Mime prompts students to write stories, then acts them out during 90-minute assembly

Cali students get a lesson without words
by NATHAN WRIGHT – Staff Writer
It isn’t every day that Gail Ralls sees her students at Cali
Calm/cac run back to their classrooms to begin a writing
assignment. She did last week, when the school hosted professional
mime Horace “Smitty” Smith who acted out student stories in what
teachers called the best assembly they’ve ever seen.
“The kids were so excited,” Ralls said. “It’s not often that you
see kids rushing back to their classrooms to write.”
Smith, a performer from Tennessee who goes by the stage name
“Smitty,” visited the students on Monday, March 10 and asked them
to write him a story. The students rushed back to their classrooms,
wrote stories and turned them back to the mime, who read them all
before acting them out the next day.
The students returned to school on Tuesday, and were treated to
90-minute performances by Smith. Among the stories acted out was on
by fourth-grader Anthony Munoz, who wrote about fishing. “I liked
him,” he said. Munoz says we decided to write the story because “he
likes to go fishing” and he felt that Smitty’s performance was
accurate.
Araceli Perez, another fourth-grader, wrote a story about her
experience with the monkey bars. Her favorite part of the story was
“when I got in front of the line”, and she felt that Smitty was
“good at acting”.
Smith, who works for Mobile Education Productions and is
spending all of this performing in California schools, says that
his job is very rewarding. “This teaches them that writing is more
than just class work,” he said. “It encourages them to write more
and to express themselves.”
Ralls says that the assembly is part of a school-wide attempt to
schedule assembles that are both fun and educational. “The kids
have learned the writing process in the classroom,” she said. “This
is an opportunity to see it in a new context.”
Cali Calm/cac first heard of the mime opportunity in August when
they received a brochure from the acting company. The Cali
Partnership Community (the Cali PTA), put up the $1300 for the
two-day performance.
Every student in grades three through eighth were asked to write
a story. The students in kindergarten through second aren’t yet
prepared for such an assignment, but we’re still given the
opportunity to see the mime.
“We didn’t want them to miss the opportunity of seeing a mime
while we have one,” said Ralls, who had the opportunity to see
world-famous mime Marcel Marceau in college. Ralls has never seen a
mime perform this specific activity, and felt fortunate to have
found it. “Many of our teachers are coming up to me and saying that
this is absolutely the best assembly we’re ever had.”