Part 4: Benefits of using drama activities in the classroom
SECTION 4
Questions 31–40
Complete the notes below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
Benefits of using drama activities in the classroom
Child’s personal development
- Group participation develops 31 ………………….. in own ideas
- Unscripted, imaginative activities allow children to take 32 …………………..
Child’s educational development
- Working as a group teaches the importance of 33 ………………….. to others
- Performing makes children 34 ………………….. for their learning and behavior
Role-play can be used:
- as a form of 35 ………………….. for children experiencing problems
- to help children be objective about their behaviour problems
- to explore controversial issues with a class in a 36 ………………….. environment
- to explore children’s self-knowledge and understanding of 37 …………………..
Advantages of using role-play in the study of history
- Drama activities increase children’s 38 ………………….. in class
- Makes it easier for children to 39 ………………….. and understand historical events
- Can find answers to 40 ………………….. in history to see why certain decisions were made
KEYS
- confidence
-
risks
-
listening
-
responsible
-
therapy
-
safe
-
morality
-
participation
-
remember
-
problems
TRANSCRIPT
Section 4
You will hear part of a lecture for teacher trainees on using drama activities in the classroom.
So now we’re going to look at some of the reasons why it’s beneficial to include drama activities, such as role play, in your teaching practice in a range of subject areas.
There’s a lot of evidence to show that drama helps a child’s personal development.
Firstly, creating the space for children to express
themselves freely in a group situation helps to give them confidence in their own opinions and ideas.
And of course, drama activities can work especially well for shy or introverted children, who usually don’t participate in other types of classroom situations.
Secondly, unscripted improvisation activities where children work from their imagination, if done in a supportive way, give children the opportunity to gain experience in taking risks, and encourage them to say things that they might normally be afraid to say.
Drama can also support the child’s educational development.
For example, the emphasis placed on cooperative activities in drama means that group members must learn the value of listening to one another.
Being involved in any sort of performance which relies on everyone working together and playing their part also helps children to be responsible not only for their learning but for their general behavior.
These are just a couple of ways in which drama can benefit a child’s learning.
Now I’d like to look at how role play can be such a valuable learning tool in the classroom.
The value of role play for children who are having difficulties as a means of therapy is now widely accepted.
The experience of doing a role play where children act out aspects of their own life, without explicitly stating that it is a direct representation of their own experiences, can help children to judge their own behavior in an objective way.
One obvious example would be doing a role reversal with a bully role-playing a victim.
Because this approach doesn’t involve direct confrontation, it may help the bully to see his or her behavior in a different light.
More generally, role play also allows the teacher to explore potentially controversial or taboo subjects in a safe setting in which children feel at ease.
It’s obviously essential for children to feel they won’t be criticized or judged for voicing certain views.
Getting children to examine their thoughts and opinions carefully can lead to a deeper self-knowledge, and a stronger awareness of morality.
This is an important factor in developing social skills.
Let’s look at a specific subject area now and think about how drama can enrich the learning process for the study of history.
Bringing characters from the past to life in the classroom by doing classroom drama activities is an easy way to improve the level of the children’s participation in the lesson.
So, drama in the history classroom makes for a livelier atmosphere, but getting children to reenact scenes from history can also be extremely useful, as it helps them to remember what happened and why it was important, as well as helping to bring the past alive.
Another way of doing this is to ask children to find solutions to historical problems using role play.
This can help to focus attention on why certain decisions were taken.
For example, children can be asked to decide how best to defend their town from attack or where to build a new settlement.
Okay, what I’d like to do now is to think about your next teaching practice session, and in groups discuss how you would incorporate an element of drama into your lesson plan.
