PROJECT EVALUATION

Project Scope

From January–March 2019, GRIT (the play) followed by two classroom workshops toured eight schools in Western Washington State. The program was in a total of 16 secondary classrooms, impacting over 400 students.

Teacher Assessment of the Project

The following represents feedback from eight teachers (out of a total of 11 teachers). Scores are on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high). All teachers agreed that watching GRIT, the play, sparked student curiosity to learn more about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, with the maximum score of 5. A rating of 4.9 indicates that there was also strong agreement that GRIT helped students connect to the lives and issues that people faced during this time in history.

Eight out of eight teachers agreed that the GRIT workshops engaged their students in critical thinking. More specifically, teachers strongly agreed (4.6 rating) that analyzing oral history interviews improved student understanding of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. In the workshops, students used history to inform the development of characters and scenes with contemporary issues of social injustice. In this regard, teachers strongly agreed that the workshops gave students the opportunity to understand other people's points of view (4.9 rating).

Student Assessment of the Project

Students felt strongly that the theatre/drama project was an effective way to learn history - with a rating of 3.9. This was also evidenced in students’ assessments of their understanding of the World War II Japanese American incarceration story, which increased from 2.5 before participating in the project to 3.4 after the project. When asked what project activities prompted their learning, most said “watching the play” followed by “creating a scene” and “group discussion.”

When asked about the relevance of the Japanese American incarceration story to issues of discrimination today, student ratings increased from 3.0 before the project to 3.5 after the project. This demonstrates the project’s impact on the students’ ability to connect history to current events.