How to Approach Speaking and Listening through Drama

How to Approach Speaking and Listening through Drama

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). in the primary school. However, it is our experience that when a teacher takes a. problems because they become engaged. instructions in traditional teacher mode. Yet, as soon as they move into role,. their help (see ‘The Dream’ drama based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream). class were calling out and not listening properly. trying to teach without getting their full attention. become that role when she sat down. threaded on it and put it round her neck as the role signifier. hands up to ask questions and taking turns in a very orderly way. she should marry. The trainee was not doing anything different apart from using. role and committing to it very strongly. the class meets the role sitting in front of them and can ask questions. meaning-making. It can ‘feel real’ even though it is not. the drama yourself by using TiR. any opportunity for the teacher to teach effectively. defining and exploring the text. How does hot-seating open up the ideas and. issues of a story to the children? Let us look more closely at the Hermia role. What am I going to do about this? How dare he. not me. How does he know what I want to do?. Here is another way that the role could be introduced. How stupid he is. He writes me a letter and thinks I like him and I will like him. even more just because he likes me. him, let alone love him. I will have to tell him – again. Especially as my dad thinks he’s really nice and is encouraging him. above situations. In the first it is the note from her father, Egeus, outlining her. situation (she is under threat of death if she does not follow his wishes). case it will have a seal and look official. Lysander’s love. It will look different and might be accompanied by a little gift,. the way that the character is in the play. to have her put to death if she doesn’t obey him. in this society a daughter is expected to obey her father. and about their relationship with the opposite sex. work is not a study of the Shakespeare play, the role can be used to open up very with. It will motivate them and produce some very strong engagement with. the rivals for her love. (See the full drama set-up in Part Two of this book.). section in ‘The Highwayman’ drama. This can show important elements of. how the children see the text, what their comprehension of it is. teacher. This is partly due to the shift in tense. Good teachers slip easily into it and use it frequently. with a piece of fiction. The pupil’s role will be dominated by listening and this. and sense of the fiction. The teacher’s role will be to communicate the text in a. accompanying illustrations have impact and resonance. moments in their education. The connection between the teacher as storyteller. dynamic one. It means a known narrative can still be used, the knowledge of. the narrative is not a barrier to its usage. the original narrative it is problematic. It is the negotiable and dynamic elements. and the teacher from merely retelling the known story. story, or a mixture of both. As long as some fundamental planning strategies. are observed, knowledge of the story is not a barrier to participation. narrative. The use of drama strategies to explore events and their consequences,. to look at alternatives and test them. with the story so far. For example, roles and contexts may already be. that they become the writers of the narrative. drama we designed for 6-year-olds but have used with secondary pupils: see. Toye and Prendiville, 2000, p. mountain when they meet TiR as a child coming in the opposite direction. limping and carries one of his shoes. (In many versions of this story the child is a. ‘cripple boy’. This is patently inappropriate and unnecessary. Ask the pupils what would they like to ask the boy. him his name. They certainly will ask him why he is coming down the mountain. order of those questions. This not only provides the teacher with some security. their questions. The questions will, to a certain extent, be predictable because. questioned by the class. You are going to be telling them a story but it will be. someone else’s story but in the present tense as if it is happening now. no book symbolising the re-telling of someone else’s words. addresses. Be clear about his attitude towards being left behind, what has happened. Then run the hot-seating. The dialogue might go something like this:. So much for Joe and Kerry. Why couldn’t they wait? They could see I had a. stone in my shoe and had to take it out. Stop and come out of role and discuss what they have found out. what they need to ask next. At this point some questions about what the little. Then go back into role. The boy: You should have seen it! Lights, big dipper, toffee apples. the toffee apples … and all free. He was standing at the entrance shouting ‘It’s. all free. Any ride, any food, anything you want you can have.’. mode of reading from a book. It engages the class and gives them the. in an interactive way. They are questioning from within the story, as if they. were there. Next we consider this key skill of moving in and out of role. and not let it run away with itself. do. This OoR working is as important as the role itself. helps pupils believe in the drama. It provides time and space for the teacher to. to negotiate how the role behaves with the class. from hot-seating to role-playing as a demonstration with a small group. upon ‘The Pied Piper’ (see Toye and Prendiville, 2000, p. bread-making in the kitchen. They then adapt the picture when a rat invades. the space. You set up going into role with one of the groups that you know will. handle the situation well. OoR you gather the rest of the class round: You will. be able to influence what happens when we stop the action. the members of this family group can role-play. You will find out who I am from what. You negotiate your entry: I will enter as the rat runs out of the door. too big for these traps. You write something down in your notebook, before continuing. That’s another piece of evidence to take to the Mayor. could help. I cannot manage what he has asked me to do. for me as the town rat-catcher to catch. bad it is getting. Can you help? At this point you go OoR: Stop the drama. feeling, do you think? How do you know. and their own understanding. This is in contrast to an actor who has to use. acting skills to create the role in its entirety for an audience. We are making a distinction between role behaviour and acting. put his/her case to the Mayor. When you have discussed enough (this process. about the problems the rats are causing. You can do this with all of the class or. each family in turn. Give the groups time to prepare their evidence before you go. into role to receive the input. The Rat-catcher ‘writes down’ the points and then. asks the class/family if they could come to the Mayor to help put the case. a baby. OoR a blanket is openly rolled up to become the baby and the class. bowed-down, tear-stained. The person playing the role can then simply walk forward. being performed to an audience. This is because the class will see it as they. have described it themselves. The effect in this context can be more powerful. role and is the way the teacher can best control and manage learning. class are both an audience and observers of their own activities. going on, frequently by stepping out of the drama. co-existence of two worlds is effective at all times. step outside it often to look at what they are doing. it depend upon the children losing themselves in the drama. upon awareness, not total immersion. In fact, if the latter takes over, children. points. The teacher must make sure that if the drama does engage in that. coming out of role frequently. influence each other far more in their understanding. movement between these two worlds. TiR changes the nature of the contract. entered into by the class. What is that contract? It is ‘the imaginative contract’:. ● It is not, Listen and I will tell you a story. It is my story and you must not interrupt it. that I start and we create together. The result is to make the creative community. they can gain satisfaction. (Johnson and O’Neill, 1984, p. The teacher, working in this way, is an important stimulus for the learning. not necessary to use role throughout the piece of work. instance are participants at the same time. This will help us shape up the TiR. elements particularly according to how the audience is seeing things. You’re asking a very complex thing of the group of children. suddenly. It could be that they find this difficult or, my hunch is, they’re. very good at it. (Experienced teacher watching a video of a class in a drama). This is why this sort of whole group drama has so much learning potential. meanings. But that is only most effective if the teacher is skilled in genuinely. the drama based on Macbeth. When considering the way of showing the overthrow. throne and stop him sitting on it. The teacher took this up and put two of the servants. servants gathered behind the thrones. He then set up the entry of Macbeth to. the throne room. TiR as Macbeth entered slowly and stopped as though taking. in the situation. How dare you sit on the sacred seat of power! Relinquish it at once. Of course, the pupils sat firm and outfaced him. place it on the head of the usurping servant. pupil. The class cheered as Macbeth bowed his head and the two pupils stood. the key issues is seeing them as co-creators. them too passive a role. When they are given opportunities to influence the. The ownership also arises out of the way the teacher operates. the class to have to deal with. The drama is developed through a set of activities. disturb that comfort productively. The fact that, as in any good play, the class. within a life situation’ (Johnson and O’Neill, 1984, p. The key is how children are given information. information. In this last case there is much more involvement and ownership,. (Icarus in the ‘Daedalus and Icarus’ drama). told. An example of this occurs in ‘The Governor’s Child’, a drama based on. Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle. The class are in role as a village community. will do. Planning the ‘how’ and the ‘when’ of strategies is all-important here. method. This is another reason that the class have more ownership. approach. If a teacher runs drama without using TiR there tends to be a lack of. with, but the teacher can only manipulate it from outside that structure. result looks like the diagram in Figure 1.1. and engage with the children's ideas in a dialectic. in practice. The teacher gives the impression of handing over the power and. participants significantly. A TiR has to be properly planned and thought. the role to have the same skills needed by the aesthetic actor. that are not required by the teacher using TiR. already have the skills of the social actor that are used in everyday life. are skills that are learned in the presentation of self in every day life, the skillwe are and how we are feeling. It is the ability to adopt an attitude, to behave. oneself over the distances an actor does when playing in a theatre. (Heathcote and Bolton, 1995, p. in a drama session make it happen. how the class see the role. For example, when the servants discover that. powerless to do anything. The TiR as the Steward must honour the truth of. doing nothing in such a situation is going to work in keeping them safe. the TiR themselves directly. The class must be made to work to achieve the aim. mountain. At this point in the drama they have accepted the main aim as the. villagers of getting their children back from the Piper. with two chairs. OoR ask them to describe the mountain in front of them and. the mountain as they have been told. a pipe. Set them up to carry this out and then retire to the side. task ‘appear’ behind them as the Piper. the children even more. It is more effective than having a simple hot-seating. the rhythm that will summon me so you have made me appear. now, but I don’t want that; you have upset me by trying to trick me. pay what we agreed. You should never break a promise. Go OoR to discuss the Piper’s attitude. The burden placed on the class at this. someone who needs to be taught a lesson about justice and fairness. play written by a playwright. In fact, the secret of educational drama is to have. The pupils can thought-track TiR. It is important not to define. everything yourself. If they challenge Egeus and ask, Why are you making. A drama technique can be used to help them define possible reasons. her obedience. The TiR is not exclusively the teacher’s creation. and the way they see it. TiR creates an ownership dynamic that is attractive to. and the teacher. The learners are bound together as a group merely by being. make your attempts to teach them impracticable, they can do it. the classroom lies with the class. Of course, it does not look like this when the. should some or all decide not to, the cohesion can be broken. power relationship is made overt. We must start from the point of view that if. and it is not unusual to see the majority let them know this fact. We must begin with the interest level of the class: the plight of Goldilocks. Snow Queen, children of 7 and 8. For those aged 10 or 11 it may be the jealousy. of Tim the Ostler that gains their attention. the interest level a dynamic and flexible dimension. that interest them. There is not a hard and fast rule on age groups because we. have been used with 12-year-olds. It depends upon how you do it. that you are in charge. This may be a tacit agreement, it may depend upon. privileges attached to your role. little power. This shift in status and power is very engaging for pupils. who is presented with Egeus’s problem and has to rule on it. him/her. The role is fair, applies rules and governs properly, but often does not. him/her. It is very close to being teacher and can be reassuring for a class, but. and/or creating a problem for another role and, by extension, the class. role, as they take her side against his dictatorial treatment of her. have all experienced. The opposer role has to be used carefully because the. response to it can be difficult to handle if it becomes too strong. role used in the ‘The Dream’ drama. the predicament. In the ‘The Dream’ it might be a servant to Egeus who is sympathetic. her employer what she thinks he should do. fight the injustice of her father’s decision. the class. We do not have this sort of role in our ‘The Dream’ drama but the. Steward in the ‘Macbeth’ drama is like this. danger as the other servants represented by the class. occupy. It is powerful because it shifts responsibility more to the pupil roles. of power. We say ‘semblance’ because the pupil power only lies within. role at any time to assume control. does mean a shift of some power, but not a takeover of power. classroom. Drama has for many teachers a Health Warning attached to it: ‘This. many teachers off using drama. However, if basic rules are applied, there is no. more danger of chaos than in any other lesson. Pied Piper’ (see Toye and Prendiville, 2000, p. The class have been told they must confront the Mayor. This is the Mayor’s parlour. First you must tell me how big the doors into his parlour. Now I want you to look at the table and chair over there. in which the Mayor sits. What is it made of? What is it. The class offer suggestions, building the image of the desk. same with the Mayor’s chair. The contributions are valued and embellished. The townspeople are marching down to the Mayor’s parlour. enough to be heard. will maintain the seriousness of the event are chosen. as a group. The chant is rehearsed and when it feels and sounds like an angry. So, we have a parlour, we have an angry crowd and a chant. know what to do for once. Someone volunteers to stop the chant like a conductor stopping the music. OK. I am going to take the role of the Mayor and I am going wear my chain of. office. When I take it off I will be your teacher again and we can talk about what. has happened. Listen to the story and you will know what to do:. knock on the door. As Mayor you get up and move around to the front of the. We’re fed up of you and we’re fed up of the rats. Yes, you are right to be so angry! Every right. you down. I have one last hope and that is a man who is due to arrive tomorrow. This response is not expected by the class. place. In this way, the lesson remains under control and the learning possibilities.