On Tuesday afternoon in UE2, the Guitar group (Elyse and Joe) directed the first Energy Theater using a storyboard. There was lots of engagement and sense-making, and when I have access to the editable video, I'll point out what I see as instances of individual sense-making attempts. Here's the thing I was struck by, which you can see for yourself in "UE2 110628 1356 Front":
At 18:03 minutes into the clip, Hunter leaves the room. I observe no change in the nature of the interaction of the Energy Theater "actors", who continue to talk with each other (a little) and with the "directors" a lot. This continues until 26:13 minutes into the clip (so a little over 8 minutes) before anyone even comments that Hunter isn't in the room, but aside from that very brief comment, the work continues with same intensity until Hunter rejoins the group at 26:56 minutes into the clip (and the work continues).
So this community of learners, engaged in work with form they are quite familiar with (Energy Theater) but content they are not (since most of the participants were actors and not directors), sustained the pace and complexity of their discourse and inquiry, even when the "authority figure" (Hunter) was not physically present. I'm not sure why I'm so struck by this episode, because I've seen many other groups working together for long periods of time without instructor intervention.
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