Using Drama Across The Curriculum.

Exploring the use of drama techniques in the classroom.

Why use Drama?It engages students in group work and develops crucial communication & team working skills.

Drama involves the creative application of knowledge & understanding. It often puts students in the role of leaders or ‘experts’ as they have to pass on that knowledge to others through their work.

Drama promotes a consideration of AUDIENCE which can raises motivation and effort levels.

It supports students that may have particular needs in accessing the curriculum as it allows them to express themselves in a variety of ways.

Drama develops communication skills – Questioning in role can distance students allowing them to feel less exposed and free to communicate their ideas & understanding.

Encourages ownership of learning so teacher can explore the role of facilitator, give more targeted support around the room & stretch G&T in the roles of leaders/directors.

It can be fun!

What are your experiences of drama in the classroom?

Can you share a time where you think you might have used Drama in a lesson?

Good or bad experiences!?

Have you any experience of drama out of the classroom?

Drama Techniques Could you apply any of these in your lessons

Freeze-frame/Still Image – To explore people, locations or events. Could be used to get students to think of themes within work. Or to get students to show relationships between people, opinions or a key moment in a story/history/event.

Narration – A fun way of communicating student knowledge as you could get them to narrate what is going on in the drama and explain why in role. (A particular scientist explaining his theories or experiment/ a significant person in a humanities subject explaining their work, research or theory.)

Linear Sympathy – Place an object in the middle of the room & communicate that is symbolises something e.g. a person, a view point or a theory.

Students then stand either close or far away from the object depending on how much they agree or disagree. Or if they feel positive or negative. Highlight students to justify their positioning in the space.

Thought-tapping – Students in an image or a scene speak a character’s thoughts out loud to the audience. Useful for exploration of key people in any social, historical or political context which might be covered in the curriculum. Gets them to consider other points of view.

Role play – Any form of taking on a role & acting out a scene to explore an idea, theme, story or process.

Essence Machine – An abstract technique which involves layering key words, sound effects and movement/gestures to explore a key theme or idea. It E.g. If you ask students to create an essence machine of a riot they may shout certain words, create gestures of protest and explore how different people in the community would respond to riots.

Physical questioning – Moving to a space in the room which represents student’s opinion or response to a question– Students then highlighted to reflect on their position in the room.

Soundscape – The layering up of different sound effects that students create themselves through voice & movement to create a location, atmosphere, theme, emotion e.t.c

Cross cutting – Or Flash Forward and Flash Back! Creating scenes to explore different points in time. This could be good for exploring narrative, changes is science, history or maths for example. Students will have to discuss what they know around the specific focus and then present to the class.

Pair Moulding – A moulds B into a physical sculpture & explains. This could be used to represent a person, object, theme or feeling.

Teacher in Role – Mantle of the Expert (For the very brave!) Go into role as a significant person to set context. Students are prepped before to establish the roles of ‘experts.’ They could be investigators, scientists or anyone in a particular role that will challenge them to think differently & stretch their understanding and vocabulary.

Hot Seating – Questioning in role. Often teachers do this with students asking one person in the middle in role. An even better method is asking ALL students to go into role to really get them to think about how that person would question & what they might ask.

Mime – A scene without dialogue to focus on non-verbal communication. Could be useful for exploring body language in presentations, interviews, revising work in a visual way. Can get students to create placards with key information to help them focus in on the most important information.

Forum Theatre – Theatre for social change! Students create a scene usually based around an issue. Show the scene to the audience & allow the audience to freeze & re-direct to alter the outcome. This can explore decision making, choices or cause and effect for example. The teacher can act as a facilitator which allows for plenty of questioning.

Maybe just a drama game? Games, warm ups and techniques explained in more depth can be found on these sites. http://dramaresource.com/http://learnimprov.com/http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/drama/drama.htm

One we use at the moment is a reaction & focus warm up. Students follow instructions such as go, stop, jump, clap, touch the floor & dance move! Then we reverse the action so that go actually means stop, jump could mean clap e.t.c. You could add key words & definitions into the mix.

If you would like any support or ideas then please feel free to email and I would be happy to collaborate with you. kwest@thomastallis.org.uk

@kerridrama