This book talks about showing how to
use drama to improve students’ speaking and listening skills, including
strategies to motivate students properly and correctly.
In
chapter 1, explain about “ How to Begin with Teacher in Role “. The most
important resource you have as a teacher when using drama is yourself. Learning
demands intervention from the teacher to structure, direct and influence the
learning of the pupils. One of the best ways to do that in drama work is to be
inside the drama. Therefore, at the centre of the dramas that we include in
this book, is the key teaching technique that is used, namely teacher in role
(TiR). This chapter will set out approaches to TiR and give examples of how it works.
Many teachers see TiR as a difficult activity, particularly with older children
in the primary school. However, it is our experience that when a teacher takes
a role he or she becomes ‘interesting’ to the children, so that there are less
control problems because they become engaged. Many times we have watched
trainee teachers with a class of children struggling to get attention when
giving instructions in traditional teacher mode. Yet, as soon as they move into
role, they obtain that attention more effectively. For example, a trainee was
talking out of role to a class to explain that they were about to meet a girl
who was having trouble with her father and needed their help (see ‘The Dream’
drama based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream). The class were calling out and not
listening properly. She was talking over them and trying to teach without
getting their full attention. Then she explained that they could ask questions
of one of the roles from the story and that she was going to become that role
when she sat down. She picked up a ribbon with a ring threaded on it and put it
round her neck as the role signifier. When she sat down as Hermia, they were
focused entirely on her and were listening very closely, putting hands up to
ask questions and taking turns in a very orderly way. They were interested in
her problem, which was her father’s insistence on deciding whom she should
marry. The trainee was not doing anything different apart from using role and
committing to it very strongly. She looked far more comfortable. Points to
consider : Why we use teacher in role – pupils listen to teachers in role, How
we expand the possibilities of story and explore story, Operating the two
worlds of drama, inside and outside the fiction, Moving in and out of role –
managing the drama and reflecting on it, Building the teacher role with the
support of the class, What, when and how to give information for maximum
influence and effect, How to dialogue with the class – teachers learning to
listen well, How we work with the class as collaborators, Choosing the role –
the low status roles offer more learning possibilities, Handling drama –
structuring for control – imposing shape and constraint.
In
chapter 2, explain about “ How to Begin Planning Drama “. We assemble all the
ideas that make up the frame for a drama. A new drama is a difficult beast and
takes time to develop and grow. We must never forget that drama is an art form.
As such we need to consider the way that planning drama is a creative and
dynamic activity, not done by just following a set of procedures. A full drama
grows over a period of time, it is organic. It is not something that can be
planned and completely finished in one go. Dramas develop through their usage,
like the oral tradition of storytelling; they are tried and adjusted, refined
and edited. Drama for learning has to be grown slowly. With this organic nature lie the
possibilities for the class to contribute to the way the drama turns out. We
must plan gaps for pupils’ ideas, we must be careful not to plan the pupils out
of the drama. There has to be a balance of freedom within the drama for new
possibilities and decisions for the children and the teacher structure that
provides the constraints and necessary dynamic of the piece, the scaffolding
that holds it up. We are using the idea of a frame as a way of seeing key
decisions in planning. It is originally defined by Erving Goffman (Goffman,
1975) as the way a situation develops, or in our case is constructed, to give
particular viewpoints and ways of understanding the meaning of that situation.
The drama has now taken shape. The aim of the drama is now clearly focused, to
have the children explore and consider a boy’s unacceptable behavior and look
at a parent–child relationship, to give advice and solve problems. The
resolution of the issues is the final stage of the drama. How will we make that
happen? Usually we use forum theatre to set up the class taking over the
wronged role, against the role who most needs to learn to change, to see and
understand something important about themselves. In this case that is Max, who
will always remain a TiR. The pupils have to show him the error of his ways and
how other people, his mother, his sister, really feel about him. Other
techniques and roles are used along the way to build the class’s understanding
of Max so that they can best see how to help him see his responsibility to
others, to change from his totally self- centred way. There are many techniques
for structuring the stages of a drama. Variety of activity for the class is
important but each chosen technique must fit the moment and do a particular
job. They may create
context, build belief in the roles and therefore the drama, focus
learning, help explore a situation and deepen understanding, help to reflect on
the meaning of the event. There are two main types of this sort of classroom
drama that have evolved: ‘living through drama’, where the pupils face the
events at a sort of life rate in the here and now, and ‘episodic drama’, or
strategy-based drama, where the class are led by the teacher in creating
situations and events through specific techniques or strategies and where
chronology is more broken. Of course, most dramas have a mixture of the styles,
but the younger or more inexperienced a class, the more ‘living through’ will
dominate to create the tensions and challenges more directly. The more
sophisticated the group, the more they will look in a more abstract, artistic
and less realistic way. With all plans you need to ensure that a tension moment
comes early to spur the interest of the group and that a TiR features early to
model the commitment and seriousness of the drama. How to begin a plan – facing
the problems of starting from scratch, The frame – the way the elements link
together to provide viewpoint for the class, The elements of planning
including: learning objectives, a stimulus to learning, roles for the teacher
and for the children, how to create tension points, building context and belief
in the drama, the decision-making for the class, the choice of strategies and
techniques, Planning with someone else, Road testing the first version.
In chapter 3, explain about “ How to Generate Quality
Speaking and Listening “. Speaking and listening is the most important
communication form that human beings use. Really effective oracy, developmental
speaking and listening, will help pupils build their language, their
understanding, their ability to handle their own world, making sense of it and
who they are in it. It has to be an interaction with others where both sides
are contributing. When a pupil is speaking and listening properly, he or she is
able to see how each contribution arises from what has already been said. This
is one of the most interesting, potentially powerful and new concepts being promoted
in educational circles in the UK. It is the result of extensive work by Robin
Alexander and others (Alexander, 2000, Alexander, 2005). This approach to oracy
in the classroom raises the profile of talk, speaking and listening, from the
poor relation of English in the National Curriculum, to become the central
focus, the pivot of learning across the curriculum. As the drama develops the
pupils develop as a community on the basis of the shared experience. That in
itself provides a cumulative language world which is very rich and where the
pupils, if the drama engages properly, care in a way that promotes collective,
reciprocal and supportive talk. So drama is a more coherent approach to
teaching talk. Drama gives the pupils plenty of opportunities to think through
speaking and listening. It promotes speech from the pupils because they want to
speak, not because they are being asked to speak. Drama sets up more fluid
situations with more possibilities. Mistakes can be made and looked at because
any particular stage of the drama can be reworked to make it work better for
us. In fact the making of mistakes is seen as part of the learning, a major
part of helping to negotiate the meaning and to create the drama itself. The
teacher working through drama is intervening as teacher but also as other roles
within the drama, roles that are models and anti-models to promote the pupils’
language in ways that teacher language cannot. In his or her roles the teacher
will model, through positive roles, all of the positive aspects for the pupils
and can also portray, through negative roles, many negative aspects of
behaviour and language; roles can be aggressive, thoughtless, self-centred,
silly, anti-social, etc. In order for drama to work the teacher has to listen
very closely as well, to see where the pupils are, to pick up what the pupils
are offering and use it within the drama. So the consequences for the father
and son could be catastrophic as the plan to escape may be in jeopardy. Lucy
has taken the drama on and helped the teacher explore this important area. The
class have paid very close attention, listening not only to the teacher but
also their peers, their representatives in the hot-seat. This forum theatre
piece lasted all of 40 minutes and there was never any hint of a lack of
concentration. Their feeling of involvement shows clearly by the way they
shriek when Daedalus talks of having to speak to the servants about either the
throwing away of the folder, or in version 2, their knowledge of the plan.
Obviously the teacher stopped to talk this through with them after Lucy’s final
pronouncement but they did not need the implications interpreting at the moment
of revelation in the drama. All of them knew. The importance of speaking and
listening in the teaching/learning process, How to dialogue with a class so
that it is collective, reciprocal, supportive, cumulative, purposeful, The
teacher intervening as teacher, but also as other roles within the drama, How
drama produces listening of high quality, Do the Speaking and Listening levels
in the National Curriculum do justice to the levels of talk pupils can achieve
here?.
In chapter 4, explain about “ How to Use Drama for
Inclusion and Citizenship “. Drama’s inclusion is embedded, first, in its
dialogical approach to teaching and learning. This is reflected in two
contracts that form part of its rubric. These are: 1 Everyone will take part,
including the teacher both in and out of role. 2 We will treat members of the
group with respect by listening to them and allowing them to express their
views without fear of derision or humiliation. Secondly, the subject content of
dramas can have specific learning potential to give a voice to groups whose
ideas may not be heard easily in the real world. More of this later. So
inclusion will always be found in drama’s approach to learning and it may also
be part of its subject content. Drama’s relationship to citizenship works on
two levels, as a methodology that demonstrates aspects of citizenship in action
and when the content is specifically focused upon issues of citizenship. When
we consider that drama can link citizenship with personal and social education,
and spiritual, moral, social and cultural education, then we can begin to
understand the importance of drama as a teaching method. Drama is an inclusive way of
working because it is structured on the principle of ‘respect for persons’ It
makes demands upon the teacher to adopt a teaching and learning style that
generates positive social health in the group The teacher models an attitude
that protects pupils from humiliation and Derision Dramas themselves may
examine the concept of the outsider and the inclusive solutions to problems
Drama protects pupils through the roles they are given, the roles teachers take
and its analogous way of working Drama is a method of delivering the
Citizenship curriculum that embodies an inclusive approach.
In
chapter 5, explain about “ How to Generate Empathy in a Drama “. Empathy, like
drama, is framed in the particular and so we need to move from broad-brush
emotions to their demonstrable particularity. Drama works by focusing upon the
particular and moving from the particular to the general. To understand drama’s
relationship with empathy we need to deconstruct the process of empathetic
behaviour and see how this is replicated in drama. In the next part of the
drama the pupils are told that a new inmate is expected and that they are to
witness her induction to the workhouse. First, they look at the Workhouse
Master (TiR) as he watches the girl walking towards the gates. They tell the
teacher how they want him to stand and how they want him to look. He holds a
stick. One of the girls in the class is enrolled as Martha, the new inmate. She
carries a rolled up cardigan to signify she is carrying a baby. Like the role
of the pupils, the role of the teacher is also important in the generation of
empathy; the relationship is co-dependent. The role of the pupils needs in the
first place to be a community one so that they see the situation from one point
of view and are not divided in their attitude. Just as the role of the pupils
gives them a perspective from which they can empathise, the role(s) you plan
for the teacher is also part of structuring for an empathetic response. Empathy
is often misconstrued The components of empathy Component One – the cognitive
component. Component Two – the affective component How to structure drama for
empathetic response Building the cognitive component Framing the affective
component Planning the role of the teacher and of the pupils for generating
empathy.
In
chapter 6, explain about “ How to Link History and Drama “. Drama as a medium
with which to engage with the past is established in theatre, film, literature,
radio and television. In fact one of the Key Elements in the History National
Curriculum is the interpretation of history, People represent and interpret the
past in many different ways, including: in pictures, plays, films,
reconstructions, museum displays, and fictional and nonfiction accounts.
Interpretations reflect the circumstances in which they are made, the available
evidence, and the intentions of those who make them (for example, writers,
archaeologists, historians, filmmakers). (QCA/DfES, 2000). Historians are
interested in making deductions and inferences about sources and then selecting
and combining sources to create accounts of the past. Historical imagination is
filling the gaps when sources are incomplete. In drama we are particularly
interested in the last element. It is here that drama synthesises story and
past events. This approach allows us to focus the pupils’ attention upon the
interpretation of the photograph and how this might be structured. It also
underlines the need for research questions and exposes how little we can be
certain of at this early stage of the enquiry. From that moment we can
incorporate it into the drama. We can tell the pupils in their planning of the
boys that if Fitzgerald leaves they can ask for food and money. They can beg
and see what response they get. This is a good example of how ideas from
students and pupils can become embedded in the planning for the future. In this
drama each frame takes the class closer to the children who are the subject of
our historical investigations. The next task is to engage the whole class as a
sculpture of the children living on the streets. The use of still image is
important here because it constrains the action and forces the class into a
holding moment which, like a painting or a photograph, allows us to examine the
detail and what it means for us. This slowing down of the drama and looking in
detail at a particular moment is important and a feature of how drama in
education works. Unlike performance and product-orientated drama, the purpose
here is to negotiate meanings and consider implications of particular issues.
The pupils have been moved frame by frame to make sense of the world of the
street children by a gradual edging towards their perspective. Drama teaches
about history by creating carefully researched historical contexts and roles.
These roles will generate the need to do something about a particular issue,
however this debate about the particular is really a means to make sense of
larger more general themes. The drama approach must be seen as a particular
pedagogical approach to the subject. Its particularity lies in the use of TiR
as a means to generate other kinds of dialogue beyond the usual teacher–pupil
one. It should be supported by the more traditional approaches to history
teaching which are effective in ways that drama is not, for example, the
searching and retrieval of information. Drama needs to be recognised for what
it does best, which is to negotiate meanings through engagement with imagined
realities. There are tensions between history and drama but they can be
resolved by adopting a conceptual framework that is clear about the learning
intentions Research is a key element in planning roles from history Using a
variety of sources helps to support the validity of the work It is important to
be clear about what you mean when you use the word empathy in relation to drama
and history teaching Using signifiers, not full costume, when taking on a role
allows you to come in and out of role Reference to modern day parallels allows
you to make the connections between then and now.
In
the last chapter, explain about “ How to Begin Using Assessment of Speaking and
Listening (and Other English Skills) through Drama “. The primary aim of
assessment is to provide information about the development and achievement of
those involved in the teaching and learning situation. Assessment records
evidence related to students' abilities, both actual and potential, and charts
their progression. The intended audience of assessment feedback should always
include the students themselves. (Clark and Goode, 1999, p. 15). We are looking
at how best to obtain the information on the students’ abilities in Speaking
and Listening. Whatever the difficulties, we must consider assessing speaking
and listening for very good reasons: How
do we promote better speaking and listening unless we assess and reflect on the
changes in pupils’ handling of the medium?, Are we being fair to those pupils
who demonstrate ability in this area if we do not honour their abilities,
especially if they lack success in other areas?. These considerations have
driven our own use of assessment of drama and speaking and listening for many
years. However, we must stress we are primarily looking at assessing speaking
and listening, the focus of this book, and we are not providing in this
chapter a framework for the assessment of theatre skills, the art form of
drama, for personal and social development, nor other learning areas that drama
can address. Give feedback to the pupil, report to another teacher, report to
a parent. As we have indicated, the first is vital. Pupils need to know what
they are doing, how they can improve and to be encouraged in speaking and
listening, after all it is the primary communication skill. In the formative
role of assessment we need to be feeding back to the pupils during and after
the drama. Assessment in this context is the detailed study of episodes of
speaking and listening. We need to describe what we see and teachers need to
operate as researchers of the dialogue in their classrooms. Educational
research is becoming more encouraging of detailed description of events,
particularly when looking at classrooms in the action research method we are
advocating. For the development of speaking and listening, we need to regard
the class as colleagues. The class is creating the work with us and they will
only develop their skills if they are provided with rich environments in the
dramas by the teacher, especially working in role. If you consider the example
later in this chapter, the teacher’s responses and management of the language
opportunities are key in generating good quality contributions from the class.
In conclusion, we know that assessing and recording speaking and listening is a
demanding task, but we would contend that is no more demanding than other
assessment if it is approached in the right way. Furthermore, we would maintain
that the absence of evidence of pupils’ speaking and listening in a school
limits their progress in all areas of literacy and is depriving them of a key
entitlement. The nature of assessment of Speaking and Listening, Taking account
of the context and the interactions, The purpose of the assessment, Formative
assessment – feeding back to the pupils, Recording and analysing what we see,
Talk as the basis for writing.
