Today was the first input from the drama aspect of this module. Growing up at school, drama was a subject which you either really enjoyed or hated with a passion, but for me it was a pleasant experience. In my primary years I found drama fun and enjoyable. I was not embarrassed or had a fear of doing something wrong. This I think, was due to my amazing teacher who made all of the children feel comfortable and that there was only 10 children in my primary class therefore, we were all friends.
However, from discussing with other students during this input I have concluded that not everyones drama experience was a pleasant one. Many of my fellow students simply hated drama at primary school or did not receive many drama inputs. Is that not bad?
There is a massive stigma in schools surrounding drama, as many professionals view this curricular area as unimportant and unnecessary. However, it is essential that we use drama to build children’s confidence, make it enjoyable for them to engage them in important topics for example bullying and to help the children who do not like to participate or take part to ensure that they are involved to a small degree.
“There is value in teachers experiencing drama as participants in order to better understand it as learners and teachers.” (Baldwin, P 2009)
In today’s session, we discussed the book ‘The Dragon Who Couldn’t Help Breathing Fire’ by Denis Bond. Andrew explained to us the concept of teacher in role. This is where is teacher puts on a piece of clothing for example a scarf to let the children know that the drama exercise has started. This concept is particularly easy for children to grasp as the “let’s pretend” is part of childhood experience. Children naturally slip in and out of roles of their own imaging, taking on new identities and putting themselves into imagined situations, where they devise and drive outcomes.
We had to slip into groups and describe our situation with the dragon and then act out the situation. This task showed how everyones creative imagination is different, as some group portrayed the dragon as evil and others portrayed the dragon as a friendly dragon who was misunderstood. You will find this especially with children as they tend to have more creative ideas than an adult would and this can make for an interesting drama lesson. One minor consequence which I witnessed was that when individuals become embarrassed they tended to laugh while acting their scene. You may find this with children but must explain to them that when we are acting we fully immerse ourselves into the situation, this may take some time for children to grasp this concept.
The key aspect of learning in today’s session was to understand the importance of participation and involvement and to know that you do not have to be an amazing actor/actress to do drama. Although some say drama has no limits, it is essential to only provide a few minutes for each task otherwise the children will get carried away and will keep asking for more time.
This video below shows a workshop with Cecily O’Neil where she is taking a drama lesson on the book above with a group of children.
References
Baldwin, P (2009) School Improvement Through Drama A Creative Whole Class, Whole School Approach Network Continuum.
