Magical Rain

First Colors
Ask Dr. Ike

"Long long ago, the world was nothing like the way it is now.
There was no color.
There was no music.
The world was a very sad place....
Then, from the deepest, most ancient part of the night skies,
the darkness was ruptured
by the dance of falling stars...."

Do you remember this? This is the beginning of the story of "The First Colors". Do you remember Dr. Ike's voice telling this story while the glow in the dark masks were floating on the stage. Dr. Ike is the storyteller in our theater company, and she knows many things about this story. We want to know if you have questions about the story of the First Colors that you want to ask Dr. Ike. What do you wonder about when you think about the story of the First Colors. Do you wonder who first thought of the story? Do you wonder about why the different characters in the story behaved the way they did? What questions come to your mind when you think about the story? Maybe you can think of a question that nobody has ever thought of before. Dr. Ike knows a lot about the story, so she may be able to answer your questions, and then again, maybe you can stump her (think of a question she does not have the answer to). If you think of questions about the story, bring your questions to your teacher. Your teacher can then send your questions to us in an email, and then Dr. Ike will send an email back to your teacher with her answers.

 

Teacher's Notes:

Lesson: Good Questions

Have the students think about the "First Colors" story and draw out questions from them in a group discussion. The questions that we are especially interested in are questions about the story itself (characters, content, meaning), since these questions will connect to the lessons in this web site. We try to answer questions about our company and our production (such as "how long have you been doing theater?" or "how did you make the alligator prop?) in our Q and A session at the end of our live performances of the show. While we are receptive to all questions, it is the questions about the story itself that we are most interested in receiving via email.

What we are after are imaginative, genuine and specific questions from a child's perspective, even if they would seem unusual, naive or provocative to an adult. Sometimes "naive" or "childlike" questions can be quite profound when pondered deeply, so we are looking for questions from the children that are honest, intuitive and unfiltered. To help draw out specific questions, it may help to remind them of particular parts of the story, to focus their perspective. For example, simply asking the children "do you have any questions about the story?" may draw blank stares, but if you ask if they have any questions about Ehecatl (the Lord of the Wind), that may spark something. With older students, you may be able to discuss what makes a question "good" (specificity, originality...).

Once your students have brainstormed some questions, have them select some of the questions that they think are particularly good questions. If you still have a large number of questions, you may want to select the best of the best yourself, and then email them to us: info@magicalrain.com. We will send our answers through email, so that you can relay the answers to the students. In some cases, the questions may inspire new lesson ideas on this site. We also may display some selected questions and answers on the site.

Note that Dr. Ike is a storyteller, mythologist and a scholar of the cultures of Mesoamerica (ancient Mexico and Central America). For more info on Dr. Ike, see her Resume.

Objectives:

1.

To get the students to develop their abilities at inquiry and research, which includes the ability to formulate good questions.
2. To further refresh the students in their memory of the story .
3. To help Magical Rain Theaterworks get a sense of the "pulse" of student responses to the story, which will help us in forming a curriculum of lessons that is responsive to the student's interests.