Learning literacy with lively drama engagement.

Moss, Lynette

Why use drama as a language strategy?

The need to imitate, play and take pleasure in performing personal and social existence has always been an intrinsic part of human nature (Brown 1995), and drama provides the context for language to happen in a natural and rich way. In drama, children explore role, develop their own understanding of their world and express this in a meaningful way. This exploration of sharing stories and defining and redefining the human experience through drama involves spontaneity, imagination, role-play and the exploration of mind and movement. It is a whole body experience and the level of engagement supports language by developing, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

Drama demands understanding of sequence, sentence structure, text interpretation, expressive speech and comprehension. A drama session may include text innovation, improvisation of characters, readers' theatre, role play, using props, embodying story with movement, play reading/writing and development, storytelling and story dramatisation, play-building, poetry readings, and choral speaking.

By introducing drama activities, you encourage your students to discover, develop, engage with and explore oral and written texts so that your classroom becomes a vivid and rich learning environment.

How do I start to bring in the drama?

Children have a natural sense of play and most need little encouragement to be spontaneous and imaginative. Drama is a sharing, interactive form of communication and not bound by the static learning process of a standard classroom environment, so expect a rise in noise level as desks are pushed back and a new and lively process begins. It is because drama engages students physically, emotionally and intellectually that students can become excited.

Some management rules for the drama lesson could include:

* When you hear the command 'freeze', all students will be silent and still.

* If you do not wish to participate in an activity you may sit out but do not communicate with other students.

* Normal classroom behaviour applies at all time.

When planning drama experiences, be flexible and consider the dynamics, needs and conditions of your class. It is important to develop confidence and enjoyment in drama, and to build on early spontaneous play and sensory activities. If the students have never been exposed to, or have had little experience in drama, they may need a 'settling in time'. This is a time for orientation or re-focusing for the students.

Younger students especially may need this time, as they may be a little reluctant at first to join in the drama lesson. If a student is hesitant, one approach is to allow that student time to observe the first few sessions. The time will come when they will feel ready to be involved.

This important introductory phase can:

* Give those children not familiar with the drama space and time to adapt to the environment.

* Allow the shy children time to find that their input is valid, and free from judgement.

* Encourage the more dominant child to see the necessity and benefit of allowing contrary ideas to exist.

* Allow the whole group to explore the boundaries as you explore the level of control required and dynamics and expression within the class.

Games can be a legitimate way to introduce drama to students for the first time. They allow students to burn off energy before they start the drama lesson, provide a break, help students focus, and are a fun way to start and conclude the lesson. These introductory activities allow students and the teacher to discover what it means to be 'doing' drama and can also be used to explore the potential of the group.

Games can include sensory awareness activities such as trust and relaxation games, listening games, role-play, games involving movement, mimicry and improvisation, sound/speech games including word and rhyming games. These types of games are found in most good drama books or can be sourced from the Internet.

Once the students are comfortable with drama, the possibilities for exploring drama as a whole language experience are endless.

Drama language activities

Oral language activities may include activities for intonation and rhythm, such as tongue-twisters and poems. Tongue-twisters to help improve diction and articulation and, because they are enjoyable, they are excellent exercises for developing the muscles used in speech. Children enjoy creating them, but to help you get started here are some old standards and a few original ones.

* Red Rabbits Running Riot

* Four Fluffy Floppy Ferrets

* Shy Sally Sucking Sweets

* Tick Tock Goes The Clock

* Wombats Walking Up The Wet Rapids

* Red Leather, Yellow Leather

* Lucky Lips Licking Lollipops

* Banging on Big Beating Bongos

* Great Gorgeous Gorillas Getting Grapes

* Can Cathy Catch the Cranky Crocodile

* Eating Eggs on Easter Island

* Huge Hairy Hippopotamus Helping Henry's Hiccups

Role-play

Teacher-directed dramatic play and role-play to explore story, character and mood, and to expand language experiences, has endless possibilities. This type of activity allows students to look for meaning in a context provided by the teacher. Communication conventions such as language skills, and speaking and listening courtesies are developed and extended.

In attempting to make sense of their experiences students actively construct their own meanings, e.g., taking turns, shopping, greeting visitors. Drama demands that children draw on their personal experiences and resources to make their own meanings and then respond in the drama as they take part in the 'play'.

For example, in working with the topic: 'Ordering a meal at the markets', students will need to draw on external and personal experience to have an understanding about how to 'play out' the scenario. By thinking about possible conflicts or situations that could happen when ordering a meal, scenarios are considered so that your students can create the ending. Scenarios could include such tension as receiving your meal, someone bumps you and you spill your soup--What happens next? The process for constructing a scenario may involve the following:

* Brainstorm with butcher's paper and pens for a theme or issue.

* Generate interest by open questions on the topic or theme.

* Use improvisation and drama exercises to explore the theme.

* Try to use many different characters in the story.

* Keep the end in mind.

* Clarify the essence of the story to make the play meaningful and clearly understood.

Story telling and story making

Story telling and making is about developing the skills of speaking and listening. The teacher stimulates the students in the enriching experience of creating story through the imagination. To make and create, tell (present) and listen to stories requires skills and knowledge. In the student the following are being developed.

* Story structure, i.e. beginning, middle and end.

* Listening and audience skills.

* Role and character development.

* Verbal expression and sound effects, i.e. tone, volume, pitch pause.

* Movement, gesture and body language.

Learning a narrative and recalling it can be rewarding for the students. Story telling may start with the teacher telling the story and developing it so the students are encouraged to join in and retell special phrases or features of the story, e.g. sound effects. Once the children have become familiar with the structure and procedure of story telling they can then start to create stories of their own.

The teacher as facilitator can help the children select the source of the story. This could be a child's own story, a version of a known story, a story based around a character, a newspaper heading, an object, a well-known rhyme, or a theme or an issue. The following will help you select a story for retelling or for acting with students.

* Select a story that you believe is suitable for the class. Remember to be sensitive to cultural and social needs of your children.

* Highlight parts of the story that could be acted out by the children.

* What sound effects could the children make (human body and voice, musical or other instruments)?

* What movements and gestures might be appropriate?

For students more reluctant to engage, puppets can be a great introduction to drama. The reluctant child is usually hidden behind a curtain or an arrangement of desks for a puppet play. In this situation the creativity and imagination of the child are at work. A puppet doesn't have a purpose until it is used to express something.

Puppets can be very time-consuming to make and you may wish to use commercially made puppets that already come with a story attached. However, the other alternative is for the children to create their own puppets and create the stories around the puppet. When a child has created their own puppet they may be more likely to commit to playing with it. Ask the students to construct a puppet from a single sheet of newspaper. The results can be surprising. Alternatively one child can be the puppet and another the puppeteer. In this activity one child is the puppet and makes the movement of the puppet while the other child stands on a box and moves the puppet as if pulling the strings of a marionette.

When working with young children on a puppet performance, allow the children first to play with the puppets and then consider the actions the puppet might use. Actions often speak louder than words in the case of puppets. After exploring with the puppets, a story may evolve or the children may continue improvising with the puppets.

When creating and structuring a dramatic story keep the following in mind.

* A story will need a beginning, middle and end.

* Taking a role is about adopting not only the physical characteristics but also the attitudes of that person, animal, or object.

* The conflict is what creates tension in the story (commonly the struggle between good and evil, or a choice between two opposing actions). Using the elements of drama such as time, space, sound, symbol, metaphor, and situation can create tension.

* The ending may contain a surprise or have a logical conclusion.

Drama techniques, such as hot seating, questioning in role, creating sound-scapes, improvisation exercises and creating tableaux will help you extend group work as you move towards whole class and performance based work.

Engaging with drama in the community and critically reflecting on the work produced and the work of others is also important for your students. This might involve taking students to a local children's theatre company or a performance produced by older children. Providing a framework for students to develop critical reflection on this work is also important. This will encourage students to look for deeper meaning and question what they have seen. Some examples of questions to ask your students might include:

* How would you describe this production?

* What technical elements do you notice?

* Was there a narrator?

* What was your judgement about what you watched?

* What age group is this theatre most appropriate for?

* Was it fact or fantasy?

* What activities might we do now after viewing this?

Drama in education should never be considered extracurricular, as it is a great place for the student and teacher to investigate the world and enhance literacy. The value of drama is that it allows an appropriate and dynamic place in which children can develop their skills in a fun and lively way.

Lynette Moss is a lecturer in Drama at Edith Cowan University.