Let’s talk about the easiest way to boost student engagement.
When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of time playing outside under a forsythia bushes. Usually, I pretended I was an orphan. (I have no idea why.) I’d scrape a place in the dirt for my “kitchen” and another place for my “bed”. Usually, I did this in the freezing cold of early spring. I’d play out there for hours until my toes nearly froze solid finally giving in and heading to the warm confines of our big old house.
As you can tell, I am a naturally imaginative person. Are you? I bet so. In fact, all of us are to some extent. and the only thing that really holds us back is a mindset that we aren’t so.
Although I have one friend who says she has a terrible imagination and thinks would be a terrible actress because she freezes on a stage. (That, for your information, has nothing to do with being imaginative.) She says the same thing about her singing and dancing.
That’s a real pity in my book. Had she learned through drama integration when she was a student, I think she would see how creative she really is.
The Easiest Way to Boost Student Engagement
I feel badly for her when she says this, because she is very creative! She is an excellent cook and has a beautiful decorated home. However even with those talents, she doesn’t think she’s creative.
She asked me what I think about when I perform a character who sings. That’s an easy answer for me, “I pretend I’m the character and I imagine the audience is a place where I could sing without anyone around or anyone who would judge me.” That is one of the reasons I love theater as much as I do–it’s a heady feeling to know people are accepting you as you share a little bit of yourself (your psyche) with them.
What is Drama Integration?
What is drama integration?
As I was crafting this blog, I wanted to use other peoples’ defense about drama integration so you know it’s just not me who thinks this. I ran onto Prague Youth Theater’s site and it says,
“Using drama to teach ‘core’ subjects such as maths, science and English can not only boost students’ speaking, listening and comprehension skills, it can also encourage children to have a more confident and curious approach to learning, which can be especially beneficial to those who may struggle with aspects of the curriculum.
Using drama activities and methods in teaching can contribute to an exciting learning environment, and can make even the scary or boring aspects of learning more approachable and engaging. It might mean that teachers place a larger emphasis upon ‘doing’ rather than memorizing, allowing students to engage with the subject in a more collaborative and hands-on manner through reading scripts, storytelling and acting out historical events or even scientific and geographical processes!”
- Test scores increase
- Classroom engagement intensifies
- Teacher effectiveness increases
- 21st century life skills are developed
- Students’ innate abilities are unleashed
- Creativity permeates each subject
What else can drama integration do?
Engagement: Drama integration facilitates personal motivation to learn through problem
solving, and strengthens best practices in teaching as a result of increased student
investment.
Collaboration: Participation in drama integration practice promotes learning partnerships
that evolve through respectful relationships that value the strengths of each individual.
Agility: Learners are engaged in rigorous drama integration practice that teaches flexibility,
embraces change, and invites multiple perspectives.
Knowledge Construction: Drama integration is relevant to the learner as it promotes and
supports the use of critical thinking skills and inquiry.
Congruence: Effective drama integration practice upholds deliberate alignment between
academic content and the arts.
Integrity: Mindful synthesis of arts and content learning promotes best practices in drama
integration, which hold true to the art form(s).
Insight: Best practices in drama integration embrace the symbiotic relationships between
ideas, content and the arts.
Skillful assessment: Mindfully designed authentic evaluation of content, process and
product in drama integration ensures that all levels of learning are synthesized, transferred
and applied through art to relevant and related academic concepts.
Resiliency: Drama integration learning experiences foster healthy risk-taking through personal growth, transformation, and empowerment.
Visionary Leadership: Confident leadership, demonstrated through collaboration, communication, and consistency, facilitates arts integration practice that is transformational to a learning community. It teaches growth mindset, too. Check out my blog post about growth mindset here. 
Drama Integration Ideas in the Core Subjects
“Okay” you say, “but how do I use it in my social studies classroom?”
If it’s drama you want to incorporate, a really easy way is to read a readers theater script of the subject you are teaching. For instance, if you are teaching about Nigeria, you could incorporate a Nigerian folk tale. Or if it’s the Civil War, create a radio play of a particular moment in the Civil War. Talk about immersion!
Maybe it’s a math class and you want to integrate drama into the lesson. Maybe the students are given a particular math concept and they create an improvisation working the definition into the scene?
Not many people think about this–when you approach the learning through the arts, students are relaxed and don’t feel the pressure of “I have to learn this right now and it has to be perfect.” By applying arts into the learning, it gives students an opportunity to sort of live with the learning concept. I promise, they will remember the concept much better if you apply the arts. Even the most challenged student will have success because the arts allow for differentiation so easily.
Here’s another way to integrate drama into your classroom. The Reasons Teaching Multiculturalism in the Classroom is Vitally Important
My tips to boost student engagement
After thirty-eight years of teaching theater to thousands of students, grades 2 to 12, I have learned through trial and error how to create a “special sauce” to boost student engagement.
I don’t think anyone who teaches much more than three years doesn’t master how to reach students, but my methods are different and what makes my lessons unique as well.
Here’s a tip when integrating drama. When you are teaching, you need to do more than check off a list of activities which originate from theater. You need to study it!
I can help you with that. I have an on-line course which teaches you how to use drama integration in your classroom. In particular, I share how using a partiular genre of theater can reach many students of any grade level.
You may wonder what makes it magical. I wish I could share that with you here, but that would spoil all the fun. Huh?
Check out this page for more information: 3 Little Known Secrets to Boost Student Engagment in the Classroom When You’re Tried Everything Else.
In this one hour FREE webinar, I’ll share three of my tips and the reasons they work every time. If you didn’t catch that–I said EVERYTIME!
You’re in luck, because I have one webinar left–Wednesday, July 28 at 7:00 p.m. I’m sure I’ll have more in the near future, so check back here or better yet, join my email list!
Want a free drama integration lesson now? Pick up this FREE drama integration here.
Are you considering if you want to integrate drama into your teaching? I’m here to help! Email me to set up a fifteen minute FREE session to ask me questions, problem solve or for me to just listen.
How do you engage your students? I’d love to hear from you. Comment here or email me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com
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