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Write Your Way to Empathy:

How can playwriting activities help students build empathy?

by Carol Cabrera

Table of Contents:

Abstract..........................................p. 1

Introduction......................................p. 3

Literature Review..............................p. 11

Methods............................................p. 26

Findings..........................................p. 29

Conclusion.........................................p. 48

Works Cited......................................p. 57

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Abstract

Write Your Way to Empathy: How can playwriting activities help students build

empathy?

In this action research, set in a project-based high school, I traced the development of empathy in a small elective playwriting course for students in grades 9-12. Drawing on literature on empathy and playwriting, as well as my own teaching experience, I designed a series of activities that engaged students in writing and revising a one-act play. Students took an Empathy Quotient survey before and toward the end of the playwriting project, filled out exit cards, journaled, and completed an open response survey on writing at the beginning and at the end. Analysis of this data yielded four major themes: (1) the exploration of identity is integral to building empathy, (2) empathy can be rehearsed when students write and read in a characters voice, (3) playwriting critique pushes students to understand the intent of the creator, and (4) there is a progression to empathy: understand self, be understood, understand others. These findings indicate that empathy is not a fixed attribute. Rather, it is something that can be taught, developed and nurtured in students, and playwriting is one way to do so.

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Empathy & Playwriting: An Introduction

I could swear by your expression

That the pain down in your soul

Was the same as the one down in mine.

That's the pain,

Cuts a straight line

Down through the heart;

We called it love.

So we wrapped our arms around each other,

Trying to shove ourselves back together.

~Hedwig, Hedwig & The Angry Inch

Who am I and why do I do what I do?

I am a short, 25 year old, straight female Asian school teacher living in California

and my experience with older, tall, transgendered/post-op female German immigrants

to the US who are rock stars is zero. Seeing Hedwig & The Angry Inch on Broadway in

2015, and feeling the amount of sadness, love and passion I did for the pieces

protagonist, Hedwig, was so powerful that it made me feel like I not only understood a

piece of that very particular American story, but that I was equipped to stand against the

struggles that she faces in her particular life journey.

Im aware it was fiction.

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I became a teaching artist when I was 19, and since then, I have helped hundreds

of students, from 4th graders to recent college graduates, develop hundreds, verging on

thousands, of plays. It was only natural that when I left the California Playwrights

Project to become a full time classroom teacher, the playwriting process would follow

me, would linger in my curriculum, and would transform the way I teach.

Playwriting as an Empathy Builder

SETH

Im sad for no reason. Really, no reason. I have a good family, a bunch of good friends,

but Im just sad, and I take everything personally, and its stupid, and Im sorry, I

dont make much sense, Im sorta bad with words, it--- Shit. Sorry, sorry I know

Im not supposed to do that self-degrading thing. It sorta just comes naturally, I guess?

I dont know if Im trying to be a good person and not a narcissist or something or if I

actually hate myself. Hell A lot of things I do are to appear nice. I dont think, uh, I

know who I am anymore. Im just that quiet kid who holds the door open for strangers,

but cant work up the courage to look them in the eye and smile, huh? I try so hard,

yknow, but its like, not enough, I guess.

Freshman, High Tech High North County, California, 2014

from the play Perfectly Sane

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Inevitably, students always write about themselves, no matter how much they feel

they are hiding behind fiction. The playwright of the excerpt above, shared with me

shortly after the first reading of Perfectly Sane, that he, like Seth, was institutionalized

for his clinical depression, and he, like Seth, couldnt always understand why he felt the

way he did when he felt a deep melancholy set over his shoulders. Playwriting helped

this student put his feelings on paper, but reading his piece out loud with my class (and

eventually, putting it onstage through a college theatre troupe) did something equally

powerful: students around him were beginning to understand his story and his struggle.

They were beginning to see him clearly--even though we were discussing fiction.

An example that is a little more fantastical: I recently helped workshop a play by

a rather quiet and quirky daydreamer of a student. In the workshops that I run for

playwrights, it typically begins with a reading of the play out loud, with different people

in the room reading different characters lines--never the playwright. The playwrights

role is to listen, to let go of the work they have put on the paper and see it transformed

by the room. Then, we take some time to write down Pops, Questions, and What

Ifs? and then spend some time discussing these things. I will go further into what these

terms mean later in my methods. In *Lilys play, a plant becomes a sentient being, and

instead of sitting and observing the world, gets to speak up and participate in it. It takes

very little to connect Lilys quiet nature to the quiet nature of the protagonist in her

piece, Photosynthesis. My students in Room 129 were seeing the quiet Lily through a

much different light- they were beginning to peel the onion that is her very individual,

very quirky personality that lay far beneath the poised, quiet and regal posture.

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It is wildly important that students be allowed to explore the world that they are

currently experiencing and that as educators, we craft experiences that allow them to do

this without fear of judgment. Equally important, however, is that students are allowed

to share this exploration with one another because this helps students gain a larger

understanding of the world outside of themselves. It does what literature has always

helped us do--understand one another. This research seeks to answer the question:

How can playwriting activities help students build empathy?

Why Empathy?

I became entranced with theatre as a child because it helped me live hundreds of

other lives.

Paula Vogels How I Learned to Drive helped me tackle my way through the

moral dilemmas of abuse and molestation. The stage adaptation of Steinbecks Of Mice

and Men helped me identify and understand Lennie in a way that I think helps me be a

more adequate teacher. It took a forced exposure to theatre in school in 2nd gradea

stage adaptation of The Princess and the Peato make me fall in love with theatre and

then beg and plead with my parents to allow me to watch more of it and partake in it

with parts other than audience member. While I very much see literature as an empathy

building activity, I argue passionately that theatre allows everyone, even those with a

limited reading skill set, to witness a real human experience, in a live way, and that this

is an even more powerful empathy building activity. It is important to preserve this art,

and the first way to do this is to build a community of young people who are sharing

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stories worth listening to. In order to craft a play worth listening to, we must pay close

attention to the honesty and authenticity of each voice in the story. In order to build that

honesty and authenticity, students must be empathetic individuals. In the playwriting

process, writers try on many voices, and sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesnt.

When it doesnt, writers revise and revise and revise until they get that particular voice

right. This takes empathy.

In my literature review, I go into detail about why actively teaching empathy is of

utmost importance at this time. As a teacher, I have myself used the art of observation to

see students interact with one another and with other teachers. I remember a teacher

friend of mine during my first year teaching showing me a 3 ring binder of referrals she

had written up. When I looked through the binder, there were many referrals written up

for Rudely speaking to another student Yelling at the teacher etc. My second year, I

co-taught with a teacher and we made it a point to not allow the words Shut up in our

classroom because it seemed to be a gateway for students to be mean to one another.

Here, at my current site, I have observed some of this similar behavior. However, there

are other things standing in the way of how we understand one another.

With the dawn of technology, it has become increasingly easier to interact with

one another without ever actually seeing one another face to face. Technology is one of

many reasons why it has become increasingly important to actively help students build

empathy in the classroom, and not to expect empathy to be a byproduct of traditional

schooling.

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At my school site, we have a significant number of students who have Autism

Spectrum Condition. Research has told us that individuals with ASC have broad

impairments in both self-referential cognition and empathy (Lombardo, 2007). This

school sites population made me even more curious and interested in empathy building

in our youth.

Identity Exploration, Reading & Writing Skills and Other Byproducts of

Playwriting Projects

Along the road to exploring this question, I have explored how students can

explore their own identities through the art of playwriting since it is not typically the

five-minute scribbles of rushed writing that transforms a persons empathic potential: it

is the pieces of theatre that are so honest, the pieces that reveal so much truth about the

human experience, the pieces that are so connected to the writers core identity that it is

almost difficult to call it fake by labeling it fiction.

I have to come clean: I cry a lot because I love touchy-feely stories. Im a sucker

for those moments in the classroom, the ones where you can tell a student has come to a

grand discovery not about some literary device or plot line, but about him or herself.

As a literature teacher, the skills that come through reading and writing are

immensely important to me. However, it is my hope that this research will help writing

teachers of all levels to structure playwriting experiences that not only enhance literacy

experiences and learning but help students dive deep into the vast terrain that is the text

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of their own lives, and to expand their life books and their empathic potentials by

experiencing the stories of others.

I majored in Literature and Theatre when I was in college. I still love to snuggle

with Shakespeare, to drink tea with Hemingway, and I still make it a point to teach the

classics, tackling To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo & Juliet, Fahrenheit 451, The Joy Luck

Club, etc. with my students year after year, because I think there is something that we

must garner and learn from the past. However, what has come to the forefront of my

mind, and therefore my teaching, in recent years, is the vast importance of the now.

Who is the student now and what is he or she experiencing? The playwriting process

helps students uncover the answers to these questions, and by engaging in a community

of writers, each individual student comes to expand their story.

BLADE

I want to be happy now. I only know what I want right now. And maybe what I want

now will be the last thing I ever want, but at least I would be happy right now. We

cant experience the future, we only can experience the now. You know what I mean?

Junior, High Tech High North County, California, 2014

from her play Together, Selfless

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You may write about anything. There are no limits to the subjects you can touch.

Be unafraid of your craziest, wildest questions. Ask them. This is a standard monologue

I give to students who enter my playwriting classroom.

JACOB

You really think I dont know real life, that Im detached from the real world, because I

dont appreciate a culture where as soon as you walk off a campus in the rich part of

town, where the student body is almost all upper-class white kids, you see nothing but

the poorest neighborhoods and some of the poorest schools in the country, and nobody

really cares? Because I dont appreciate all the Confederate flags hanging up in every

county of every state in a five-state area? I feel lost here. I think everybody does, and is

afraid to admit it because theyve been here too long.

Senior, El Dorado High School, Arkansas, 2012

from his play On the Mississippi

MICKEY

I invited Brenda to my 10th birthday party at the YMCA and when she laid eyes on

you, you would've never thought this girl never saw a black person in her life. I don't

need a girlfriend...right now. Long Island is full of stuck up Madonna wannabes and

ditzy Tiffany wishies. And don't even get me started on the almost non-existent

African-American community.

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Sophomore, El Dorado High School, Arkansas, 2012

from her play My Mothers Keeper

*Jeremiah, a senior, was experiencing rather difficult ethical dilemmas in his

mind about his identity as a white male in the rural South when he appeared at my door

in 2012. A play written by *Glory, a quiet black 10th grader, entitled My Mothers

Keeper opened up a dialogue and respect between the two very talented writers that

would last far beyond the time they spent in my room. They were experiencing two very

different sides of race relations as young citizens of America, living in the South. I

actually just recently spoke to *Jeremiah, who is now living in New Orleans, still

unraveling his feelings about race relations in the South.

It is okay to feel lost.

It is okay to feel sad, and happy, and quiet, and introverted, angry and loved.

All of these things are okay.

In this research, I wanted to unravel the specifics- the nuances of playwriting that

may help a student expand his or her empathic potential in a community of writers. I

have seen playwriting activities transform students in a multitude of ways--their writing

abilities, their reading abilities, their ability to listen and analyze, etc. I specifically

wanted to explore: how can playwriting activities help students build empathy?

Literature Review

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Playwriting with Honesty

How can we connect with our humanity and convey it honestly through writing?

Barba (2002) argues that, Theatre is intolerable if it limits itself to spectacle alone (p.

7). Opening students up to playwriting is a difficult task because many students have

been exposed only to film and television, and while theatre has similarities to these arts,

theatre is its own art form. Students often try to write film and television and inevitably

begin writing work full of only spectacle because its often all they know. Where

playwriting is powerful is when it can really be used to convey honest, human moments.

Vidalias (2008) has talked extensively about the honesty in the work that he

helps student create: If you want your play to work, you have to be honest. And my job,

as a teaching artist, is to help you do that (p. 136). Moving students away from the

spectacle requires extensive discussion about honesty which can move students in all

sorts of different directions. This is the power of playwriting: that honesty can appear in

so many different shapes and forms. It can be revealed in a small and simple monologue

or in a character description or even in a setting, but when it is revealed, it is

obvious--this is it. This is something this writer really knows and understands. This is an

abstract way of looking at writing and the writing process, but honesty itself is an

abstract concept that can be explored in so many different shapes and forms.

Playwriting allows students to be honest while hiding behind fiction.

Playwriting for Literacy

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On top of this powerful mask of fiction, students are engaging in literacy activities

when they are writing a play. Just as in order to write a poem, students must learn what

a poem is, in order to write plays, students must first be shown examples of plays.

Students begin reading with the intent of discovering what could be useful in their own

work. Then, students begin writing their own work. Critique and revision in the

playwriting process is extremely natural: when playwrights of all ages hear their work

out loud, they can hear where change needs to occur. In this process, students are using

their reading, writing and critical thinking skills all at once, helping to show how

theatre can be effectively used as a medium of education (Bhattacharyya, 2013, p. 5).

According to Power (1938), plays are the most logical, most natural, and the

easiest art form for high-school students to write. Almost every student likes to act, and

what is more does act, if only in the imagination. Dialogue is to him as natural as living

(p. 401). This is the reason why students are so able to revise as easily as they do. They

can hear where their work is unnatural. They know dialogue. They live it.

Playwriting as Project Based Learning

In a project-based learning environment, it is the teachers goal to have students

create. This means that teachers in this particular setting must allow for the mistakes

that are inevitable in the creation process. Playwriting is a perfect fit in this setting. To

write a play is to create. Students try things out, they hear it out loud, they often change

their work (but not always!). There is no right answer when it comes to the playwriting

process, and indeed, when freed of the obligation to find answers, they ask what we call

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knowledge-based questions, questions that arise from their own puzzlement or

perceived lack of understanding (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1999). This connects well to

this studys setting, where authenticity is such a cornerstone of the pedagogy (Steinberg,

1997).

This is not the first time that I have experienced a playwriting project with my

students. However, this is the first time that I have conducted action research on what is

going on in the classroom and chronicling the day to day. My prior observations of what

happens in my classroom have led me to a very specific question. How can playwriting

activities help students build empathy?

I agree with Bhattacharyyas work, best summarized in the following excerpt:

One of the primary concerns related to education today is the excessive workload

upon the students that threatens to have a dehumanizing effect upon them where

they increasingly find themselves cut off from the mainstream society...The

theatre can come to our rescue in this regard. Techniques of drama blur many

boundaries by transforming the formal space of the classroom through the use of

games and conversations, sometimes even actually breaking down its physical

order. Some minimising of the social distance between the teacher and the taught

infuses trust in the latter and makes conversation possible (Bhattacharyya, 2013,

p. 5).

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In the setting of this study, teachers are encouraged to teach from their

passions--to do what you love and let the project drive the curriculum (Guerrero,

2009). As a playwright myself, I have found much joy in playwriting, and I have found

that sharing the playwriting experience with other people has helped me gain a deeper

understanding of who those people are. Because we live a playwriting experience in that

we speak to one another all the time, the structure is easy to understand, and we can

instead focus on understanding one another instead of analyzing a structure--although

this comes naturally to the process as well.

Playwriting for Empathy

There has been research that has proven that students who partake in arts related

activities, whether or not they are specifically playwriting or theatre related activities are

...more confident and willing to explore and take risks, exert ownership over and pride

in their work, and show compassion and empathy toward peers, families and

communities (Burton, Horowitz, & Abeles, 2000, p. 248). Springboarding off of this

work, I strive to develop three mindsets/skillsets in students that together create the

empathetic potential in a student: (1) the art of observation, (2) the ability to connect,

(3) the development of Imaginative Capacity through the very specific art activity of

engaging in a one-act play. Below, I will define empathy and explain how I have distilled

the research on empathy into these three categories.

Defining Empathy

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According to Jeffers (2009), Empathy, at root, allows the self to identify with the

other and individuals to connect with groups, and facilitating holistic learning in the

classroom and beyond, empathy is a vital resource that offers the promise of

intersubjective understanding so essential to the survival of the human community ().

We need empathy in order to progress forward. We need one another in order to

survive.

Truly, the value of empathy has increased in todays age, as we tackle our

generations own unique problems. According to Bateson (year), the more empathetic

the individual is, the more likely he or she is to help those in needBateson calls it the

empathy-altruism hypothesis and predicts that an empathetically aroused individual

will feel empathic joy at learning the victims need has been relieved...this joy is a

consequence, not the goal, of relieving the need (p. 154).

Batesons work suggests that empathy/sympathy does indeed lead to genuinely

altruistic motivation rather than to helping behavior because of predominantly egoistic

motivations.

Olderbak et al. (2014) define empathy as something that refers to the thoughts

and feelings of one individual in response to the observed (emotional) experiences of

another individual. De Wall (2009) distinguishes empathy from sympathy in that

empathy is proactive. Empathy is the process by which we gather information about

someone else (p. 88). In this study, I will be focusing on three traits of empathy: (1) the

ability to connect, (2) the art of observation, (3) the development of the imaginative

capacity.

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In The Empathy Quotient: An Investigation of Adults with Asperger Syndrome

or High Functioning Autism, and Normal Sex Differences, Simon Baron-Cohen and

Sally Wheelwright review the processes by which they vetted the survey that they

created to measure empathy in adults. In their initial studies, they found that scoring

fewer than 30 points was an indicator of autism (but not necessarily evidence of

autism). Their work revealed both significant empathy gaps between the general

population and a AS/HFA (Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism)

population. Their work also revealed a significant empathy gap between men and

women.

#1. The Art of Observation

Because theatre is a story-telling art form, we feel entitled to assume that the

playwright got there before we got there.

~Tom Stoppard

We see that part of learning empathy is to attain the ability to

observe--everything from how others love, how others look, and the different meanings

behind different postures and facial expressions--stem from an ability to observe the

world and its inhabitants. According to Jim and Tangen-Foster (1998), children who

feel loved, appreciated, and cared for are more likely to love, appreciate, and care for

others and for the environment (p. 3). Truly, children learn how to nurture through

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the experience of being nurtured. They learn respect for others and the environment

through experiences with others in the natural environment (Tangen-Foster, 1998).

Children are natural observers, and it is through observing that they learn how to

behave and how to treat one another and themselves.

Stuebers (2014) research tells us that empathy has also to be understood as

being the primary basis for recognizing each other as minded creatures (). Theatre can

help us recognize one another. Shakespeares Hamlet (199) says, Suit the action to the

word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you oerstep not the

modesty of nature: for anything so oerdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end,

both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as twere the mirror up to nature: to show

virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form

and pressure (Act 3, scene 2, 17-24). In this section, Hamlet speaks to the actors who

are to perform in his fathers show and tell them that by playing, or acting, they are

holding a mirror up to the world. When we dramatize something, we put it up for

exhibition, inviting others to observe what is occurring in the piece, and inviting them to

take something away that they might be able to connect to.

Stueber (2014) also tells us that, Ordinarily we not only recognize that other

persons are afraid or that they are reaching for a particular object. We understand their

behavior in more complex social contexts in terms of their reasons for acting using the

full range of psychological concepts including the concepts of belief and desire (2014).

We are able to read different peoples body language and gain meaning from them

because we are constantly observing the world around us. It is important to note that

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there is so much to see, and sometimes we miss details. However, increased empathy

seems to sharpen our observation skills.

#2. The Ability to Connect

I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms,

the most immediate way in which a human being can

share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.

~Thornton Wilder

Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright (2004) tell us that empathy

allows us to tune into how someone else is feeling, or what they might be

thinking. Empathy allows us to understand the intentions of others, predict their

behavior, and experience an emotion triggered by their emotion. In short,

empathy allows us to interact effectively in the social world.

The ability to connect is one of the key themes that courses through the different

literature that discusses empathy. Indeed, it is the heart of many definitions, to be able

to identify in others something that we recognize in ourselves.

Roman Knaric (2012), who has worked as an empathy advisor to organizations

including Oxfam and the United Nations, breaks down empathy into six habits, three of

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which are: Habit 2: Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities, Habit 3: Try

another persons life and Listen hard--and open up. What these three habits and

Baron-Cohen and Wheelwrights writing on empathy have in common is that

empathetic people have an ability to connect with one another.

In Jeffers research On Empathy, Vischer said in regards to his art, I transpose

myself into the inner being of an object and explore its formal character from within, as

it were (2009). Art is about this transposing. Playwriting and theatre, in particular,

asks the writer to become someone else, even just for a moment. This is a rehearsal of

empathy--the experiencing from the inside of someone elses mind and life. This

connection between the self and another being is key to developing empathy.

#3. The Development of the Imaginative Capacity

The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things

happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of

Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real

place does not exist in all the universe.

~P.S. Baber

The ability to observe and the ability to identify in ourselves something that we

can compare and contrast with something we see in someone else are only two pieces of

what creates empathy. The last, and arguably something we are not prioritizing when it

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comes to what must be taught (Barras), is the ability to imagine--the ability to fill in the

gaps once weve observed a behavior and linked it somehow to our own. With an

unlimited capacity for imagination, we can put ourselves in someone elses life. We can

see from their perspective; we can walk in their shoes because we can imagine it.

De Waal (2009) further discusses emotional engagement as something that is

necessary for true empathy: ...seeing anothers emotions arouses our own emotions,

and from there we go on constructing a more advanced understanding of the others

situation (p. 72). While his work shows the ability to connect as an important trait of

empathy, he talks about how this ability comes from observing one another.

Qualifiers

While there is plentiful literature that argues that engaging with the reading and

writing of fiction and the writing of and watching of theatre helps us observe, connect

and imagine, there is also much literature that argues against the notion that fictional

works help in the building of empathy. In Lipps (1979) work, most of the examples of

empathy zero in on the recognition of emotions expressed through different facial

expressions or bodily gestures. Davis (1983) claims that it is not apparent that a

tendency to become deeply involved in the fictitious world of books, movies and plays

will systematically affect ones social relationships. However, there is evidence that tells

us that the observing of different behaviors helps us sculpt our own. Indeed, Coplans

(2004) work with narrative fictions tells us that empathy plays an important role in

text processing and narrative comprehension (). Further, Black, Turner and Bowers

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(1979) work proved that subjects were able to remember a story better when they were

asked to view the information from a given perspective. Whether it is our ability to

understand the fictional work in the first place or its power to help enhance our ability

to remember, worlds of fiction intertwine with our own real life experiences.

Plan of Action

After reading about playwriting and the different areas that it helps students

grow in as well as after seeing my former students engage in the writing of a one act

play, it makes sense to use playwriting as an avenue for empathy building. The three

traits of empathy as defined in this research are clearly evident in the process of writing

a one act play.

Setting Description

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High Tech High North County is a progressive project-based learning school in

San Marcos, California. HTHNC is a public charter school that admits students through

a postal-code based lottery system in attempt to create a student body that mimics the

population of the surrounding community. The purpose of using postal codes in

admission is to work around unfortunate residential segregation to create a

socioeconomically and racially integrated student body (Potter, 2014).

Social class integration is a very important tenet of the High Tech High pedagogy.

It is important for students to interact with people who are different from them, and not

only inside a school inside a classroom and inside a group as well. Specific

demographics of the larger community that this research was conducted inside is: 56%

Caucasian, 22% Latino, 11% Asian, 4% African American, 2% American Indian, 2%

Pacific Islander and 3% other or mixed race. The schools gender population is male:

58% and female: 42%. The percentage of learners with special needs is approximately

20% of the student body.

A few other key pieces of High Tech Highs beliefs are that the work students do

should have an adult world connection. Many projects are modeled after real-world

experiences, or better yet, are real world experiences with very real outcomes outside

the classroom. One such example is a project that Alec Patton conducted with his 11th

grade students at High Tech High Chula Vista in 2014, where his students helped

develop a piece of theatre partnered with the California Innocence Project, where they

put voices of falsely incarcerated people onstage in a public forum.

That public forum is another cornerstone of our schools pedagogy. Public

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displays of student work, also known as exhibitions, are valuable in helping students

understand that their work can and will live beyond the classroom and that a certain

level of work ethic and pride should be taken when completing a task for a project.

The school strives to create projects that address the Six As of Designing Projects:

Authenticity, Academic Rigor, Applied Learning, Active Exploration, Adult

Relationships and Assessment (Steinberg, 1997).

These particular pieces of High Tech Highs project based learning pedagogy help

to validate the value of a playwriting project. When students engage in a playwriting

project, they are addressing in all aspects of Steinbergs 6 As:

*Authenticity: Students project emanate from a problem that has meaning to the

student, since students are encouraged to write from their own experiences.

*Academic Rigor: In order to write a play, students must first understand the

elements of drama. Then, they must use writing skills in order to draft their pieces and

revision skills in order to better and ultimately finalize their work.

*Applied Learning: In a world filled with film and television, and easy access to quick

entertainment via social media, students must dig deep in order to craft a piece of

theatre that is moving, that will make an audience listen.

*Active Exploration: While reading pieces of theatre is an important part of a

playwriting project, watching and interacting with live theatre is imperative for students

engaging in a playwriting project. It shows students that their words will not live on the

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page, but will live on its feet, being explored not only by their own imaginations but by

the imaginations of many others.

*Adult Relationships: Students must interact with the current adult world of theatre

in order to understand theatre authentically.

*Assessment: Reading ones writing out loud is scary. Having others read your writing

is even scarier, because your ears--as well as the ears of everyone around you--can

literally hear the places where your work is in need of revision. This is an incredibly

powerful form of assessment, because students very often identify their own areas of

growth with relative ease.

This research was conducted in an elective classroom that included all grade

levels (9-12). Elective classes in the HTHNC community are designed so that teachers

are encouraged to teach their passions, and students are allowed to self select into an

elective that interests them. My population was rich with diversity in all sorts of lights. I

was also lucky to have a very small group of students. Student self-selected into this

course.

Spring 2015 Playwriting Class

Student Male or Female? Grade Level Special Needs Student of

Color?

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1 F (Kristy) 9

2 F (Megan) 11 X

3 F (Jenn) 9

4 F (Pinkie) 9 X X

5 M (Herzler) 9

6 F (Natasha) 10

7 M (Skylar) 10

8 M (Tyler) 9 X

9 M (Isaiah) 10

10 M (Cory) 9 X

11 M (Abe) 9

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12 M (John) 10 X X

13 M (Erick) 9 X

14 M (Jonah) 9

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Methods

Logistics

My 40 minute playwriting classes occurred at the end of the school day on

Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Wednesday, as an elective course, which

means my students chose to take this class. I had 14 students enrolled, and several of

these students had taken a playwriting course with me in the past, or participated in a

playwriting project that I conducted embedded inside a Humanities class I teach.

Empathy Quotient Test

For my initial survey, I gave students the Empathy Quotient survey developed by

Simon Baron-Cohen. This survey is a self-report questionnaire typically used with adults

of normal intelligence. The test contains 40 empathy items and 20 filler/control items

and on each empathy item, a person can score 2, 1 or 0.

The maximum possible score is 80, and the minimum possible score is 0. I chose

the Baron-Cohen test over other similar surveys because of its shorter length and its

easy administration. I did not want to take up the entirety of a class period in order to do

something like the Empathizing/Sympathizing questionnaire, even though that may

have yielded some other interesting data for analysis.When I first administered this test

and revealed my action research project to my group, one of my students said, Hey- we

should take it at the end too. This was exactly my plan.

Open Ended Empathy Survey

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During my initial survey, I also gave students an open ended survey that I

developed based on some of the Empathy Quotient survey questions as well as on some

of my observations of student discussions in class.

I drew inspiration for the first question based on number 28 of the Empathy

Quotient Survey:

If anyone asked me if I liked their haircut, I would reply truthfully, even if I

didnt like it.

My purpose in drawing out this statement into a longer prompt that was

open-ended was so that I could see students written responses to some of these various

situations that resulted in only a numerical value in the Empathy Quotient test. The goal

of my project was to develop students empathy and the primary way I planned on

measuring their empathy was through their writing, so it is was important to me to

collect an initial piece of writing. This is what I drew the above Baron-Cohen statement

into for the open response:

You see a student walk into class who has been in your class for most of the

year, but she is not someone you have talked to very often. She comes in, and

her head is down, and she seems to be avoiding eye contact with everyone. She

has gotten a new haircut and it doesnt quite suit the shape of her face, and you

think her old haircut fit her better. She sits down next to you, and she asks you,

What do you think about my haircut? What do you do or say next and why?

Try to be as detailed as possible.

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Number 42 on the EQ Test is: I get upset if I see people suffering on news

programs. For the open response, I asked students to respond to the following prompt:

You hear on the news that a building has collapsed in Dhaka,

Bangladesh. Hundreds of people have died in the collapse, and on top of

this, most of the people who were inside the building were working on

less than minimum wage and were living in houses that lacked

insulation. Someone during the school day mentions that they also heard

the news segment. What do you do or say next when this person mentions

the news segment? Why? Try to be as detailed as possible.

For the last open response question, I wanted gauge each students emotional

engagement and ability to connect. I found that these two things were very important

traits of empathy when I was reading relevant literature, so I posed the following

question:

Describe a time that a friend of yours was in trouble. Who was this

friend? What did you do about their troubled situation, if you did

anything at all? Why?

This initial survey would then be repeated at the end of the course to measure

both a quantitative number (the EQ test) and a more qualitative piece (the open

responses). If you would like to see the exact hand-outs of both qualitative pieces (both

the initial survey and the ending survey), please see Appendix 7. The ending open-ended

questions reflected similar situations but not the same storylines as the initial questions.

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During the playwriting course, students were asked to write responses to various

activities inside their notebooks which are stored in the classroom. Further, each

student planned, drafted, wrote and revised a one act play.

I read each of these pieces with an eye for the three traits of empathy that I have

narrowed down my research to in my literature review: 1) The Ability to Connect 2) The

Art of Observation 3) The Imaginative Capacity. These may appear in these writing

pieces in a variety of ways. For example, responses to the third open response question

that are lengthier, with more vivid detail, may indicate a heightened ability to observe

and imagine the other persons experiences. Responses that likened the friends

situation to the writers own experiences may indicate a heightened ability to connect.

Throughout this process, I analyzed the data in front of me from the lens I know

the best: a literature teacher with a critical eye. While I see poetry in everything my

students do, it was my hope that these methods would allow me to shine a light on the

important subject of empathy and how we can cultivate it in our students through a

creative process.

Findings

The Things I Learned

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Throughout this study, I sought to answer the question: How can playwriting

activities help students build empathy? I analyzed surveys, exit cards, open responses

and my day-to-day classroom with an eye for three attributes of empathy I distilled after

much reviewing of literature: 1. The Art of Observation, 2. The Ability to Connect, 3. The

Imaginative Capacity.

I present my findings in the following format:

a) How I saw this finding emerge in the playwriting process

b) How I saw this finding emerge in the reading and critiquing of plays

While I have become friendly with many different themes that have emerged over

the course of this work, I have chosen the most prominent to discuss, and I have housed

them in the following four sections:

1. Exploring Identity through Writing

2. Character Immersion

3. Critique

4. The Empathy Progression

Theme 1: Exploring Identity through Writing

The exploration of identity is integral to building empathy.

Inside the Playwriting Process

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Kristy is in 9th grade. When asked about her process, and how she went about

writing her play, Kristy said, I went to therapy once too so I thought maybe I can use

the therapist, because thats a typical conversation between two people. As Kristy wrote

her play, she was connecting the different fictional elements that she was writing to the

various real-life versions that she had herself experienced. As she explored different

voices, Kristy was figuring out how that voice was similar to or different from her own.

She was looking at her characters in a way that was helping her reveal different things

about herself. Even in reflecting on the activity of writing the first five pages of her play,

Kristy wrote in an exit card, I used observation to bring the therapy room Ive seen into

the story as another therapy room. The art of observation is a powerful tool when it

comes to practicing empathy. In the writing of her play, Kristy was employing this tool

without prompting.

As Jeffers (2009) reports, Vischer said in regards to his art, I transpose myself

into the inner being of an object and explore its formal character from within, as it

were. This transferring of the self into the pieces that we create occurred several other

times during the playwriting process with my students.

Reading & Critiquing Plays

When students read one anothers work and listened to their own work read out

loud in class, something powerful was occurring: they were learning more about

themselves by seeing their work live outside of their own bodies, and by interacting with

the work of their peers.

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When asked what he got out of reading a peers play, Isaiah exhibited a profound

ability to appreciate what another person was doing, displaying all three of the

attributes of empathy studied in this project-- the art of observation, the ability to

connect and the imaginative capacity. He said:

What I got out of it...what I get in general is its really interesting because its

from a different perspective and its a type of writing thats very different from

mine. What Im used to writing in plays is often very...darker...less comedic,

cynical in a way and I find its very interesting to get a different understanding

because it can really help build on what Im writing so just from listening to that

and reading it, I kind of just understood a way that you could add comedy but

still have a very serious topic where you can you know stay interesting but have

an absurd plot.

Isaiah was seeing how reading another persons writing could help him develop

his own writing, helping him explicitly give names to parts of his own style and voice. He

was able to identify someone elses perspective by contrasting it from his own. By

writing his own play, he had something that he could line up to Abes play. He had

something of his own that he had built that he could compare and contrast with Abes

work. In this section, we also see him talking about perspective which is a key idea

when discussing empathy--we must be able to adopt other perspectives. By actively

exploring his own identity through playwriting, he had a lens through which he could

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look at, critique and pull something useful from another students writing for use in his

own writing. In talking with Isaiah about another students workshop, I noticed all three

of the attributes of empathy emerge in his answers, even though the questions never

once asked about his ability to connect, his imagination or his observations. I wanted to

know simply how his experience in the workshop was, and his answers showed all three

attributes emerging in the way he observed the other persons work, connected it to his

own work, and then imagined the way that it could help build on what he was working

on himself.

Kristy was able to identify with her own characters as well as the characters that

her peers were developing, demonstrating that she had observed these characters in

depth and found a way to connect to them. She said of her own play, I identify with

Charles Richardson because for some reason, people always tell me their problems and I

try to fix them. This was interesting to me, because it seems to be a big jump for a 9th

grade girl to step into an elderly mans shoes.

I talked to Megan, a student with Aspergers, about how she felt when we were

critiquing Joshs play. She said, Well, when I was reading his play, I think that it was

really interesting because I remember I did comedy as my second play. In order to

connect to someones work, there must be something at the core that we are connecting

to. While I saw many text to text, and text to world connections, all of these different

types of connections ultimately come through because of a text to self connection. Those

other texts had become part of who these students were, part of the repertoire from

which they were pulling feedback and drawing comparisons and pointing out contrasts.

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Those world events and stories had become part of these students identities, part of the

stories that help craft their unique identities and perspectives on the world.

Theme 2: Character Immersion

Playwriting allows students to literally immerse themselves into characters.

It allows them to step into someone elses shoes.

Inside The Playwriting Process

I had had Skylar in class before this elective. I had had him for an entire year in

Humanities, and in a few other electives prior to the elective where this study was

conducted. This was interesting, because I could have Skylar compare his work with me

in this elective to his work with me in other classes. A talented writer, he has written

essays, short stories, letters and all sorts of other writing for me in the past. When asked

how playwriting, specifically, was different from the other mediums of writing he has

used, he said, A short story or a like an essay or anything, those I think I have to take

down in parts. He said, continuing, I feel like I hit blocks a lot faster with those

because theres so much I have to describe and a lot of walls and walls and walls of text I

have to put. And it like, when I write those, I feel like nobodys ever going to read this

and all that. When I write plays, it actually, I can write it fairly quickly and then go back

and edit it and usually with short stories I write, I have a hard time going back and

editing because its a lot but with plays, I can easily go back and edit things, switch

things around, change things. I also like the ability to just have it read and read in a way

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that its not just one person analyzing it like blah blah blah, its a bunch of people taking

on some of my characters and I just like it. Its just cool.

Reading & Critiquing Plays

I allow my playwrights to cast their own plays during their readings in class.

They are allowed to choose which students will be reading for which roles in the plays

that they have written. For the rest of the reading and critiquing process, the playwright

is to stay silent. When I asked Josh how he felt when he was asked to read for Abes

piece, he said, I get kind of nervous but kind of ecstatic, like Im excited. Im gonna be

playing a character. I think I did okay. A lot of people laughed. Thats also probably a

product of Abes dialogue but honestly if I can make people laugh from reading someone

elses writing and infuse enough life and energy into it so that it can make people laugh,

then its really satisfying. When I was studying acting in college, I remember feeling the

excited nerves that Josh is discussing here. There is something about being asked to be

someone else for a while that is very scary--you are being asked to live up to a character

that someone else has imagined. This is a very literal stepping into someone elses shoes.

Students, during this part of the process, are being asked to talk like someone else and

be someone else for this moment in time. In this section, Josh is impressively able to

observe the laughter of the group as not only a product of his acting but also a product of

Abes writing.

#3: Critique

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Playwriting critique encourages students to understand the intent of the creator.

Playwriting encourages critical questioning. Good questions seek understanding, and

thats the heart of empathy.

Inside the Playwriting Process

I talked to Isaiah about what he thought of our critique workshops and he said,

You get to see all these people look at what you thought of.

I asked Josh what it was like for him to be silent in a workshop where people

were offering him critique. He said, Ideas that you normally wouldnt think of...other

people have thought. Its like a room. You have to bounce the ideas off the walls and try

to catch them and if they just dont fit, you wont be able to but the ones that do make

sense and are good, youll catch and youll put them in your story, or in this case, your

play and improve it over what you would have done before. For students to arrive at a

place where they can pitch ideas at all, they must ask questions to understand what the

playwright is attempting to make.

During a critique session, I ask students to come up with Pops, Questions,

and What if?s for the playwrights. They are to come up with at least one of each, but

over the course of the elective, students come up with far more than one for each

category per play they read! Pops are things that stand out. They are things that

popped out, and typically this is where students are giving warm feedback to their peers,

but sometimes things pop out because they dont quite fit, and its okay to point that out

here too. Questions are for plot. Students are to point out places where they dont have

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an adequate understanding of the world that has been created or the objectives or fears

of the characters. Students here are asking questions that the writer probably has

answers to, but they have not appeared on the page, in the writing, quite yet. What if?s

are for suggestions and wild and crazy ideas. Students are invited to pull in their own

quirks and writing styles to write What if? questions for anything about the other

students play. Like Josh said, sometimes, when it comes to other peoples ideas, you

try to catch them and they just dont fit. Sometimes, however, someone throws out

an idea, like the time Kristy threw one at Josh during his reading, and Josh reflected on

it later, saying, Thats a great idea, I didnt think of that.

Reading & Critiquing Plays

Kristy identified Abe as someone whose critique she valued deeply. When I asked

Abe what he believed made for good critique, he said, Aside from being kind, specific

and helpful it looks at the big picture and the fine details, tries to understand what the

creator was intending and what they created. This is empathy--the observation of the

work, the connecting to the writers original intent and the imagining of what could be,

given what already is.

#4: The Empathy Progression

There is a progression to building empathy:

Understand self, be understood, understand others.

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Inside the Playwriting Process

Building empathy is a process. Many writing samples could be argued to show us

some movement but there were only twelve forty minute classes between the initial

empathy quotient survey and the closing survey. Further, the playwriting classes were

spaced out much more than I would have liked them to have been with spring break,

several school holidays and Monday and Friday advisories interrupting the flow of the

project. Below are the empathy quotient scores on February 24th, on the first day of the

playwriting class with this group of students and the second column has the scores from

April 30th, toward the end of the project.

Figure #1

Studen

t

Male or Female? Empathy Quotient

Score

out of 80~ February

24th, 2015

(Pre-Playwriting

Project)

Empathy Quotient

Score

out of 80~ April

30th, 2015

(Post-Playwriting

Project)

1 F (Kristy) 41 37 (May 10)

2 F (Megan) 24 21

3 F (Jenn) 70 70

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4 F (Natasha) 62 77

5 F (Pinkie) 13 14

6 M (Herzler) 17 (April 22nd) 20

7 M (Skylar) 31 34

8 M (Tyler) 55 59

9 M (Isaiah) 17 7

10 M (Cory) 37 9

11 M (Abe) 35 37

12 M (John) 34 38

13 M (Erick) 37 32

14 M (Jonah) 33 49

Figure #2

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As you can see from the charts above (Figures #1 and #2), while the majority of

the students empathy quotient scores went up during the course of this project, several

students empathy quotient scores went down and one students score remained exactly

the same. When looking at the writing, however, we see radical movement in the way

students are observing, connecting and imagining.

For example, let us take a look at the differences in students answers to the

following questions:

Figure #3

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Question #1a: You see a student

walk into class who has been in

your class for most of the year,

but she is not someone you have

talked to very often. She comes

in, and her head is down, and she

seems to be avoiding eye contact

with everyone. She has gotten a

new haircut and it doesnt quite

suit the shape of her face, and

you think her old haircut fit her

better. She sits down next to you,

and she asks you, What do you

think about my haircut? What

do you do or say next and why?

Try to be as detailed as possible.

February 24th, 2015

Question #1b: A friend from school

walks into your house to hang out

after school. She has her arms

crossed and she doesnt make direct

eye contact with you when she walks

in. She slinks down onto a chair and

when you ask her how she is, she

says, Huh? and starts to bite her

fingernails and look off into the

distance. You know that she and her

boyfriend are going through a rough

patch. She turns to you finally and

says, What do you think about how

I feel? What do you do or say next

and why? Try to be as detailed as

possible.

April 30th, 2015

Sample

#1

I would tell her that her new

haircut is cute, and even if she

I think Id sit next to her and say

Hey, what your emotional reality is,

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doesnt feel so, she should know

that she is more than her looks

and that no matter what, her old

hair will grow back.

your emotional reality is. Whatever

youre feeling--its real and its

justified and the best thing you can

do for yourself is to allow it--to

happen. Pushing it down only makes

things worse. If the mood was right,

Id offer her some things to help her

like her favorite food or a good movie.

Sample

#2

I would probably say it was

unique or cool. Sometimes saying

the truth isnt the best thing. I

would not want her to be

insecure.

I would ask her the details on her

relationship with her boyfriend

(depends on how close we are) and

try to give her my best advice, listen

to her and be there for her. I hate it

when my friends are going through a

hard time and I want to help. After

we are done talking, I would want to

distract her from her problem and

have fun like a girls night.

Sample

#3

I would tell her it looks nice, but

that I preferred the old haircut.

I tell her that whatever she is feeling,

whether or not it has anything to do

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with him, she should discuss with her

boyfriend.

These are just three samples of the fourteen surveys that I took each time

pre-playwriting project and post-playwriting project but there are several things I can

pull from these samples that seem to ring true across the data. Students were given the

same amount of time during the first survey as they were during the second survey. The

first thing I notice of these responses when comparing them is the sheer length of the

second answer compared to the first answer. This helps me see that students are

growing their imaginative capacities-- that they are much more able to display, at least

through their writing, an ability to see through a different perspective.

The inclusion of more specific details helps demonstrate an increased ability to

observe and connect. For example, in the first sample, the student sits down, includes

the exact quote that the she would use to comfort the friend and offers specific examples

of things she would do to help the student feel better. These were details that were

lacking in their initial response to a similar situation.

In sample answers #2, we see a growth in the ability to connect. In the first

response, there is no writing to indicate that the writer was trying to experience what the

friend was experiencing. In the second response, the writer says, I hate it when my

friends are going through a hard time and I want to help showing us how she is

connecting the friends experience to her own experiences.

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In sample answers #3, we see a growth in the imaginative capacity. While the

students initial answer, I would tell her it looks nice, but that I preferred the old

haircut did not include action steps for the listener, the second answer did include

some suggestion and advice: I tell her that whatever she is feeling, whether or not it has

anything to do with him, she should discuss with her boyfriend. The writer seems to be

trying to help the student in the situation rather than temper the situation.

The Empathy Progression: Reading & Critiquing Plays

When asked about how she felt her reading and critique session went, Kristy

responded, And when people commented at the end about how they liked the way the

girl could bond with parents because I was going for a more heartfelt thing at the end.

So to know that people actually saw that. Kristys empathy quotient score went down

from the initial survey to the final survey but her open response questions as well as her

experience during the reading and critiquing of her play as well as the plays of her peers

tell a different narrative.

She said of critique sessions,

I like being able to tell the story to other people who also write plays and have

them able to give critique on the play [with] one on one critique...its just one

persons perspective. In a group of writers, someone might think more romance

and someone might think more action- you get a different range of what to add,

get more advice on whats better and what will make the play more intriguing and

interesting.

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Conclusion

Why I Care

I believe that any problem in the world can be solved with increased empathy. If

we can observe the problem, connect our own existences to that problem and have the

imaginative capacity to innovate a solution for the problem, there is nothing we cannot

face together. For this reason, I entered this work, aiming to use one of my greatest

passion, the theatre, in order to give the world more of what I thought it needed:

empathy. Throughout this study, I sought to understand how playwriting activities could

help students build empathy.

As I worked with students and helped them each develop a one-act play, I saw

four major themes emerge through surveys I administered, writing I analyzed, and

interviews I conducted with the students:

1. In order to build empathy, a student must understand his or her own identity.

Playwriting is an active exploration of ones own identity.

2. Playwriting allows students to literally immerse themselves into characters. It

allows them to step into someone elses shoes.

3. Playwriting critique encourages students to understand the intent of the

creator. Playwriting encourages critical questioning. Good questions seek

understanding, and thats the heart of empathy.

4. There is a progression to building empathy: Understand self, be understood,

understand others.

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I quote Pixars Andrew Stanton a lot because he said something during a lecture

that really resonated with me and helped my own writing immensely. Its a simple rule

of storytelling: Make me care. And truly, isnt this what all education is? Shouldnt

every class in every school in every state and country be striving to make students care?

Playwriting is a chance for students to show us what matters. Its a chance for

each child to show what he or she individually cares about by asking them to explore the

inner workings of their own identities through the task of writing a play. When I ask

students to write a play, I am asking them: What do you care about?

The playwriting process is an iterative one, and it allows for each playwright to

spot his or her own mistakes. There are no right answers here, simply suggestions that

either connect to the playwrights vision or do not. When we ask students to revise a

play, we are asking them: Why should other people care about this?

Most importantly to me, playwriting is an invitation to explore the impossible. It

is a process where anything in the universe can happen, and well believe it. When we,

together with students, walk through the creative process of writing a play, we are

saying: Now that we both care about this, how can we imagine together?

Practical Use

Theatre has always had a funny type of function in my life, and Ive known that

there was something very special about if from the first time a traveling acting troupe

entered my school auditorium when I was in second grade. Theatre is storytelling on its

feet, and the way that there is someone literally in front of you breathing and telling this

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tale differentiates it from film and television where you could fall asleep or check out

without hurting anyones feelings.

On a practical level as a classroom teacher, there are three things that I feel like

are the choruses to the song of my playwriting project--things that I repeat over and

over again to my kids that I often find them repeating them to other students, and they

become class mantras as we walk through the creative process together.

First, I talk about suspension of disbelief and I ask my students to sustain our

suspension of disbelief. You can imagine whatever kind of world you want, but you must

be consistent, or we will stop believing you. This function of theatre captures the

essences of the three traits of empathy in this study: 1) Let me observe a consistent

world, 2) Because then I will believe it, 3) and Ill imagine with you and go along with

your story.

Second, I talk about honesty. Honesty is different from non-fiction. For me and

my students, it doesnt mean that what youre talking about is scientifically accurate or

even physically possible. It means that you are true to whatever youve written because

youve written from the heart, and there is something in the piece that you truly

understand from the core of your being. Theres a magical quote from a great educator

that I tie to this one as well. Albus Dumbledore said, Of course it is happening inside

your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

Alongside this study, I have developed a series of lesson plans for use in

classrooms. Ive developed all the activities that, if done consecutively one after the

other, will lead to the writing of a one act play. Ive done my best to design each activity

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in isolation as well, so that in case its scary to take on a theatre task without theatre

background, you can start with something simple and stand alone and see if you like it.

Ive taught in several schools, and while I have the good fortune of teaching at a

school that asks me to teach my passions, I understand that many teachers are tied to

standards, and that many administrators will ask you to defend what you are doing by

reciting out the numbers that correlate to the standards that your activities are teaching

toward. For this reason, I have also provided the 9-12 Common Core Literacy Standards

that each activity addresses. I want this work to be usable not only in learning

environments like mine, but by any classroom teacher who wants to use this work to

build empathy.

We know that theatre can be effectively used as a medium of education

(Bhattacharyya, 2013, p. 5). This is true both the standard driven reading and writing

way, as well as the way where we believe in growth mindsets and that students can be

educated with attributes like love, compassion and empathy.

Here are some of my favorite, but very simple, activities to do with kids, that you

can do immediately after putting down this study:

Overheard Conversation (Building Empathy Trait: *The Art of Observation)

The way we talk to one another is fascinating. Go out into the world and find two or

three people who are having a conversation and transcribe it on a piece of paper to your

best possible ability. When it translates onto the page, does it look like theatre? Why or

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why not? Whats different about the way we talk versus the way characters speak

onstage? Why do you think its important to note these differences?

What If? (Building Empathy Trait: *Imaginative Capacity)

Set a timer for five minutes and invite students to ask as many What if questions as

possible. Invite them to ask things they are genuinely curious about. Invite them to ask

things that are utterly impossible. The important thing is that there are no limits on

what they can ask, and that they continue writing for the duration of the five minutes,

even if the questions are getting ridiculous or repetitive. Invite them to turn off the critic

in their heads and allow the creator to create.

Setting Brainstorm (Building Empathy Trait: *The Ability to Connect)

Step one: 1. Invite students to list as many places as they possibly can in five minutes.

The places can be as broad or specific as possible. The important thing is that they are

continuing to build the list for the duration of the five minutes.

Step two: In literature and history, we talk about conflict a lot. Look at your settings and

find a setting that you can add details to to make it rich with conflict. For example, turn

An office building into On the rooftop of the office building, looking at your toes

dangling over the edge

Of course, each of these activities is helping to build all three empathy traits in

one way or another. It is also important to note that sharing with one another has been a

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very key part of writing a play in my class, but I never force it. I often say, We are going

to share something from this next round, so be prepared, before starting a new quick

write activity, and this has helped prepare shyer students who will, with the preemptive

knowledge of what comes next, write something that he or she is comfortable sharing

with the entirety of the group. However, if a student is still too shy to share, I personally

would not push the issue, simply because the safety of the room is more important than

the isolated incident of a brief sharing out. It is simply a sign to me that Ive got to work

on the culture more, until we are truly a group of creative writers together.

Lila Watson once said, If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time.

But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us walk

together.... The safety of the room has always been of priority to me. There is something

about the culture of sharing our vulnerable selves with one another through our writing

that is akin to poetry itself. This sharing part of theatre has always made theatre

different from other mediums of fiction for me. Its not something to be enjoyed in the

corners of our own imaginations. We are meant to share theatrical experiences with one

another. We dont need to explain them; we dont need to defend them, though no one is

telling us not to. In a theatre, we are asked, only, to experience something together, and

with each shared experience, theatrical or not, small or large, we are unlocking tiny

doors to our empathetic selves.

Limitations

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While I loved having a diverse group of kids in certain measuresI had students

with IEPs and 504s and students without them, a pretty good gender balance, a few

students of color, students of three different grade levels, etc.there were some

limitations to this work. This study was conducted with only 14 students over the course

of only 12 40-minute class periods. This means that this study comes with several

limitations: 1. Small sample size, 2. Lack of a control group, 3. Short period of time to

see any significant shifts in mindsets.

I have to admit that I was rather disappointed to see several empathy quotient

survey scores drop at the end of the study. While the majority of the students grew their

empathy quotient scores throughout the study, there was one student whose score

stayed the same and four students whose scores went down. There are limitations in

survey data like this, of course, especially since this study was conducted with high

school students. There are extenuating circumstances of one kind or another in every

single students case, and at the end of the day, I had them for forty minutes a day three

times, sometimes two times a week. There were many other classes, life events, and

other situations that filled the other 23 hours and 15 minutes of the days that I got to see

them, so ultimately, I cannot say for sure if the growth on the empathy quotient survey

had anything to do with the playwriting experience.

However, the majority of the students empathy quotient scores did improve and

I think this is a celebration in and of itself. Overall, at the end of the study, I had a group

of kids who cared just a little bit more.

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Further Questions

I would be curious to see this work created with a larger sample of students over a

longer period of time. I often wondered how much of what I was doing with students

helped their empathy because of the playwriting activities themselves and how much of

them were growing their empathy because of the small, intimate size of the group.

Getting to know people in a significant way across grade levels, socio-economic status,

gender and color helps build empathy in and of itself, and this group was small enough

to truly get to know one another and become curious about one another.

What about the students whose empathy scores did not increase?

I would be curious to see the rate of empathy growth in students with

Aspergers/Autism versus students not on the spectrum. How is teaching

empathy to students with Aspergers/Autism different? Is it different?

What other activities lend themselves to teaching students empathy?

Are these findings applicable to other forms of writing? How would this work

look different if students were writing short stories or collections of poetry?

Would it be as effective? I was curious several times throughout the study about

my own personal biases as a theatre lover.

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I entered this work because of two truths I thoroughly believe. #1: Sometimes,

kids are mean. During my own childhood, empathy seemed to be a natural byproduct of

schooling. We were forced to interact with one another. When we were assigned group

projects; we were forced to go to one anothers houses in order to complete the work. We

learned, one way or another, which behaviors were acceptable and which behaviors were

not.

#2: We are all, at heart, good. I think goodness can be enhanced. I think it is

possible to nurture love the way we nurture gardens, pulling at weeds and allowing the

flowers to grow. I think our imaginations are so much more vast than we will ever have

the potential to know in our lifetimes. And in my small way, through my large love of

playwriting, I can prove this second claim true one play at a time.

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