nicole’s drama blog

(Please excuse the messy links, I have intrinsic problems with linking. Another post will follow this one, hopefully with better links.)
http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/catalog/readers.htm

A series of lesson plan ideas that I liked and found approprite for drama lessons were found on the Curriculum Corporation home page.The lesson plans were found under -Asia education foundation which is part of an innitative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training. To read about the program go to
www1.curriculum.edu.au/download/lesspln/lesson.htm3pr-arts.
to go directly to the lesson plans go to
www.asiaeducation.edu.au/catalog/readers.htm

I wanted to choose lessons that incorporated other discipline areas of study as drama is my only method area. I think it is important when deciding on lessons as a begining drama teacher to pay special attention to making use of drama as a learning meduim. I wanted to integrate areas that are of relevance and interest to students within the middle years of schooling, so when I stumbled on the asia education website I found there lessons well suited to my idea of how I would use drama a lesson to focus on SOSE understandings of culture, ritual and drama understandings of ritual, culture, performance skills and drama conventions.
I think drama is an excellent avenue to educate students to asian culture. The key dramatic features of asian theatre have impacted drama and theatre immensely and are neccassary understandings for drama students. Through investigating these features students not only expand their drama knowledge of practitioners and styles but develop connections between other cultures and their own.
Due to Australia’s multicultural/diverse nature and our close proximity to Asia it is important for students to have a variety of understandings about the nature of our country and our neighbours, as many students will find their future employment and career dealings with our asian neighbours. The first lesson provides a relevant context to explore SOSE,science, drama and culture. The second lesson is just a great drama lesson that has room to integrate science and sose learning areas.

Lesson 1- Beiging opera - a 2-3 lesson sequence.(drama/visual arts/sose)
I liked this lesson as students learn about the aesthetic features of colour, the uses of colour in a dramatic context, how to manipulate the drama element of colour for performance, actor-audience relationship, asian theatre, visual art concepts/practices.
Lesson 2-Animal features (drama/science)
This lesson was designed for young years but I thought it would be appropriate for higher levels, perhaps as part of an enviromental week, where more advanced science concepts are integrated.
I would use this lesson as part of a character development workshop, perhaps for year 11 non naturalistic performances or monologues.

After taking in all the infomation on the benefits and importance of developing the Multiple Intelligences of students students, I was pleasntly suprised to see that my MI quiz outcome showed that I used my middle brain. I found this comforting as I assumed it indicated that I used both Right and Left sides of the brain. I then began to notice that my approach to learning consisted of the use of a variety of approaches.
Coming from a drama background I always assumed that my preferred learning style was a physical, emotionally, kinaesthetic approach, I didnt beleive that I made much use of logical-mathematical, or musical intelligences, but on further thought I realized that I did approach work from these perspectives when my understanding was not instant. I have come to appreciate how important it is to provide students with a variety of learning styles becasue it is through these experiences that they can develop their MI’s.

Within drama work there is the potential to develop all 7 intelligences dependant on what is incorporated into the drama activity.
In regards to the 4 mentioned activities , roleplay/creative drama/Formal drama and Simulations, I believe some inteligences are more closely related to particular activities than others.
Formal theater, which involves working with a text, memorising lines and the construction of costume’s and music, has the ability to devlop student’s Linguistic Intelligence as students are making meaning and finding conections with the language. Musical intelligence has the opportunity to be developed as they work on staging, choreography and through finding the rhythm of the particular text.
The performance of theatre/drama pieces helps to develop confidence, it is one way that students can begin to explore and understand themselves and their place in the world, these understandings can guide their future choices and directions, assisting their Intrapersonal development.
Role play is an excellent way to integrate other disciplines due to its informal nature, and is therefor able to stimulate all 7 intelligences. The evaluation stage of a role play provides an excellent opportunity for the development of both inter and intra personal Intelligences as they critique and analyise their work both personally and within a group.
This holds true for Simulations - a variety of learning can be addressed froma range of subject areas and any of the 7 Intelligences can be focused apon.

Creative drama has the potential to assist with logical-mathematical Intelligences through the incorporation of Maths concepts into the scene work. An example of teaching science concepts through drama is mentioned by Cambell,L.,Cambell,B.& Dickson in Moving to Learn: Kinaesthetic Learning ( Deakin University Reader, Drama for Learning across the Curriculum) The article shows that you can address and clarify understandings from a physical/ role play perspective, offering students a new way to explore their work.

I believe that all the activities rely heavily on Bodily-Kinaestetic Intelligence -the uniting of body and mind- and it is because of this that MI’s are able to be developed. It is well documented that physicalisation and vocalization are innate to all human beings, especially so with children. It is so valuable to make use of what is intrinsic to our nature within education.
Each activity requires movement of sorts - staging in rehearsal, making use of the space in a roleplay, finding ways to express themselves physically in a Simulation. Any form of rehearsal makes use of this intelligence, it also offers a chance to work on Spatial and Logical-Mathematical intelligences as studnets are logically solving spatial problems when considering actor-audience relationships whilse on stage.

I belive the benefits of drama as a learning medium is that if provides students with a way of developing their own method of working, as they explore how thier mind works and eventually develop thier own voice. this self awarenss is essential in the devlopment of independant thinkers and confident autonomous learners. From this place any other learning can be built. Drama helps to develop not only the emotional intelligence of the student but the whole person. Such an intelligence is the foundation that all other learning can be built apon.

I have had the pleasure of having seen two impressive pieces of theater.  The first piece of theatre was a one woman show which travelled form France to Melbourne for the Fringe Festival last year, the names of the show was ‘Peepshow Maridsade”. It was written, directed and starred the one actress and dealt with the themes of anger, insanity, reality, delusion and predominately fear. There are many reasons why the show made such an impact om me, one was the simplicity of the staging and set, there was only one other man who worked on the show and he was in charge of the music and lighting. There was an obvious understanding between the two involved in the production which was obvious through his ability to capture the essence of what the performer was trying to express through the lighting and sound.

The piece was predominately a voice piece, with the actress using her voice to adopts various characters and moods. I believe the piece was  success in reaching the audience because the story was clear there was no extraneous sound or lightening attached. Her usage Theatrical conventions was impeccable and everything that happened on stage was detailed, accurate and justified. It was a very abstract story and her clarity of movement and choices assisted greatly in the telling of it. I believe these two quality’s combined achieved a hauntingly honest understanding of her interpretation of fear.

The second piece of theatre I was greatly impressed with was a Movement piece created and performed by CITI company in New York. CITI company use Suzuki, Butoh and Viewpoints to develop physical theatre pieces. I was able to see a rehearsal of their work and was blown away at the capability of the human body. The work of viewpoints harnesses that sensory understanding and connection we have to other human beings and when combined with high degrees of physical control you are presented with a display of the amazing capabilities of human beings. I noticed that their focus and clarity of movement as a group began to rub off on those watching and time virtually slower to an almost stop and all mmovements could be anticipated beforehand, the group were working as one unit and as an audience member you were part of that unit. Such theatre makes you aware of your capabilities as an actor and as a person in the world, which is what good theatre should do.

I believe all theatre should be designed to educate adults and historically that was a majority of its function within society. From Chechov using his plays as a social satire to ridicule the wealthy socially unaware citizens of his time. Tennessee Williams used his plays such as ‘A Streetcar Named Desire” as an attack on America’s changing values and many of his other works dealt with the taboo issues of homosexuality. Political theatre deals specifically with the idea of eeducating their society.

Adults today are educated though the use of drama in various ways, many job interviews require adults to enter into scenarios to demonstrate their skills, community awareness videos re-enacting scenarios are often used to give adults advice or infomation. Companies make use of drama activities to encourage moral, support and positive/efficient work environments. The personal use of drama to educate adults can be found in situations such as couples counselling. 

Many adults may be opposed to such forms of education due to lack of time, inability to see the activities as serving a purpose, they may find it difficult to relinquish control in front of their peers. Due to these potential restraints some ways to encourage active participation in drama activities for learning would be the inclusion of adult input into the scenarion’s, so that they can explore issues that are relevant to their lives. Allowing the scenarios to be run by the participates would provide them with greater levels of control and through this could find a purpose for the activity.

Drama can be used to educate adults in a variety of ways, adults with disabilities can develop social skills, a sense of belonging, a sense of self awareness and emotional awareness. Adults may use drama as a means of self expression such as in the workplace for conflict resolution or for personal issues such as family counselling or before commencing self development activities within the arts, to develop a better sense of self.

On the other side drama may be used by children to educate adults through the putting on of plays that introduce and tackle issues of importance to them in order to educate their parents/family of their needs.

There are obvious benefits of the uses of drama to educate adults but the restricting factors must be considered when incorporating it as a means of education. I think overall communication and awareness of the adults needs is the best way to make the learning effective.

I have personally found due to my own participation in bullying workshop activities that the issue can be tackled and understood from a range of perspectives. Approaching the issues from the victim’s and bullies point of view allows for the issue of bullying in schools to be looked at in depth and allows for deeper understandings to be made by students on the issue. This deeper understanding is the aim of learning and teaching under the new VELS and I therefor find the activities to be excellent teaching and learning activities. I believe the activities provides students who are experiencing bullying a certain degree of control over the situation as they have many perspectives to look at the situation with and are provided with techniques or ideas to help resolve similar situations.

All of Helen Cahill’s activities required students to investigate in-depth the deeper issues behind bullying, aiming at students developing an understanding of human responses, feelings and an overall sense of human rights, safety and community connection, they gain the practical experience of finding ways to prevent bullying and/or conflict through examining the issues from different angles. These understandings and tools are essential for students as they develop into contributeting thoughtful ethical citizens of a local and global community.

Such workshops could be developed to tackle other issues such as Health concerns including body image, anorexia, depression and mental illness, sexual orientation, sexual harassment, relationship concerns, crime, stress and anxiety or even issues of career guidance/planning for the future.

Many schools have implemented Drama as a means of assisting students with special needs to develop a sense of social awareness and transformation. Programs that advocate drama for everyday life are supported highly by organisations such as Autism Victoria, which insist that they enable students with disabilities to develop their social skills and a self confidence.

many healthing organisations such as Health Victoria make use of travelleing short plays to educate students to personal health concerns and those that are within  their community, the aim is to use drama to develop students social awareness. 

There are numerous organisations found on the Internet and within local newspapers that use drama to showcase their social/community concerns, many childrens’ theatre companies deal with issues that apply to a particular group of studnet’s and community groups often put on plays for children to introduce aspects of acceptable behaviour and encouraging team-ship.

As a teacher I would definitely approach issues within the schooling community through the use of drama, I believe it reaches students in a deeper way than a discussion on the topic would as it allows students to understand the issue in a variety of ways, as they are watching, listening, feeling and analysing the issue.

The theme I decided to link dramathinking to was -family.
I chose to use Modal 1 as a way of spreading out ideas and finding focus.

Using family as the focus the following thought maps could branch out as such.

Family-

Parents/family tree/history

Marriage/customs/love/respect/honesty/trust

Influences/friends/relatives/expectations/responsibility

Children/sibling rivalry/rules

Future/hopes/finances/death.

Starting point - Activity 1- Family improvisation

Two students participating in a marriage ceremony. Enacting the possible daily activities of a married couple. Students are directed to enter into the improv and to introduce any of the brainstormed ideas relating to family, eventually making up the charted family network, with all the surrounding issues/concerns/characters being explored within the improv.

To gain a cultural perspective on the theme of family, the different type of marriages may be explored, paying attention to the various implications/purposes and ceremonies of marriages in different cultures during various points in time.

A-Z of Drama Conventions and techniques- various eg.s
Alter ego- scenario - Couple informing their parents of their intention to marry. Studnets choose a time and counrty for the family and explore the thought process’s of the characters through the use of alter -egos to deliver the inner monologue of the characters.

This activity aims to broaden understandings of the wider implications of marriage .eg. The addition/subtraction of members of family/change.

Collective character Scenario - Characters: Married couple

Students chart the potential problems a newly wed couple may face within a particular context. Class divide into husband/wife roles and enter into scene and try to resolve the issue.

This provides students with the opportunity to gain various perspectives on problem solving techniques and to explore individual ideas within the scenario.

Come on down - Role play activity

Studnets assume a family member character of any background with an issue that they want to discuss on the Jerry Springer show.

Studnets delve deeper into the cultural and moral values of families.

Choral spaek -Tableu activity - in small groups.

Choosing a country and time period for a wedding to take place, students appropriate wedding vowels. Each group perform their ceremony speaking/singing their vowels forming tableu’s of the ceremony at various points of time. Aim is to show the specific cultural qualities of each wedding ceremony.

The major differences between the two lessons were evident in the choices of drama strategies and conventions used by the teachers. The lesson were developed in accordance with their choices and the success that follows with the two different choices is quite obvious.

What  was very apparent to me was the beneefits of using ‘Teacher in Role’ to assists with keeping students on task, classroom managability and focus. It was obvious in Chris Johson’s lesson that the students worked with more efficiency, order and with more respect of the task. I belive that the use of teacher in role establishes a safe working enviroment that places the students and teacher on an equal playing field, this provides the student with a degree of responsibility which I believe brings rise to ownership and respect of work. It was shown through Derek’s lesson that guiding the lesson, or interfearing with the excercise from outside the created working enviroment can be difficult, his levels of control were diminished through his decision to take a non-active observer role.

Derek’s lesson failed to keep students on task due to a combination of poor explanation of task and excercises designed to expand understandings. The theme/issue of the lesson - pollution, did not appear apparent to his students. I think this is because the introduction to the theme/lesson did not connect to the students personally resulting in them not finding the following exercises important. The drama excercises were purely imaginitve based, which further removes the relevance of the issue awy from the lives of the students and the lesson lacked reflection time so they had no opportunity to make any connections between the work and the importance of the issue to their lives. Johnsons lesson had students researching the issue and actively solving problems and making decisions. This also assisted with the establishment of a safe working enviroment as the parameters of the work are set and as a result the students made deeper levels of understanding. The importance of placing work within a relevant context for students and to build the excercises with the purpose of expanding their understandings is of obvious importance to students learning. comparing the two lessons.

FOCUS AREAS 
Knowledge based - Pollution - Focused area

Skill based - group/individual work, self reflection, co-operation skills, listening skills, speaking/listening skills, negotiating skills. - Focus areas-group/individual work.

Cognitive development - enviromental/social awareness, moral problem solving, critical thinking, debating skills.           Focus area- Enviromental awareness.

Incidental - awareness of self/kinaesthetic spatial awareness, negotiation, transfer learning skills.

Imaginitive play

From my experience imaginitive play works best when a safe working enviroment is established. It is essential to have a purpose for the work and multiple opportunities to clarify and refine the understandings being learnt, in a sense creating an open forum where all participants have control and can guide and shape the work. Johnson’s lessons does this well through his building of activity tasks to further understandings and the inclusion of reflection time. One problem for teachers working with imaginitive play may be time managemnt, is was shown through Johnson’s lesson that clear guidelines assist with time management, as it provides confines for the students to work withinand limits the time spent thinking up ideas and not actually working and experiencing the activities. I believe that it is essential to give students guidelines and then freedom to explore their own ideas within them when working with imaginitive play.

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL GROUP WORK IN DRAMA

-A collaborative and relaxed classroom enviroment

-Encouraging student co-operation in group work

-Mixing up groups to include a variety of different learners and abilities

- Engaging students with problem solving task

-Clear instructions of task - Feedback

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