1. EDUC 4200 English Specialisation
Week 7 Drama 1

2. Today
Presentation assignment.
Drama in English – a walk through of different approaches and some resources.
Next week: William Shakespeare in one week.

3. Drama
Drama is a discrete subject in most High Schools and also treated discreetly in many Primary settings.
We are not trained in theatrical arts but we can look at Drama as Art. – useful to look at some definitions here.
So considering that we are not trained drama teachers what is it that we do?

4. Drama
Drama as art seeks to weave in a greater level of depth and nuances of meaning. In acting this takes a knowledge of technique. While we can be aware of technique we are not teaching acting as such. Drama is worthwhile to examine as art or as a genre – as another form of human expression.

5. Drama as role play or simulation
The trap here is that it becomes Drama as play – unconvincing, student’s run out of ideas and chaos rules!
Good role play is useful, but it is surface stuff not Drama as art.
An example of some structure – this could be linked to a theme, poem, novel…

6. Exploring text through drama
This is certainly something that we can explore. There are some well known techniques here – borrowed from Drama teaching. These are a couple of examples.
Tableau – or freeze frame
Hotseating -

7. As a stimulus for writing
The trap – often too ambitious
Use clear guidelines
Scenario beginnings with some dialogue, make it no longer than five minutes to play out.

8. Scenario
A family are at breakfast when a letter arrives. The person who receives the letter tries at first to conceal its contents from the others. When the contents are finally revealed the consequences for the whole family are considerable.
Mrs Jones: That sounds like the postman- could you see what it is?
(John leaves and returns moments later.)
John: It’s for Julie (handing over a letter.)
Julie: Oh, thanks. I’ll open it later.

9. Some resources Scene starters for stimulus Script writing and another
A guide for teachers

10. Reading plays
Has to be managed well, but with good teacher intervention and students encouragement it can work well. Very dependent on the teacher to look for teaching points.
Why is it still a good thing to do? Helps oral language development – decontextualising.

11. Does this help?
Decontextualized (“dxt”) language is defined as language that is removed from the here-and-now. Examples of this kind of decontextualized language use are evident in early conversations between parents and children, particularly in uses of extended discourse such as explanations, narratives and pretend play.

12. Preparation for next workshop
Why teach Shakespeare? –some reading to do. Discuss next week.
A short summary of your chosen Shakespearian play.
An approach you might take – 10 minutes, you can present this to the class however you wish.
Romeo and Juliet 2013