“Good picture books deal with big questions and issues that often can be opened up and explored through drama.” (Baldwin, 2008)

In preparation for this weeks drama input, in groups we had to create our own mini drama lesson using the techniques we had learned so far based on a children’s book of our choice.  Half of the class did their lessons this week whilst the rest of us acted as the class, and we’ll switch roles in the next drama input. Each group told a story from a children’s book and then went on to deliver various tasks in relation to the book, such as hot seating, thought tunnels and role on the wall. I think this micro teaching task was useful as it allowed us to see how different people would teach drama and was a good way for us to share our ideas.

This is our role on the wall for one of the other groups micro teaching lesson about a fish who at the start of the story was very self centred, but by the end he turned out to be very kind.

Because it was near Remembrance day, we then went on to talk about how drama can be incorporated into almost any history subject. In our groups we had to come up with a freeze frame or an improvisation to do with WWII, so our group made a freeze frame of children being evacuated and having to say goodbye to their mother. I think this is a great way of integrating drama into other subjects and can fully engage children in the topic.

References:

Baldwin, P. (2008) The Practical Primary Drama Handbook. Sage publications LTD

In this weeks drama input, our stimulus was a book called the tunnel.  The story told the tale of a young brother and sister who did not get along due to their difference in personality. However, after the girl’s brother goes missing in a tunnel and mysteriously turns to stone, she saves him and brings him back to life by hugging him, which changes their relationship for the better.

Then in groups we did a role on the wall for one of the characters, where you draw the outline of the person and on the inside you write how they see themselves and on the outside you write how everyone else sees them.  I think this exercise is good to show children juxtaposition and contrast in character.

This is the role on the wall we did for the little girl in the story

We then did some hot seating, where some people in the class took turns getting into the role of one of the characters, whilst the rest of the class asked them questions about how they felt. I think this would really help children get into character, engage with the story line, and deepen their understanding about the characters feelings.

“Being in role enables children safely to try out and experience what it might feel like to speak and act as someone else. It enables them to rehearse real life and what it feels like to be an adult and in control.” (Baldwin,  2008). This quote shows how drama can help children’s personal development and social development, in finding out who they are.

References

Baldwin, P. (2008) The Practical Primary Drama Handbook. Sage publications LTD

In this weeks session we finished off the story of the Lonely dragon. We left off with the dragon being upset, and instead of us reading on in the book to find out why, our lecturer introduced us to Hot seating.  This is where the teacher or one of the children get into the role of a character and the rest of the class ask them questions, about how they feel, what they think etc. This allows children to connect with their character and really think about the story line in depth, thus engaging them in the fully in the story. It also allows them to develop their creativity, as it is a form of improvisation. Hot seating is also useful for developing question skills from the rest of the group (Farmer, 2016). This is a skill that is important for children to develop not only in the arts, but in all curricular areas.

We then changed to a different story to learn about improving a scene. The stimulus we were given was just a few sentences about how a man named Frankie Miller was returning to the town and everyone was concerned. It was up to us to come up with what he had done and why everyone was so afraid of him. Our group improvised a Flashback scene where Frankie and his friends were committing a crime and when they got caught they all turned on Frankie, blaming him for it. He then ended up going to jail and is now coming back for revenge. Flashbacks like this can bring ” bring depth to activities involving still image or improvised drama and  helps to flesh out a dramatic moment or create the beginnings of a story” (Farmer, 2016). In our story, the flashback brought depth in that it gave you the context of the characters backgrounds and the dramatic start to a new story about the consequences of their actions.

I think that by giving us a short stimulus to work with rather than the whole story was a great idea as it aloud us to be as creative as we wished and it meant every group had a different twist on the story, which made it more interesting to watch.

References 

Farmer, D. (2016) Hot seating. Drama Resource. [Online] Available: http://dramaresource.com/hot-seating/ [Accessed: 16 Dec 2016]

Farmer, D. (2016) Flashbacks and Flash Forwards. Drama Resource. [Online] Available: http://dramaresource.com/hot-seating/ [Accessed: 16 Dec 2016}

As I had not done drama since 2nd year of secondary school, drama was another subject that I felt I would be more  nervous to teach. However after learning about various drama techniques in our first workshop, I now feel more confident about teaching a drama lesson.

Before this weeks input I had always just seen drama lessons where you simply read lines from a script and acted out scenes, but the techniques we learned about today were much more interesting. We focused on ‘teacher in role’ which allows a teacher to transform into a certain character for the class to ask them questions about their thought/feelings as the character. This can give children a deeper understanding of the story they are learning about and can be more engaging for them than just  reading the lines.

“Teacher in Role does not require great acting skills. A role can be adopted quite simply to communicate the key attitudes and emotions of a particular character.” (Farmer, 2016)

We also discussed that it is a good idea to use a prop such as a scarf or hat, so that children can tell when you are stepping in and out of character.

One thing I realised that could be tricky when teaching this is that some children may laugh and not take it seriously if one of their friends is in role. However it is important that as teachers we emphasise the importance of staying in character, because if a child was to laugh at one of their classmates it could seriously knock their confidence and deter them from performing in the future.

“Working in role provides a possible distance and a safety net that enables participants to attach and detach themselves at will, to step in or out of role and disassociate themselves personally from what they said or did as a character.”  (Baldwin, 2008)

References

Farmer, D. (2016) Teacher in role. Drama Resource. [online] Available: http://dramaresource.com/teacher-in-role/ [Accessed 15 December 2016]

Baldwin, P. (2008) The Practical Primary Drama Handbook. Sage publications LTD