Drama has always been a good hobby of mine. Growing up, I was part of a theatre company were every year we would put on a show in the local theatre. However, it wasn’t part of our school curriculum until you chose to do at standard grade. I felt this was a real shame as personally I think drama can do great things for a child’s confidence and self-esteem. It allows you to express yourself in a form of acting and generally many will find it quite enjoyable pretending to be someone else and leaving the real you behind at the edge of the stage. Additionally, drama allows a child to understand different ways of communicating and expressing your feelings, e.g. through body language, tone, etc.

After my first drama input, I definitely felt more confident to teach drama as it had been a while since I had done it myself but brought back my childhood love from drama. The TDT we were given was all about reflecting on the structure of a drama lesson with the stimulus being this video: http://www.teachfind.com/teachers-tv/ks12-drama-teaching-drama-structured-approach

This video, was all about teaching the teachers how to structure a lesson for drama as this is essential for a successful lesson. The lesson is structured through stages, the first one being an agreement were there is a discussion between the teacher and the pupils about a set of rules that will be put in place for the drama lessons which should help with behaviour as it easy for the class to get over-excited with fun, practical lessons! I found the 3 C’s to be a great idea as any problems that may occur during the lesson will be down either communication, cooperation or concentration. This keeps it simple but effective to ensure the children are aware and compliant. Next was a warm-up which helps to differentiate between play and learning especially as it’s different from there usual maths or literacy lesson. It also incorporates teamwork which will get them engaged physical but also mentally. Following on from that, they were talking about creating a focus using a stimulus such as picture which helps the children to develop their ideas through talking with one another. The development section, is all about building up how to create a drama bit by bit. They are also creating a visual scene here which gives a child something to focus on and engage in by creating sounds themselves. Performance is an important stage as this is the finished product and will be what drives the children to actually get to that point. Evaluation is the last stage which enables the children to differentiate what they have learnt from what they already knew so they can see a purpose to the lesson they just participated in. Additionally, it allows them to calm down after an energetic lesson.

There are many benefits to come from structuring a lesson in this way. Throughout, the stages were based on how to keep the children focused and engaged in what they’re doing so they don’t get too off task, especially with practical lessons being quite exciting for them. Drama was presented in a very simple manner, it wasn’t one big scary play but it was broken down into little bits for the children to easily grasp and allow them to build on their performing. One curriculum for excellence experience and outcome I think is being addressed in this video is: “Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through drama. EXA 0-13a / EXA 1-13a / EXA 2-13a”. As this structure was using stimuli to get them developing their ideas and then expressing them through use of voice, etc.
Additionally, there was an emphasise on how drama can be used cross curricular. For example, one teacher gave an example of how she could have used it in her class that very day as their topic was fairy tales. Personally, I think the children would find it really enjoyable to re-enact their own world war 2 rather than just reading about it or doing a presentation on it. It allows them to really get a grasp on how children similar to them must have been feeling and this would hopefully strengthen their understanding.