Using drama in the classroom

Ideas, tips, discussion

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Paula
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Posts: 9
Joined: 31 May 2004, 15:30

Using drama in the classroom

Unread post by Paula »

I'd like to do drama with my students.

Can anybody tell me how to start? books to read, games to try?

thanks

Paula
helen
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Posts: 1
Joined: 06 Jan 2008, 20:38

Re: Using drama in the classroom

Unread post by helen »

hi,
i put students into 3 groups (of about 5). i chose 3 vocabulary topics that i wanted to revise - e.g expressions using verb to go / adjectives describing weather / idioms for describing people then gave each team 1 word for each of the these topics on a card - e.g to go down with (an illness) / breezy.
then i gave each group a prop - i used a telephone, a bunch of flowers and a fake skull
i also had a pile of costumes which i allowed them to use whatever they wanted from (but you could also allocate these)
then i got them to write their own plays, which had to include the relevant vocabulary and the prop. - what i didn't do but should have done was to explain exactly what they would have to do before letting them see any of the props and costumes as it was quite difficult to hold their attention after that.
whilst they're writing their plays you should be monitoring very closely, helping them as much as they need, but most importantly noting down grammatical lexical and pronunciation mistakes as this is when they are speaking naturally rather than whilst they're performing - but don't go through these till the very end of the lesson.
give them time limit call outs if you need to hurry them along, then when they're done each group took turns in performing to the rest of the class.
after this we went through the mistakes on the board (they were all feeling ubinhibited so didn't mind having there mistakes pointed out) and also any other things which came up - eg with the telephone things like to pick up, to hang up etc.
you could also try giving them an opening and closing line which they must use, or grammatical structures that you've been doing recently instead of just revising vocabulary points.
i did this with upper-int adults (but it should be fine for intermediate - adavanced, maybe pre-int but i don't have any experience with them, and kids would love it) and it took about 1 1/2 hours, but i could easily have spent more time on it.
philip
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Joined: 16 Jul 2011, 07:36
Status: Other

Re: Using drama in the classroom

Unread post by philip »

i think it is a nice one..because it will helps the students to avoid the stage fears..and also they will get ,more confidence and some arguments skills......!!!!!
neverstopped
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Posts: 11
Joined: 06 Feb 2012, 11:55
Status: Trainee Teacher

Re: Using drama in the classroom

Unread post by neverstopped »

Sorry to see that this thread is pretty much dead. I love drama. I love incorporating it into the lesson because it's so helpful in making the student speak freely.
For the seventh grade I would recommend an actual text that is already written.

I remember doing the story of the 5th of November so it would also be linked to history/ country studies. It's also a great way to distinguish between present tense and past tense. If you do something like that you should either make it a shorter play and divide everyone into groups to do it, or try to give everyone a role in a bigger play. No whole class can be in the cast of a play, of course. So you should give them tasks like "be the director/ choreographer. You could also involve a reporter, who interviews members of the cast, but you have to watch out that any written text doesn't turn out to be a trashing of the play. otherwise it's going to backfire on you.

For older students it's possible to form groups of two or three people. They can work out a scenario on a given topic on which you want them to voice their opinions. it could turn out as a debate club made into a fun play. Scenes should be 10 - 15 minutes I think. This way Everyone can contribute something but it won't be too heavy a workload. I would also encourage props and rhyming. :D
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