Learn How to Teach Creative Dramatics in Your Lunch Hour!
I’m worried about our teachers and you should be too.
Recently, I read an article from http://www.nea.org that approximately fifty-five per cent of our teachers are seriously considering quitting teaching at the end of this year. That’s up from thirty-seven per cent last year. Yikes!
You can imagine the reasons they are considering leaving–exhaustion, demoralized, uninspired, understaff and underappreciated. Not to mention, the global pandemic! (That doesn’t even include underpaid which has been an ongoing problem for year and really a sad statement about the country, in my opinion.)
I can’t fix the schools, but I can help teachers.
Learn How to Teach Creative Dramatics in Your Lunch Hour!
Let’s say you and I are eating lunch together in the teacher’s lounge.
I say to you, “How’s the day going?”
“Terrible!” you say.
“What seems to be the problem” I ask.
“The students are not engaged. They are rowdy, disrespectful and negative.”
At this point, that I nod and say, “I can help you.”
You look at me with an expression of disbelief. “How, Deb? You can’t be in there with me.”
I answer, “No, but I can give you some drama integration ideas which will help. In fact, my masters in education is focused on creative arts learning.”
Turning, I dive into my files and pull out several lessons which I tailored specifically for the classroom.
You take one look at them and say, “But I’m not a creative dramatics teacher. I can’t do this.”
“Oh yes, you can. Using creative dramatics to teach your class is nothing more than making a few changes in your perspective and teaching methods. Let me show you how.”
We talk for a few minutes, you smile and say “Okay, I’ll try it!”
As we leave the lounge, we hug. I watch you walk down the hallway with a little spring in your step because you know how to turn your unhappy class into a happy one in an afternoon.
Note: This is an actual conversation I had with a teacher on IG in the last week. Her students were being impossible. I suggested she try doing a lot of physical movement with them and it worked!
The Benefits of Creative Dramatics in the Classoom
I found this wonderful website, The Gaiety School of Acting, which explains the benefits of creative dramatics:
“Of all the arts, drama involves the participant the most fully: intellectually, emotionally, physically, verbally, and socially. As players, children assume the roles of others, and they learn about becoming more sensitive to the problems and values of persons different from themselves. At the same time, they are learning to work cooperatively, for drama is a communal art; each person is necessary to the whole.”
When integrating creative dramatics, we are not concerned with what an audience receives from a performance but what the child does. In fact, it would be best if you and your students are the only people in your classroom when you integrate drama.
This is Easier than You Think
These five lessons will engage them right from the beginning. It’s all in the approach you take to presenting them. (I can help you here. I include a teacher’s script with most of my lessons.)
- Warm-ups–warm-up exercises can be adapted to the subject you are teaching or you can use them as they are.
- Creative Movement–students need a lot of physical exercise.
- Storytelling–if you are teaching a particular book, use Kamishibai storytelling as a way to check your students’ understanding of the plot
- Tableau–a frozen stage picture is a fantastic way to demonstrate a math problem, moment in history, show something in science such as a volcano and its stage before errupting, etc.
- Readers’ Theater–this is a powerful teaching method which can be adapted for a particular lesson about social studies, science or a story in reading.
Learn How to Teach Creative Dramatics in Your Lunch Hour!
Want a FREE lesson you can use tomorrow? Click here: Creative Dramatics Lesson
Do I need a lot of extra materials?
Most teachers probably have the materials they’d need to integrate drama in your classroom. But beware! Try to avoid being a purist about this–a scarf can work as a belt, a box can be a trunk or three students’ desk chairs can make a bridge. It’s all in how you look at it.
I suggest: construction paper, paper plates, glue, scissors, colored pencils, markers, aluminum foil, newspapers, masks (you can purchase them at S and S Art Supply )
Collect clothing such as hats, caps, scarves, capes, eye glasses, pillow cases, masks, etc. A large plastic bin can hold all of these pieces. A trip to a local thrift store will have a lot of these items for an inexpensive price.
How do I Assess my Students’ Learning?
Talk about outcome education! Using creative dramatics in your teaching gives you an opportunity to model for your students and them to demonstrate right back to you.
Here’s an example for you– your objective today is to teach Common Core Standard L4.1e “Form the use of prepositional phrases”.
Easy! Make up a bunch of cards with prepositional phrases on them with phrases such as “on the, over the, around the”. Hand out a card to each student to physically demonstrate the phrase.
Learn How to Teach Creative Dramatics in Your Lunch Hour
Maybe you are teaching Next Generation Science stanDard concerning gravitational force. Would it be so difficult as to have two students tell a story about gravitational force and how it affects us on earth? Maybe you’d give them particular facts to use in the story? This blog post might help too! How Do I Use Arts Integration in the Classroom?
As you can see, using drama integration in your class is a no brainer. Word to the wise–refrain from using it every day as it will lose its uniqueness. I know it takes many teaching methods to engage your students. This is just one method.
But it’s a good one. 😉
Want a free drama integration lesson? Check out: Hire Me for Your Classroom Tomorrow!
Have you used drama integration in the past? How did it go for you? Do you have any questions I can answer? Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com or check out my website at DeborahBaldwin.net
