The Value of Drama

Hello!

I ♥ drama, and have studied it throughout my entire education. Despite such positive experiences, I wasn’t particularly confident using it within my own teaching; I have heard many teachers complain about the overcrowded curriculum, and have wondered how I would find time for drama. I left our tutorial thinking the following...

Drama allows people to get to know each other and feel as if they are part of a community.

Drama allows people to experiment and try new ideas.

Drama can be used to teach content and can tackle big issues such as bullying in a safe and supportive environment.

Drama encourages participation.

These thoughts were mirrored in the reading by Sinclair, Jeanneret and O’Toole (2009) who state that drama it not only an art form and a socio-cultural experience, but also a powerful medium for learning. The Game of Power and the Postcard activity that Maureen gave us would be really useful in the first weeks of school when teachers are trying to encourage team building. The strategies can help students engage in imaginative thinking and, as you found, can lead to great units of work. I haven’t seen Hoodwinked- but what a great connection! This could be a fantastic lesson if you showed students the clip of Hoodwinked, following with the blanket enrolment strategy, and work these activities into a unit on how authors position readers to perceive characters in particular ways! There are some great books which relate author positioning to fairytales such as The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Triviaz and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka.

Bethany

Sinclair, C., Jeanneret, N., & O'Toole, J. (Eds.). (2009). Education in the arts: teaching and learning in the contemporary curriculum. Sydney: Oxford University Press

The day we met Mrs Brown.

I'm not laughing at your marshmallow iceberg - it looks great.   I liked your use of collage within your picture, particuarly the way you drew the tail then placed it on your horizon.  I did art in year 11 and adored it; my medium of choice was collage. I love generating and realizing a piece of work from paper, combined with other materials. 

The way Maureen teaches is absorbing, showing us drama strategies by allowing us to play within the world of drama.  As Sinclair, Jeanneret and O'Toole (2010) state, drama gives children the chance to imagine and actively engage in actions from the past, present and future.  Maureen also told us that, unfortunately, drama is not individually within the curriculum, but can be used in a cross curricula sense to captivate students, but you need to have a reason for teaching and using the drama.

Mrs Brown was a fantastic way to get us involved. While adults tend to sit back and wait to see what is going to happen, children jump straight in. 

My favourite strategy was blanket enrolment. To have all students in the same role was awesome.  I enjoyed where we all took the mystery of Little Red, although I kept thinking of the movie Hoodwinked, it was hard to move away from that plot line. 

Another strategy that I enjoyed watching was the great game of power. I didn't get involved but observing it I could see that within a classroom this would be engrossing.

AMY

I agree that I will contribute 50% to this Blog and accept than in the summative assessment, we will receive the same mark against the criteria indicated in the Unit Outline.  

Sinclair,C., Jeanneret, N., O'Toole, J,. (2010) Education in the arts. Victoria, Australia; Oxford University Press.

 theweinsteinco on Feb 10, 2006, Hoodwinked.  Retreived on 28th July from, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVqRm8G97U

Painting with Cardboard

Hi Amy!

Thanks for creating our page. I would really like to utilise this blog to share as many ideas and teaching resources as possible. I have seen some fantastic activities on prac and believe that it would be really valuable to share what we have both seen. Thanks for putting up the link to Kandinsky’s work! I have never seen his art and it was really interesting. I particularly liked the use of colour, so will have to explore his art in more depth when I get a chance. It led me to start thinking about colour and composition, and how they can be taught within a primary school context. Whilst on prac, I went to an Arts PD. The facilitator talked about composition and about creating a ‘horizon’ by using darker colours at the front. Rather than using paintbrushes, we experimented with sponges and pieces of cardboard to sweep paint across the page. We painted Antarctic scenes. This is mine...

It still needs a lot of work (you have permission to laugh at my 'iceberg'), but it demonstrates how easy it can be to teach the techniques and skills of visual arts. During my own arts education, I was never taught explicit skills such as how to manipulate colour and tools to create different effects. Art was (and often still is) so different from nearly every other discipline in which educators sought to teach both skills and knowledge as central to students’ understanding. Due to my lack of skills, I am unconfident in teaching visual arts in the classroom. Sinclair, Jeanneret and O’Toole (2009) maintain that teachers should demonstrate technique as it is a fundamental component of arts education. It is thus essential that teachers seek to provide students with both the skills and knowledge of the arts.

Bethany

Sinclair, C., Jeanneret, N., & O'Toole, J. (Eds.). (2009). Education in the arts: teaching and learning in the contemporary curriculum. Sydney: Oxford University Press

I agree that I will contribute 50% to this Blog and accept than in the summative assessment, we will receive the same mark against the criteria indicated in the Unit Outline.

Week One Reflection

During the first tute the atmosphere within the classroom was warm and relaxed.  The activities that Mary Ann chose were engaging and we all got involved.  The strategies were physical and had us moving, both individually and in small groups.  I thought the manner in which Mary Ann had us moving from group to individual then back to groups was seamless. Not until we were placed in our end groups was I aware of the smoothness of how well it was put together.  We were playing and linking to art, and as Sinclair, Jeanneret and O'Toole (2010) state the connections between art, play and learning are vital. 

My group went to work with Maureen, using inspiration from Kandinsky, whose work I previously knew; we created paintings using only primary colours.  Whilst creating we kept the phrase, "I see, I wonder and I hope" in mind with reference to that morning's lesson and the rest of the unit.

• One group listened to a piece of music and drew what they pictured was happening during the piece
• Our group presented our paintings
• The third group had a drama exercise, which involved the whole class.  They instigated class involvement well as we were immersed without thinking about it - all being PIRATES.

I love the idea of only using primary colours - I think this is a great activity to use in the classroom, creating opportunity for children to experiment.

I love art - I went away with inspiration and looked further into Kandinsky's work. 


Amy