EDUCATION & OUTREACH
My Father's War combines history, non-fiction literature, and live music in a theatrical performance that exemplifies the engagement, understanding, and healing that only the arts can inspire. Through the performance, the post-show talkbacks, and the accompanying activities and workshops, audiences of all ages will come away with a realistic and relevant concept of war as well as the empowering benefits of listening, writing, and sharing.
"My mother, Eleanor Ponder, taught high school English and Theater for 40 years. She was an amazing educator whose students still stayed in touch with her throughout her retirement. In 2011, the English wing of TC Roberson High School was dedicated to her. Mom was doing arts integration long before we called it that."
- Carol Ponder
EDUCATIONAL GOALS & STANDARDS
To support teachers and learners in addressing the three Instructional Shifts outlined in the Common Core:
To offer an entertaining and compelling exemplar of literary non-fiction, inspiring students to:
Through this exemplar, to introduce Reader’s Theater as a genre and to make the connection for students between Reader’s Theater and writing for and speaking in public, skills that are crucial to success in today’s world.
- Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction - especially literary nonfiction, in this case, the original memoir and the script adapted from it.
- Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text - the actors’ interpretation of the text provides an excellent example of, and inspiration for, in-depth text analysis and understanding.
- Regular practice with complex text and its academic language - the memoir and script, while written and spoken in a storytelling voice, include complex ideas (both historical and personal) using commensurately sophisticated language.
To offer an entertaining and compelling exemplar of literary non-fiction, inspiring students to:
- Relate more personally to information in history and social studies;
- Investigate different points of view when learning in history and social studies;
- Explore history and social studies through memoir-writing of their own;
- Comprehend biography, autobiography, memoir and other historical works through creating Reader’s Theater performances of their own.
Through this exemplar, to introduce Reader’s Theater as a genre and to make the connection for students between Reader’s Theater and writing for and speaking in public, skills that are crucial to success in today’s world.