16/10/18 – 23/10/18 – The importance of Drama

“Tell me and I will forget

Show me and I will remember

Involve me and I will understand”

(Benjamin Franklin)

The expressive arts encourage children to get involved and be a part of the production or performance rather than sitting back and watching someone else to the work. Getting a child involved in the creative process means they learn skills and knowledge that they can use and transfer into other subjects and continue using them through life.

The quote above helps us to make sense of the expressive arts as well as most subjects and experiences in life. By only telling a child something chance are they won’t remember what you said, making it more effective and giving them an example increases the chance they will remember what you showed them and finally the most effective way of getting a child to make sense of something and enjoy it more is by getting them involved in what’s going on.

Using the expressive art of drama is a very good way of getting children involved in the creative process rather than just telling them what to do. It’s also a great way of getting the teacher involved as well, it allows them to build positive relationships with the children and encourage them to be confident in their work and performances.

Before this workshop my experience of drama was made of very little knowledge about the different types of techniques that can be used in the classroom to get the children to express their ideas, thoughts and feelings. Getting a chance to try out these techniques ourselves gave us the opportunity to see the lesson through the children’s point of view.

Being split into groups and collaborating on ideas allows different ideas and creativity to flow from one person to another and gave us the chance to communicate our thoughts to one another while in a safe environment. Some of the techniques we looked at were:

• Improvisation – a term for unscripted acting out which can include role play.
• Thought tracking – a character speaks their thoughts and feelings from a still image or a freeze frame.
• Thought tunnel – a double line of children who speak the thoughts and feelings of the character who is walking between the two lines.
• Teacher in role – the teacher takes part in the drama alongside the children.
• Role on the wall – A simple outline of a character is drawn on a large sheet of paper. Around the outside of the body the children write words and phrases that others think of the character.  On the inside of the body children write what the character is thinking and feeling.

Many of these techniques allow the children to be in control of what happens in the scene they create and explore their ideas and creativity. However, there are opportunities for the teacher to be involved and help provoke ideas and thoughts from the children to get them thinking and expand their imagination to wider things.

Involving children in in the expressive art of drama not only allows them to express how they feel but also help them understand things that happen in the real world or more specifically in their world, it gives them a chance to show what they can’t explain through words. It helps deepen their understanding in other subjects and build skills of confidence, communication and creativity. They can feel safe sharing their ideas and feelings with their teacher and their peers without the fear of judgement meaning they allow themselves to let go and be fully involved in the arts.

“I have the freedom to choose and explore how I can use my voice, movement, and expression in role play and drama.” EXA 0-12a

“I use drama to explore real and imaginary situations, helping me to understand my world.” EXA 0-14a (Education Scotland, 2017)

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