In today’s lecture the many concentration was ‘Dance in Education’. Throughout the lecture we spoke about all the things associated with drama in education such as how drama should be a confidence builder, enjoyable, remove fears and not just be about actors. Participation in drama is key Baldwin states that there is value in teachers experiencing drama as participation in order to better understand it as a learner (Baldwin 2009).

Today’s drama lesson was an opportunity for our peers to lead a drama lesson in a micro teaching activity. The first group focus for the drama was the story of ‘The Grufflo’. The first drama convention we were introduced to was role on wall, were we had to write how we feel about each character on the outside of the picture and on the inside how each character feels about themselves. The next drama convention we looked at was Vox Pop and Teacher in Role for this we had to pretend we were a forest creature and were asked questions about the story so far. We then all took part in a Freeze Frame were we acted out a community meet about what we will do about the Grufflo. Then we moved onto a Thought Tunnel were we all said one word to describe how we feel about the grufflo. Finally after hearing the full story we then moved onto a Fastforward about how we would welcome the grufflo and what we should do about the mouse.

The second group focus was on the story of ‘The 3 little pigs’ as this is a well-known story everyone knew. The first drama convention this group introduced to us was Teacher in Role were each group had to discuss what they would do about the wolf. Within my group we came up with the idea of creating a trap and use the bigger numbers as there is only one wolf. The next drama convention we looked at was Flashback we had to think of why the wolf acts the way he does and act this out to our peers. Hot seating was the next drama convention looked at where the full section had the opportunity to ask to the wolf about why he acts the way he does by blowing down the little pigs houses. The last drama convention was a Though Tunnel about how we felt about the wolf before then how we felt after the asking questions.

In the music workshop again was a micro teaching lesson as there was pupils from Greenmill Primary School came into the university to teach us how to play string instruments. The instrument I was working with was the cello were the pupils taught us different techniques about how to play the instrument such as plucking and bowing. The pupils allowed us to play each instrument using the different techniques they taught us to simple songs and rhythms.

Both workshops linked to each other as it was a micro teaching lesson. In the drama lesson we were taught by our fellow peers and in the drama lesson taught by the primary pupils of Greenmil Primary. This would be a useful lesson ideas to let pupils lead their own learning.

Reference:

Baldwin, P (2009) School Improvement Through Drama A Creative whole class, whole school approach Network Continuum