Today in drama we participated in two lessons created by two other groups of our peers. From participating in their lessons and activities I have learned some valuable lessons which will hopefully help my group to lead a successful lesson next session. These included making sure everyone can hear what the participants (in this case our peers, but in a classroom setting the pupils) are saying, not looking at the participants when you are walking through a thought tunnel in order to give them full power to say how they feel, and giving the participants set times to have discussions which are not too long and not too short in order to allow them to think and discuss before they act but also to retain that aspect of improvisation. The lessons were based on a story book which our peers read throughout their lessons, stopping and starting to explore certain aspects using different drama conventions. As Booth (1985) said, exploration and questioning are encouraged by drama, meaning that these become habits which can be more easily and thoroughly developed and transferred to reading text. This is to say that using drama conventions throughout story books helps children to develop a deeper connection with the characters and a better understanding of the main messages of the story. This is not to say that drama conventions must be used every time the class reads a story, but the use of only one convention could sometimes be enough to make the difference between a class of children who develop and display their understanding of the main concepts and a class of those who do not. I also like the idea that drama allows children to display their understanding in a way that they may not be capable of doing using words. The use of facial expressions and body movements can be enough to demonstrate an idea. Reflecting on my own experience of school, I feel that we were possibly too focussed on the outcome of a reading activity and not focussed enough on the process of getting to know the characters and exploring the possibilities of the direction of the story. Sometimes it was almost as though we were rushing to read through the book as quickly as possible in order to complete the comprehension textbook tasks and tick a box to say we had completed it. In my teaching practice I want to help children to enjoy and appreciate literature and to learn from it in ways beyond their phonic, graphic and bibliographic knowledge. Drama can help us to achieve this as the process and product of drama are interconnected (Ackroyd-Pilkington, 2001).
My group are going to be presenting our lesson to our peers next Tuesday. This is what we have planned and how I am currently feeling about the experience:
Csikszentmihalyi (1996) discusses the importance of encouraging flexibility in gender roles within the arts. Books such as the one we have chosen to use in our lesson will be a good way to highlight to young children, in a child friendly manner, the different gender roles of the past and how these are changing. It also discretely brings up the issue of sexism which could be discussed indirectly after the story when the children have connected the different aspects of the story to Cinderella, by asking questions such as: “How is the story different to Cinderella? Who proposes to who? Is it okay for a woman to propose to a man? Why? Who is the hero in the story?” This would be a very good opportunity to discuss these things with a class of children in a way which they can understand and in a way which is relevant to them, while empowering the heroic female characters and empathising with the sensitive male character.
As Grainger (2003, p.44) says:
“Literature discussions, oral storytelling, poetry performances and improvisational drama [offer] learners the chance to interpret, communicate and create meaning for themselves.”
She also says that it is important for teachers to carefully select literature that will encourage children to engage and to question different aspects of the text. Through use of this book, my group and I hope to evoke imaginative responses and to awaken inquisitive minds about the different themes within the story.
In music today we worked with Primary 6/7 pupils from Greenmill Primary School in Cumnock. They are a part of a string orchestra and have been working together as a class as part of a project since Primary 4. I found it very interesting that rather than being taken out of class individually to be taught different instruments, they work together to learn how to play their string instruments and perform as an orchestra. Teachers have reported improvements in behaviour, team working skills and general attitudes of pupils who have taken part in the project. From meeting the pupils and having them teach us about their instruments today, I could see the benefits of having them all feel like professionals. They looked and acted like professionals and by making them feel appreciated and working with them in reversed roles with us as the learners they will hopefully have gone away feeling proud and even more confident. Building up the self-esteem and leadership skills of young people is an incredibly important part of the arts (Education Scotland, 2013). I saw today that learning how to play an instrument is something that every child is capable of doing and by helping them to do that we are giving them a skill to show off and be proud of. Confidence with this skill will hopefully then allow them to progress and be creative with the instrument, as creativity requires children to have more control over their own experiences in lessons (Harris, 2016).
Helping children to find their passion and something that they are good at can help them to feel more comfortable and included in school. Today I was partnered with a learner who was originally from Poland and moved to Scotland two years ago. The learner told me that being a part of this strings orchestra had helped him to make friends with the other pupils in the class, before he could competently speak English. In spite of the numerous things that the project has achieved so far and will continue to achieve, this to me is reason enough to call it a success. By helping this one young child who came to live in a new country knowing very little, if any, of the language, this technique of teaching music promoted inclusion and comfort. He is now so confident in his abilities that he could come today and teach me how to hold the bow and to play a short tune using the cello. To me, this highlights the arts as a universal language which should be accessible to all.
Overall, by being taught by both my peers and primary school students today I have been reminded that we can all be experts in different fields, and age and professional status should not always determine our level of knowledge and/or ability to teach. Teaching others can also be a fantastic way to contextualise our own learning as it forces us to think in depth about the process behind our thoughts.
References
Ackroyd-Pilkington, J. (2001) Acting, Representation and Role. Research in Drama Education. The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. [Online] Vol.6(1), pp.9-12. Available: Taylor and Francis. [Accessed: 6 November 2017].
Booth, D. (1985) “Imaginary gardens with real toads”: Reading and drama in education. Theory into Practice. [Online] Vol.24(3), pp.193-198. Available: Taylor and Francis. [Accessed: 6 November 2017].
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Collins.
Education Scotland (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/Creativity/CRE1_WhatAreCreativitySkills/Creativity3to18.pdf [Accessed: 2 October 2017].
Grainger, T. (2003) Creative teachers and the language arts: Possibilities and potential, Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education. [Online] Vol.31(1), pp.43-47. Available: Taylor and Francis. [Accessed 29 September 2017]
Harris, A. (2016) Creativity and Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
