Acting Reflection & Frank's "Americans"

The acting class that we had this past week was good for getting the entire class comfortable with portraying emotions and acting out brief scenarios. The warm-up games that we played brought the class together and also gave us some ideas of what we might do as kinestetic mini-lessons or classroom community builders for our own future classrooms. Having us practice two-person tableaus, and then larger group tableaus, was a good way to get us comfortable with the concept and purpose of such an exercise. When it came time to construct the jurors for our whole class tableau, I liked how we took turns in pairs of who would act as a juror and who would position them. it seems more educational to have another person position you rather than you doing it on your own; that way we got feedback from the class and made sure that everyone had input in the final product. Remembering who each juror was sometimes difficult. Perhaps telling students to bring in props, or come up with a symbol for each juror could be an enhancement to the final picture.


While researching Robert Frank's book The Americans I found that his photos are not a  linear narrative, but rather his aim was to deal with larger themes in American society. As one source stated, "The Americans is constructed in four sections. Each begins with a picture of an American flag and proceeds with a rhythm based on the interplay between motion and stasis, the presence and absence of people, observers and those being observed" (National Gallery of Art). The website noted that " Frank reveals the politics, alienation, power, and injustice at play just beneath the surface of his adopted country."
It was interesting to research the photos and find these themes when looking at them. In my case, this research served as a "pre-reading" activity so that I could further understand what I was going to be looking at and why. I might employ a similar approach when having my students consider Frank's photography in light of Twelve Angry Men. I might have them research the most famous photos of his, and then have them write what themes they pick out in each and how they might relate to each other. Rather than just having students say that two photos both have an American flag in them, I would push them further to identify and think about the weight that the flag carries in relation to the people in the photos. 



Work Cited:
National Gallery of Art. http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/features/robert-frank/the-americans-1955-57.html