04/10/16

This was our first input of drama and i was a little apprehensive and was secretly dreading it as drama is not my strong suit. Doing drama in front of young people is not a problem for me but drama in front of my peers is a little nerve racking hence my dread for this class however it is important to get over this. Drama is a huge part of a young child’s life as they are always usually drama when playing games during their free time with peers or by themselves and it is important that teachers use these approaches to vary their methods of teaching. I use drama to explore real and imaginary situations”(Expressive arts – curriculum areas – learning and teaching, 2016)

We began our input of drama by looking at the experiences and outcome of drama within curriculum for excellence. As a teacher it ii vital to know curriculum for excellence in order to plan lessons and evaluate a child’s development. Then we looked at what drama is and its relation to education. ‘Drama is the act of crossing into world of story… Storying provides students with a natural human process for finding essential meanings in the experiences of themselves and others’ (Booth, 1995), Drama within education should not be limited to school plays as these are scripted and offer pupils no room for imagination or creativity.

Next we began read a book together as a class called ‘the lonely dragon’.This will be read over a couple of sessions in order to demonstrate the many techniques of teaching drama. There were also many themes involved within this drama and demonstrated that drama is an effective way to address different themes that pupils learn about in school for example bullying/loneliness.

During this session we looked at three techniques: process drama; teacher in role and freeze frame.

First the lecture demonstrated teacher in role by acting as a town leader while the class were the villagers. This allowed the ‘town leader’ to as the villagers questions about what was going on and why we needed our help. As the ‘teacher in role’ it is important that the pupils view you as the character and not as their teacher, this can be achieved by changing voice, using a prop or adding an item of clothing. Whenever this is done they know that you are the character and there is no confusion. This activity also allows the pupils to use their imagination and the story is very much child led however as a teacher it is important to react appropriately to their answers/questions.

Next we looked at process drama as in groups we each acted out how we react when the dragon nears. Our group were in the park when the dragon came and we all ran into our houses. In groups we presented our ideas to the class, this would be a good lesson for those who are nervous about drama as we were presenting within groups rather than by yourself.

Finally every group made a freeze frame of what the town would be like without the dragon and the events which occur within the town. One person within the group would step out of the freeze frame and explain to the class what is happening within the frame. This would be a good starter lesson within drama as pupils do not have to speak apart from one.

 

References

Booth, D. (1985) Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads: Reading and drama in education, Theory into Practice. 24(3):193-198

Expressive arts – curriculum areas – learning and teaching. (2016) [Online]. Education Scotland. Available: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/curriculumareas/expressivearts/ [Accessed 05 Jan 2016].