories:

• Boys - Girls • Only children - Have brothers and/or sisters • Like cats best - Like dogs best • Tall - Short • Favorite food is pizza - Favorite food is something else • Like country music - Do not like country music • Wear glasses - Do not wear glasses

(These are just examples. Adjust categories to the makeup of your class.)


3rd-4th Grade: Factions in Dr. Seuss’ The Butter Battle Book...continued from previous page

Briefly close this activity with this statement to elicit a student response. “Today we have divided up into many groups of people according to what we believe, or how we look, what we prefer, or who we are. Did you notice that sometimes certain people were in your group and other times there were different people in your group? Groups changed, depending on the question that was asked. These small groups that were formed could be called ______________?” (factions)

Have students come up with examples of groups that might be factions in our real modern world.

Have them talk about how those groups interact with one another and what that means. Talk about how we can see all of this reflected in the work of Dr. Seuss.

Assessment: Based on students contributions to discussion, participating in the game and written response be sure they understand the difference between a faction and a community and understand how both are represented in the book.

3rd-4th Grade: The Sneetches: Finding Acceptance

Objective: In reading The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, students will discuss prejudice, acceptance and treating others with fairness and respect.

Duration: One 30-40 minute class period.

Materials: The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss

Procedure: Read The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. During reading ask the students to predict what may happen next when Mr. McBean, the star-remover, comes. Look at the picture of the Fix-it-Up Chappie driving away with their money. Discuss how the Sneetches must feel right then. The Fix-it-Up Chappie came to make money and laughed as he drove away. Who makes money from us like this? Do we ever spend money on foolish things? After reading lead a discussion based off the following questions:

Introduce and define the words prejudice and acceptance. The Star-Belly Sneetches showed prejudice against the Plain-Belly Sneetches when they should have shown acceptance for their differences. Discuss why it is important not to allow any form of prejudice in our family or community. What damage could it do? What are the benefits of treating everyone with fairness and respect? Should physical differences ever determine how people are treated? Why or why not?

Assessment: Student participation in class discussion will show understanding of the material. Encourage and assess new ideas and connections.

• What lesson did the Sneetches learn? • What will be different for them now? • How much did it cost them? • Was the cost too high or was it worth it?


Additional Activities

leslee s ilverman: artis tic direc tor - mtyp. seuss study guide.pdf · · 2012-11-29leslee s...

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