CHARLESTON DAY SCHOOL
Tradition Meets Technology in Sixth Grade’s Annual Bebop with Aesop Charleston Day School loves traditions. Beloved traditions connect our alumni to current students. When we speak with graduates, they often recall Around the World memories, The Dottie Rhett Speech Contest, and, of course, Bebop with Aesop.
The History A favorite tradition in sixth grade is the annual Bebop with Aesop musical production. Ms. Marianne Clare with the help of music teacher, Mrs. Chrystal Hawkins, first introduced the play in 2005 as a dinner theatre event to enrich the sixth grade Greek Mythology unit of study. Over the years, the play evolved to meet the needs of the students and school. In the 2020-2021 school year, COVID prevented in-person events, so the school needed to be creative in transforming signature events. Under the direction of sixth grade language arts teacher, Mrs. Caitlin Tobin, the project morphed into a video-based stop
Students created a Greek Chorus member. 8
SPRING 2022
Students rehearse songs for the voice tracks in music class.
motion animation project that could be shared via Zoom. The innovation continued this year, culminating in a family-friendly movie night on campus with a documentary video encore.
Benefits of Change Mrs. Caitlin Tobin notes that the new format allows for expanded student involvement because the project requires students to plan the production of the story, design characters, develop character voices, and work within teams to accurately portray the stories. “I always enjoy project-based learning because it covers so many different skills and learning styles. Every student benefits,” Mrs. Tobin enthuses.
and props. The next step is to design characters and accessories the group needs to make the scene come alive. Students use black photo boxes with a fixed background and begin taking photos. As Gretchen Dawson remarked, “It’s a tedious process.” Students take one photo, move a piece on the background, take another photo, and repeat the process…many times.
The Process
According to Wills Walldorf, “Really, it was just a lot of patience and slowly moving the pieces a little bit. But in the end, the more pictures you took, the better it looked.” Through trial and error, the students figured out ways to make characters appear as if they were talking. They created ways for organizing title and closing sequences to make them come together as Rory Green said, “Like magic.”
The process starts with a storyboard. Each group uses their Bebop scripts to pinpoint the main events in their assigned story and brainstorms options for capturing that scene with clay characters
The final phase is to record voice tracks in music class and edit the videos to match the voices with the animated videos. Emily Manuel commented on the steps for recording the voice parts. “Mr. Getter had an iPad, and he would
