Why use Drama in Lessons?

Drama isn’t just a subject, it’s a very powerful technique for adding interest and engagement to your lessons. But it’s often also one that some teachers steer slear of with the challenges of organising it and the potential for disruption. So I delved into our course archives and adapted this guidance written by our Lead Consultant for English and Drama Kevin Piper.

Drama has a number of advantages as a tool in the classroom. It:

• Explores human experience
• Investigates specific examples through chosen frames
• Exploits the human ability to respond to stories
• Has its own language of space and gesture etc which can be more relevant for exploring personal issues
• Creates a distancing effect
• Includes both real and symbolic interaction
• The search for the most appropriate form of expression is also a search for meaning

Basic techniques

Wondering what dramatic techniques will work best in your lesson? Here are a few of the more common ones to help get you started.

Forum theatre – begin with a series of still images these scenes are then played out. The audience can stop the scene at any point and suggest or act out alternative endings. This works well whenever a decision has to be made, i.e. themes of oppression, equality, drugs, persuasion etc.

Storytelling – begin with a basic conflict or dilemma which will be familiar to the students i.e. betrayal, trust, etc. Create a story with a dilemma at the end. Thought or speech bubbles can be used with to help students understand more about the topic at particular points. The scenes can then be continued or sequenced as required.

The street scene or other people’s point of view – a scene is played out through a number of different ‘frames’ of action. This may mean a series of encounters with all those involved in an incident to recognise others’ points of view. Using other techniques, i.e. mantle of the experts or giving witness, or physical approaches a brief ‘theatrical advertisement’ can be created lasting only one minute, but using techniques such as voice over (thought tracking) narration, tableaux, split stage etc.

Framing – the idea of seeing things from other points of view can also be developed through teacher-in-role, role reversal, split brief techniques.

Simulations – teacher in role creates a dilemma or problem for pupils to discuss and solve, e.g. a simulation on immigrants moving to a new land can lead to greater understanding of the experiences of all the ‘actors’: – the immigrants themselves, the local population and local government too.

Mantle of the expert – this is where students take on the role of experts planning or discussing, rather than acting out events.

A Possible Working Method

1. Develop a story by which a topic can be communicated.
2. Find a way of making it directly relevant to pupils’ experience
3. Include a dilemma, a debating point or issue to engage them further in the topic.
4. Allow opportunities for subject to be reviewed, repeated, reinforced
5. Develop strategies for reflection, i.e. hot seating, thought tracking, freeze frames.
6. Ensure there are sufficient distancing strategies, i.e. forum theatre
7. Explore methods by which the ‘audience’ are involved in the decision making process
8. Allow opportunities for independent learning
9. Encourage debate and encourage opportunities for taking points of view other than own, i.e. using playing cards to determine standpoint.

In many subjects the need to rehearse the presentation is an important structure because it causes us to review our ideas:

• Are they clear?
• Is this the only way to go?
• Are we taking a fair view?
• How does one incident link to another?

Recording Progress

Pupils need to be given the opportunities to access a variety of ways of not only communicating, but also recording their discoveries.

Recording progress and evaluating events in Drama can encourage the use of a range of technologies and processes which support key skills work. For example:

Give a short talk. A dramatic presentation about an aspect of a play or practitioner is an excellent teaching method at A Level and GCSE. Students can be encouraged to use electronic means to present their ‘lecture demonstration’. This may include signs and slides, Power Point displays and video evidence. If you are taking a technical option then sketches diagrams and photographs, providing they are annotated are usually acceptable evidence for an examiner.

Creating a performance for others. This may involve working on a TIE project for a primary school based on a PSHE topic. A performance followed by a discussion or a workshop could be run at a local feeder school. Students will be encouraged to research their material as well as develop the use of effective Drama conventions and devices

Present combined information. This might include producing a programme for the audience and /or examiner. This could include photographs (digital or scanned) mixed with appropriate bits of text in order to focus the audience’s thinking on certain moments or aspects of the subject. Facts and information relevant to the piece could be presented as a diagram or chart.

And most importantly, have fun! Drama can be a superb technique for exploring a wide range of different issues, and once you’ve got the hang of it you should be having as much fun as the students!

Kevin Piper is our Lead Consultant for Drama and English and has written and delivered literally hundreds of courses for us. If you’d like to find out more out our Drama courses or our English courses click the links to see a full list.