The drama enthusiast: a million different directions.
Allen, David
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You know you're on to a winner as a teacher when a child like
'Vinay', who has trouble writing in full sentences and
stumbles when reading whole class texts, is genuinely excited about a
literacy lesson. Not because he is going to be given the opportunity to
sit and stare out of the window at Y5 whacking tennis balls around the
playground. No way! 'Vinay' loves drama lessons because it
gives him the opportunity to express himself and achieve far beyond his
own expectations (and for that matter--my expectations too!)
I have always loved drama. I was lucky enough to have a very
vibrant and animated Y5 teacher when I was at school. She loved drama;
not just asking us to read and perform plays but inspiring us to
improvise and use our imaginations. I was equally lucky to have a
brilliant drama teacher at secondary school too--motivating me to take
part in all the productions. I didn't do drama as part of my BEd
but found my passion returned when I entered the classroom as an NQT. I
am certainly no drama specialist--just a drama enthusiast. I know
everyone says that teaching is one big performance but during a drama
lesson you can take the act to the next level; only in front of the
children, mind you. I still cringe if another adult walks in the room
when I'm in role; the illusion and the pretence is temporarily
suspended and I pause and wait for them to leave. I found I needed to
build up to the demanding acting roles when working with children. It
comes naturally to some teachers but some of us need to boost our
confidence before we take a deep breath and become another character in
class. Start small. The odd voice or gesture; just to give the children
a flavour of what is expected. Once they have an idea of what can be
achieved and what is 'allowed' they can run with it, take it
further, make it their own and then the particularly able young actors
can be used to model for each other, drawing out their talents scene by
scene, lesson by lesson. Drama doesn't have to be kept just for
discrete English lessons either. I often ask the children to answer the
register in role maybe as a character from the class reading book.
Sometimes we spend the afternoon's art lesson using a particular
accent or miming and signing to communicate. There are so many small
ways to increase children's comfort with going into role; hot
seating, role-on-the-wall, glass corridor, freeze framing, thought
tapping to name but a few. These are all mechanisms that can be used in
all manner of subjects such as History, Geography and RE. These
activities don't have to be used together; they can be slipped
surreptitiously into lesson introductions and plenaries. When a class is
comfortable with taking on a character then that's when the real
drama begins.
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Children's dramatic ability can often be a surprise. For a
short while I taught in a private school and took a Y2 class for their
weekly drama session. 'Mary' was close to being excluded as
her behaviour and outbursts in class were becoming unmanageable. I
approached the first drama session with caution dreading the possible
outcome in such a free and unstructured environment. The lesson was held
in the hall so there would be nothing at hand for her to throw at me.
What a relief! I introduced the session based around 'Little Red
Riding Hood' and modelled a little in role as the wolf. Then it was
the children's turn as the wolf. 'Mary' volunteered to go
first. I can honestly say I have never seen a child perform so
convincingly 'in role' as 'Mary' did. She threw
herself into character so completely and with such zeal the other
children were awestruck. She had found her outlet--the frustrations were
gone. Well, for the weekly drama hour at least. She was an angel in
every drama lesson (or whatever character was required) from then on.
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On returning to teach in a state school in leafy Watford I taught a
class of Y6 high ability children. The task was to write a news report.
We decided as a class to produce a TV broadcast based upon an
extraordinary event such as the discovery of a diamond mine under the
playground. The children planned their studio reports and live
at-the-scene interviews with each of their characters carefully
developed. I set out a studio with a video camera in a screened off area
of the classroom and the action was projected onto the whiteboard. The
report was televised live to the rest of the class who acted as a
critical audience. Each group was able to critique their own performance
from their report recording. We had our fair share of
'bloopers' that would have made Jeremy Beadle proud but the
session was definitely worthwhile and the drama and the technological
wizardry most certainly raised the bar educationally.
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Drama can support so many curriculum areas; used as a stimuli the
resulting experiences can be far more varied and often widely
unpredictable. Differentiation by outcome in it's extreme. Drama
can inject a well needed shot of life into a potentially dry lesson and
add a new dynamic to a well established routine activity. Y6 science
revision can be a little dull to say the least. There are only so many
mind-maps a child can endure. In the past I have given groups of
children particular science topics to concentrate on. Having
experimented and explored the science concepts in previous year groups I
gave them the task of bringing the information alive through a drama
presentation. They wrote a play, inventing characters and scenarios to
impart all the major facts for that particular unit of work. For example
one group wrote a court room drama where the Earth, Sun and Moon were
put on trial with witnesses, lawyers, and a judge all contributing and
drawing out facts about the Solar System. Another group performed a
fashion show about electrical insulators and conductors. My favourite
was the full marriage ceremony, including wedding breakfast and
speeches, for the carpel and the stamen to show the pollination and
lifecycle of a flowering plant. This was performed in a class assembly.
(Much to the disgust of the father of the girl who played the carpel in
her white wedding dress. He went bright red when the vicar/Mother Nature
announced that his daughter had been 'pollinated'). The
children had developed their characters, used their imaginations,
incorporated the scientific facts AND had fun. Writing plays with
children has the capacity to be monotonous and the process can become
laboured; but given a real purpose, allowing them to really think
outside the box and develop original performances, can add a great deal
to other curriculum areas.
Art has such great links with drama too. A couple of years ago I
had a particularly challenging Y6 class who were not easy to enthuse. We
looked at Shakespeare's Macbeth and focused on the scenes with the
witches. I had intended for this to be a brief introduction to an art
lesson to design and then later make modroc witches' masks. The
children really relished becoming the witches, performing the scene,
reciting the lines and developing the scene further. The drama session
took over the whole afternoon and the masks produced as a result were
far more gruesome and completed with much greater care and attention to
detail. The children wanted to carefully represent what had been in
their minds and also in their performances to show their deep
understanding of what a Macbeth witch would look like.
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Drama is an area of education that has always seemed mysterious and
exciting. No matter how well you plan the lesson (a starting point is
really all you need and the most sketchy lesson plans often provide the
best drama sessions) you never know which way it will go. The children
may take the thread of your input in any of a million different
directions. That is the joy of it and for that reason it is fun. Yes,
drama really is great fun! When you are in the middle of a good drama
lesson you seem a million miles away from the National Curriculum and
Primary National Strategy (although fair play to them now they've
included drama, speaking and listening). The children also pick up on
this air of freedom and that is why these lessons are so very powerful.
David Allen
Deputy Headteacher, Nascot Wood Junior School, Watford,
Hertfordshire
