Drama
Studies have shown that poor readers are usually tactile/kinesthetic (learn best through touch/action) learners and have difficulty learning to read through the usual techniques of reading circle and teacher led discussions.
Phonics is the preferred way of teaching reading, however trying to learn through this method can be difficult and tedious for many students. To succeed, students must have strong auditory skills in order to distinguish among the subtle differences in letter sounds, associate those sounds with the visual letter shapes, and blend the letter sounds quickly to form words. Even if students have strong auditory skills, they may still have difficulty learning to read without strong analytical skills. These skills are necessary to process information that is presented in discrete units with many rules. Practice sheets for phonics tend to have complex directions, require auditory discrimination of at least three sounds (for 2nd graders) and lots of items to answer. Just learning phonics can be a challenge without adding the goal of reading too.
Acting in dramas require the same skills fundamental to reading. A student who acts out a story must both comprehend and express the details of the plot, character, meaning of the words, sequence of events, along with cause and effect relationships. When students read a story they will dramatize, they must make inferences about the reason for the actions of the characters, incidents which led up to the main event, as well as sense of the mood. As they practice prior to the performance and become immersed in the performance, their fluency and comprehension increases. The increase is not because of reading and re-reading the story, but from the activities related to the story.
The use of drama helps students make greater gains in reading through:
Active Learning: a more effective means for promoting student achievement than teacher led discussions, lectures, and seat work and other forms of passive learning. Students have the opportunity to experience what they read.
Improved Vocabulary: vocabulary words presented in the material is already in context through the use of drama and creates a stronger image for the student since it is being acted out.
Total Class Participation: all students can participate in a dramatic activity. These activities can be structured to include students with varying physical and learning abilities.
Increased Motivation: student attitude towards learning and motivation increases.
Hands on Experience: Drama gives students a "hands on" experience with the text. Learning becomes interactive requiring the complete involvement of the student. Round robin and silent reading require very little participation from the student and does not allow the student to demonstrate comprehension of the materials read.
Improves Learning Skills: drama helps students achieve higher order thinking and problem solving skills. Presenting classes with a variety of activities enables students to process the information in their own way for deeper understanding.
Instant Feedback: teachers can immediately give students additional instruction and/or feedback to ensure their comprehension of the material read.
Promotes the use of Language: this is a great technique to use with children who need to develop oral language skills.
Ways to use Drama in the Classroom
The thought of using drama in the classroom can make a teacher feel a little overwhelmed with the thought of preparations, costumes, learning lines, and tons of practice which could interfere with other teaching goals. This should not keep teachers from trying different forms of drama in their classroom. This technique can be as simple or elaborate as needed and can be incorporated into almost any subject or educational level. Following are some examples of drama and how to use them in the classroom.
Finger Plays: these are short rhymes that when recited encourage the use of hand or body movements to act them out. Through this method, young children are encouraged to "play" with language, gain rhythm and rhyme through active participation, and enhance eye hand coordination. This is a great technique to help children learn sign language. Pair the hand signs of the alphabet with the Alphabet song so that as the students sing, they are also making the movements of the alphabet. This can be expanded to any song or short poem to help students learn sign language in a context that has meaning to them. Students who have difficulty expressing themselves can make finger puppets and make up short plays to express an idea or show their understanding of a concept through other means than answering questions or stumbling over their thoughts.
Pantomime: pantomiming situations and objects helps children to think about nonverbal behaviors and attitudes that convey meaning without words. This is a great way to teach students about body language and how to interpret different social situations. This is also a great technique to get students involved in a story. It takes a lot of thought and internalizing of a story to act it out without the use of words. Pantomiming can be used to quickly show understanding of an idea just read. The teacher can pause the reading and ask someone to act out what was just read. Ask a student to choose a character from the story being read and act it out to see if the class can guess who it is. This takes only a few minutes and will allow the students to be active readers.
Storytelling: increases both language abilities and internalization of the characteristics of the stories. This is a good technique to use with older students. It is more like telling a story within a story. Have students divide up into groups and write a dream sequence into the book they are currently reading. This sequence must take into account the setting, character, and reason for the dream. They can either act out the dream through various techniques or write down to turn in for a grade.
Role Playing: active participation from taking on the role of another person increases a student's understanding of others. This is a great technique to use to help students increase their understanding of their own behavior and how it affects others. Teachers can first read a book to get the students started and then have the students take turns playing different roles. Have students extend the role of a minor character in a book to have an affect rather positive or negative on the main character. Act out a scene from the book and add an object or person that was not there before to discover what that change does to the main character. Have them act out what they would do on board the ship, landing at Plymouth Rock, and preparing the colony for winter. Improvise being Lewis and Clark mapping out a new territory or what it was like taking that first step on the moon
Characterization: when examining characterization, students must focus on the characters themselves- what they look like, how they think and feel, and how they act. Students must look at the situation of the material read to be able to take on the character and understand what made them act the way they did in the material read. Have the students take the character out of the current setting and place them in a different situation to try and discover what changes the character would have to make to succeed in the setting. Students can also be asked to place themselves into the same situation to discover if they would act the same way as the character. Add a change to the scene and see if this change affects the character. All of these suggestions can be impromptu and take as little as five minutes, but will give the class additional incite into the book and increase the comprehension level of the material read. Students can just simply pretend that they are a character from history and act that out. For history, allow students to act out the signing or the Declaration of Independence, the Boston tea party, or negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.
Improvisation: this can be considered as writing on your feet. This is great for history and social studies. In an instant students can place themselves in the book. What would they do if they were on the same ship as the pilgrims crossing the Atlantic ocean for a new life. Bring dry text books to life by stopping the reading and asking a student to pantomime, role play, or tell a story based on what was just read. A few lines is all it takes to get the class started on bringing the story to life. If you assign reading homework they can play "pass the buck." Start by saying "I am on the Mayflower sailing to America, the first thing I am going to do upon landing is...." choose a student to answer and have that student build on the idea and then choose another student continue going around the room. This is a great technique to see if students not only read the material, but understood it as well. Teachers may need to give suggestions to make sure all relevant points are covered.
Wordless Picture Books: this is great way to develop literacy competency in young children. Pair the children up and use picture books to develop writing, reading, listening, speaking and social skills. If writing skills are low, have students make an audio tape of their story or encourage inventive spelling.
Mini Plays: students can write plays based on a book or story and give it an alternate ending. Performing them before the class will give other students ideas and expand their understanding of the story. This does not have to be elaborate. Students are just rewriting one scene, so all they would need is 15-20 minutes to jot a few notes and prepare for their performance.
Create a Refrain: This is a great technique for young students. Read the story aloud and explain to the class that they are to think of a saying that they can use many times in the book. Once they have agreed on a saying or sound effect, read the story again and pause for the class to say their refrain.
Activities
The Mitten: Read the story The Mitten by Jan Brett to the class. After the story, spread a blanket on the floor or sleeping bag. Let each child choose which animal from the story. As you read the story again, have each child crawl under the blanket or into the sleeping bag to act out the story.
Interview a Story Character: Read a book out loud to the class. After the book is finished have a whole class discussion centered on the characters on how they looked, acted and felt at different points. Also talk about the affects other characters had upon each other. You may want to also expand your discussion to what would happen if one the characters were absent from the story. After the discussion, divide the class into small groups and ask them to choose a character from the story to interview. Each group will decide who will be the interviewer and the character. The groups will then brainstorm what questions the interviewer will need to ask the character (if necessary, teachers can give a list of questions that must be asked.) Each group will spend a few minutes practicing the questions and answers. The groups need to agree on the answers. Once finished, the interviewer and character do their interview for the class.
Nursery Rhyme Charades: Everyone gathers into a circle. If the students are new to nursery rhymes, read only 3-5 different rhymes. Let them take turns coming into the circle and acting out the nursery rhyme. Remind the child acting out the charade that they can not talk, while reminding the guessers that they must raise their hand. The one that guess can act out the next rhyme. As they learn more nursery rhymes, they will have a bigger repertoire to pull from and the game will become a little more difficult. This game can also be used for characters they have read about from other books and stories.
Guess the Rhyming Word Charades: This is a great circle time activity. The teacher says I am thinking of a word that rhymes with..... Select a child to act out a word that rhymes with the stated word. Another student guess what word is being acted out. If that is the word the teacher thought of the student who acted out the word gets to say I am thinking of a word that rhymes with..... If the word being acted out it incorrect, the student who guessed the correct word being acted out gets to act out the word they think the teacher wants. This sounds extremely complicated but is not. An example: I am thinking of a word that rhymes with hat. The actual word is bat. The student you call on acts out the word cat which is not correct. The student who guessed cat from the action gets to act out another word that rhymes with hat.
| Resources for this Page |
| Using drama to increase motivation, comprehension,
and fluency by Sandra M. Bidwell
Journal of Reading, 1990 Exploring Classroom Literature Through Drama by
Rosalind Flynn and Gail Carr
Drama as a Teaching Tool by Stephen Yaffe
In the Classroom by Carolyn Colvin and Pamela
Ross
|
|
© 1999-2006 KayDee's Pages, All Rights Reserved. |