Key Resource: Using roe pay/ diaogue/drama in the cassroom Copyright 2014 The Open University
Contents Key Resource: Using roe pay/diaogue/drama in the cassroom 3 2 of 5 Thursday 30 June 2016
Key Resource: Using roe pay/diaogue/drama in the cassroom Key Resource: Using roe pay/diaogue/ drama in the cassroom Introduction Pupis, and aduts too, earn best when they are activey engaged in the earning experience. Roe pay, diaogue and drama are very active ways to expore what your pupis aready know. By interaction with others and sharing their ideas, your pupis can buid a broader and/or deeper understanding of the topic. The three strategies in this key resource aow pupis to deveop their thinking skis, work in contexts that aow them to tak about more sensitive issues and use their creativity and imagination to extend their knowedge and to resove probems. You wi have to pan your essons carefuy and think how you introduce them to the techniques. You wi need to think about whether you work with the whoe cass at once or with sma groups. This may depend on the size of your cass and their ages. A of the three methods beow have strengths that aow you to use them across a range of curricuum areas. So, how can you use these strategies in your cassroom, what things do you need to think about if you want to use them and what benefits wi they bring? Diaogue An important part of your roe in heping your pupis earn has to be heping them to think about what they know and what they do not know or cannot do. Uness you encourage them to tak about their ideas and isten to other peope s viewpoints they wi not be abe to extend their own understanding as much as they coud. Straightforward reading and answering questions exercises do not chaenge their thinking and ideas as much as activities where they have to appy the ideas to reevant situations. For exampe, pupis wi understand the idea of gravity and how things fa to the ground much better if they have to pan and investigate ways to sow down how things fa. By discussing what they are going to do, they have to think about what they aready know, why and how things fa, and what they coud do to sow them down. Taking in groups of about four/five wi give a pupis the opportunity to speak and isten to other s ideas, but sometimes just asking pupis to tak in pairs for a few minutes for one key idea to share with the cass can be just as vauabe. Shy pupis, who do not normay participate in arger cass discussions, may fee more confident about speaking in these smaer groups and so you woud be abe to find out more about what they know and how they think. As a teacher, you need to be aware of your pupis interests and knowedge and how they earn so that you can match your teaching better to their needs. Give pupis frequent opportunities to tak in groups about different topics and make sure they have enough time to do it. 3 of 5 Thursday 30 June 2016
Key Resource: Using roe pay/diaogue/drama in the cassroom Roe pay Roe pay is when pupis are assigned a roe and, during a sma scenario, act as they think the person they are being woud act in such a situation. For exampe, in one of your citizenship or ife skis casses, you may be exporing how to resove confict in the payground. Rather than use an incident from your cass, you can make up a scenario in which a simiar incident occurred. It may be in a home or community setting, but whie the story is detached from the payground, the issues are the same. You coud assign pupis to roes and give them time to think about the itte scene they are going to deveop or you coud just ask them to do it without any panning time. You wi need to try both ways to see the benefits for yoursef of both approaches. You coud have just one group performing in front of the rest of the cass or you coud et a the cass work in sma groups at once (so no group is being watched). You coud put your pupis into groups and ask them to assign roes themseves before giving them time to expore how they might resove the confict. If you have a arge cass or a sma cassroom you may have to aow some groups to work outside. These pupis need to be aware of their responsibiity to be sensibe and not disturb other casses at work, athough as they work you wi be moving around and supporting them. You wi have to think about what kind of feedback you want from the groups about their experiences and feeings. Some groups wi be more wiing than others to show their roe pays. Some may prefer to te you what they have earned from doing the roe pays. Drama Using drama in the cassroom is a good strategy to motivate most pupis. It can be used in many different ways and provides opportunities for the whoe cass to be invoved in the creative process of producing a drama. Not everyone has to be an actor in the drama; some pupis can be used in other ways that may reate more to their taents and personaity. Drama or teing a story through acting or dancing can be a stimuating way to encourage pupis to think about issues such as reationships, power strugges in history, oca environmenta issues and debates. It is not unike roe pay but has an end product. This is a production of some kind that can be shown to the rest of the cass, the schoo at assemby or to the parents and the oca community. This wi give the pupis something to work towards and motivates them. It is usefu to use both scripted pays and improvised pays to expore their ideas around an issue. Drama is aso a good way to assess what your pupis understand about a topic. For exampe, one cass did a pay about their understanding of how the brain works using pretend teephones to show how messages go from the brain to the ears, eyes, nose, hands and mouth and back. If you decide to use drama in your cassroom, you coud use a scripted pay that has been written down, or you coud draft an outine and et the pupis write the script for themseves. They coud aso improvise their drama and then work out what to say as they practise acting out the scene(s). When setting up a drama esson or series of essons, as dramas take time to deveop these are the things you need to remember: Be cear why you are using drama to hep your pupis earn. Give cear instructions and expanations about the purpose of the drama. 4 of 5 Thursday 30 June 2016
Key Resource: Using roe pay/diaogue/drama in the cassroom Have an outine of a drama in mind if your pupis need such support when improvising so you can make suggestions. Buid in time for them to practise. Be ready to give support and suggest ideas when they have difficuty. Use anguage essons for them to write their pays and the diaogue. The pay can reate to a topic in science or socia studies or citizenship/ife skis essons. Give them opportunities to perform to an audience whenever possibe as this wi boost their sef-esteem and confidence, even for those who work ony on the production rather than performance side. Invove your pupis as much as you can in a the stages of the process and decision making. Back to Key Resources for Teachers and Teacher Educators 5 of 5 Thursday 30 June 2016