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EDUCATION:
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Methods for Implementing a Drama Policy
Once your drama policy has been written, it's often difficult to know what methods work best, how to implement a cross-curricular approach, which techniques are suitable for use in the classroom - and how to think of ideas!
Many excellent drama resource books for teachers provide a wealth of ideas and material for both discrete activities and games, plus longer-term projects, and this web site contains useful support on methods, games and stimuli for lessons using drama.
Listed below are some suggestions of ideas for drama methods which will help you to implement your primary school drama policy:
GAMES
Icebreakers, name games, clapping games, trust games, confidence builders, team builders, physical games, concentration games, games to develop speaking and listening skills, games to improve memory skills, verbal games. |
MOVEMENT SKILLS AND SPATIAL AWARENESS
Mirrors, puppets, robots, machines, statues, sculptures, freezes, still images, slow motion action, mime. |
VOCAL SKILLS
Soundtracking, soundscapes, storytelling, sound orchestration, tongue twisters, narration, phone calls, dialogues/conversations, monologues, debates, presentation skills, nonsense vocabulary, projection. |
MOVEMENT AND VOCAL SKILLS COMBINED
Small group work focusing on narrator, sound and action, freezes with sound effects, movement to music, mime to music, slow motion circus, application using stimulus, such as 'The Jabberwocky'. |
IMPROVISATION
Begin using stimuli, such as familiar stories, newspaper headlines, quotations, poems, and so on. Small group or pair work, prepared improvisation, domestic role play - bringing domestic scenes to life. Move to spontaneous improvisation, forum theatre, teacher-in-role, hot-seating, thought-tracking, introduce concept of assessing work. |
WHOLE GROUP WORK
Use stimuli or issues as a basis. 'The Iron Man' by Ted Hughes is excellent. Bring in all previous skills used. Further assessment could include written forms, for example diary extracts, etc. |
Cross-Curricular Applications
Drama can be used in the classroom as a means to explore other subjects: from maths to modern history. Techniques which work well in the classroom environment are: role-on-the-wall; hotseating; thought-tracking; diary extracts; debates; telephone conversations; dialogues and monologues. All of these require very little space and minimal equipment.
Other examples of cross-curricular approaches include:
MATHS
Use clapping games to aid counting. Many of the verbal games and exercises can easily be adapted to use numbers as a base instead of words. Many games which require little or no space contain elements of counting and number recognition. |
LITERACY
The list is endless! Use drama to explore characters, themes or issues in texts, as a basis for written work, to develop speaking and listening skills, and short poems can help to develop reading ability. |
HISTORY
Improvised conversations between great leaders and their followers can bring history to life, diary extracts work well, debates stimulate understanding of an historical event and role-on-the-wall, hotseating, telephone conversations and monologues all aid understanding of historical decisions, opinions, attitudes and behaviour. |
Once you have an understanding of the basic drama methods and techniques, these can be adapted to become part of the teaching, and learning, process for any subject.
The Arts On The Move teacher training course Primary Drama - Taster Session, gives participants practical experience and knowledge of a wide range of drama activities and methods - regardless of previous experience in the subject - and the ability and confidence to use them!
Drama Policy for Primary Schools - Free Download
If you don't have the time and experience to write your own school drama policy, Arts On The Move has produced a complete policy which will support your school framework and guidelines. This is available as a DOC file, to enable you to make amendments appropriate to your own school working practices. Click here for your free download |
