Pillar Spotlight #23: Books to Bravo @Beta Lower School!

Learn all about what students do in Books to Bravo @ Caliber:Beta Academy: 
The San Francisco Opera brought Books to Bravo to Caliber. Books to Bravo is a program where students engage with curriculum in new ways as they bring literature to life through music and theater. Using interpretative skills and their own imaginative voices, they write scenes and songs, design and rehearse their work, and perform for their classmates in a culminating performance. 
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A recent interview with a group of 3rd grade students: 
What is your favorite thing about Caliber: Beta Academy?
Taraji McClellan: “Something I like about Caliber is that all the teachers here never leave us and want us to work hard in school.”
Harbandna Bhullar:  “In third grade you get to do Books to Bravo and it’s something I really like!”


Tell me more about what you do in the Books to Bravo program?
Melanie Ledezma: “We get to perform in front of a lot of people, so I lost my stage fright when I started participating in it.”
Viridiana Ramirez: “ Books to Bravos is a group that teaches you about how to do a play based on a book, it’s always based on a book and it’s really fun if you get to participate in it. It’s really fun participating because you work on being on stage and you meet new people. It helps you to get out of your comfort zone!”
Christopher Galindo: “We get to do shows where we act, and we work with teachers who come from San Francisco. We take the stories from books and make these into a  play.”
Harbanda: “It's kind of embarrassing when the parents come in. I stay brave by pretending I’m the only one there.”
Allen: “It is embarrassing sometimes, but  I stay brave by focusing on myself.”


Tell me about a favorite book you got to act out?
Taraji: “My favorite book that we got to act out was “Ayobami and the name of Animals” I like it because we get to act out what it’s like to be a teacher and I get to “teach”.  We spoke out and projected ourselves!
Viridiana: “ I got to learn new things like write our own songs and our own scripts!”
Harbanda: “I had to hold a stick and had to pretend to hit a bad guy with an oar when we did Petite Rouge (Little Red hen).”
Christopher: “A spider fell to the ground and it was funny when we did Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock, it was fun to move around and say hi to the rock.”


What have you learned while being in the program?
Taraji: “Our teachers helped us put together the show and we learned how to act instead of writing, we stopped the writing and started acting!”
Allen: “They help us sing a song even when we get really distracted.”