The task for this week was to develop a “learning through drama” experience based on the topic of print media. I thoroughly enjoyed this class because it really got my creative juices flowing. We began by brainstorming the topic and pretty much covered the past, history and future of this text type. We decided that even though it now includes magazines and web sites (etc), we would construct an activity around the traditional text of a newspaper.

(Even as I write this now I am aware that I have to work on my listening and note taking skills! I can’t remember what year level we are working with – whoops! I think it is Year 5 or 6?)

I just love brainstorming in groups! I enjoy the banter and the jokes that are exchanged, and find that I really bounce well off other peoples’ ideas (and vice versa). Even though I much prefer to work individually on written assignments, I always find it rewarding to work in groups in this type of situation.

We should have filmed our class for an ad on the joys of collaborative learning. It was an almost perfect session! I was initially a bit scared we weren’t going to get anywhere, because after an hour we still hadn’t settled on a scenario. We were thinking we’d go with some type of animal escape story (spurred on by a circus newspaper story that Jo showed us) but nothing grabbed us. However, gradually we just kept building upon each others ideas, until we weren’t even sure who had suggested what in the end. We solved the set task within the time frame, came up with a great scenario and were all still talking to each other at the end of the process.

Wow! What an achievement! (I must say a lot of the credit goes to Jo and her ability to direct and channel our ideas.)

So here it is:
(I think we’re all quite proud of it…)

Jo will initially do some warm-ups with photo freeze frames of news headlines (“Lion eats boy” etc).

The scene will then be set as a newsroom. I am going to be the Newsroom Supervisor and the students will be informed by me that as Cadet Journalists their task will be to cover any breaking news stories. I will introduce them to two very different types of Editors (Herald Sun vs The Age) and they must choose for which paper they wish to aim their story. Kathryn and Jacinta are playing the roles of the “dramatise the story” and “stick to the facts” Editors. They will each give a little speech and one will present students with an abridged version of the Journalistic Code of Ethics (does it exist?). Then my phone will ring and I will take down the details of the breaking story: a snake was found in the grounds of Hunter Valley Primary School by a naughty boy (which seems a bit suspicious). The groundsman caught the snake with the help of a smarty pants girl. A greenie teacher then kept the snake in her classroom so that her students could learn from it. But then at lunch time the snake escaped (or was it set free/stolen by someone?) There’s also a parent who’s wanting to talk to the media.

I will remind the Cadets about the 6 W’s (who, what, when, where, why and how). I will tell them to take their notebooks and pens and get down to the school and write me a story.

We will then set up the five characters (each with an item of costume) at separate stations and the students can move around and interview us. I will be Jemima Goode - the smarty pants student who knows an awful lot about snakes. I will wear a red bow in my hair and will carry a school folder. I will tell the Cadets, “I know a lot about everything, so you can ask me whatever you want.”

The other characters are:
Just Jase (Kathryn) – the naughty boy who found (and teased) the snake.
Mrs Green (Nicole) – the teacher who is fascinated by environmental studies.
Concerned Parent (Jacinta) – posh lady who asks “How Safe Are Our Schools?”
The Groundsman (Jo) – who caught the snake and stored it in a box with the lid ajar.

I think it will be interesting to see if our stories all correlate on the day because we haven’t had much practise and may not be straight on all the details… I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m especially looking forward to my first acting gig in ages. I can’t wait to see what questions the students ask and which directions they decide to go with their stories!

Kathryn and I had Jo all to ourselves for this lesson due to a mysterious public holiday virus outbreak!  Kathryn filled us in on all her current experience which made me feel like a bit of a dud because I haven’t done any acting in years.  This lead into a discussion about the pros and cons of musical theatre (Kathryn vs us)! 

Jo explained previous lessons that have been designed by her students (the lighthouse keeper conundrum/alien scenario/creek development proposal).  They all sounded really original and fun (I hope we can match the standard that has been set).  I was especially impressed with the detail that went into researching and making the props for the creek development proposal.  It reaffirmed how exciting it can be to use authentic props for stimulus in these types of exercises.  I suspect that the better the stimulus, the better the quality of learning will be.  I know this was the case when Jo held the immigration workshop last year because I took a lot from that experience.  I really got to “feel” what it might have been like to live back in the 1800’s and the pressures associated with making such a huge decision.  The amount of detail that was discovered by myself and others during that workshop was amazing and aptly demonstrated the true potential of co-learning.  I certainly think it is true that rich tasks lead to metacognition. 

The first reading for this week (Morgan & Saxton 1987) suggested some interesting activities but I know as a kinaesthetic learner I would have benefited further from actually running through these in class.  If I don’t “see” or “do” activities like the ones mentioned I often find it hard to imagine how they will work.  It seems to me that it would be difficult to begin my “Dramathinking” without first attempting the “thematic networking” to brainstorm ideas and possible directions, so I am going to begin with this exercise. 

My source/theme is some lyrics in the song Our Velocity by

Maximo
Park. 

I’ve got no one to call
In the middle of the night anymore

I’m just alone
With my thoughts 

I think this could begin an exploration of loneliness and aloneness with Year 9-10’s and would be integrated with health and civics and citizenship.  I’m thinking this may lead onto an examination of depression (and drug links) which often becomes an issue in teenage years (a boy at our school committed suicide).  I’m going to draw this exercise by hand because it will take so much longer to work out how to do it on the computer! 

(10 mins later) I’ve never been particularly good at brainstorming.  I only came up with four starting arms of thought (and connected ideas).  I think I need to go away and come back to it later because I am a bit stuck now.  As the reading suggests, it would be helpful for the teacher to brainstorm ideas from the class as then she will be made aware of their areas of interest in the topic.  I definitely need some input here so I think I will take my beginning to show Jo in class next week and check that I’m on the right track. 

LONELINESS

Aloneness, dependance on  other people, marriage/partnership (mating for life?), happily ever after (questioning fairytales)

Sadness (emotions)

Finding direction

Monks/nuns, devotion to a higher cause, the meaning of life? (Monty Python!)

Depression/mental health, drugs, addictions

Suicide, how this affects others (the Virgin Suicides novel and film).

* This doesn’t really translate but I hope you get the picture. 

 

The A-Z of drama conventions and techniques (Neelands 1998) is a fabulous resource that I’m sure I will return to again and again. I found this second reading much easier to digest because the activities were concisely explained (plus I have done many of them at some stage and so it served as a reminder of techniques I could employ as a teacher).  I could apply just about all of the listed techniques but the ones I found most interesting were “unfinished materials”, “private property” and “mantle of the expert”.  I haven’t seen any of these done before, but I think they hold a lot of potential for learning through the drama. 

With a class (after the brainstorming session), I would like to try “teacher in role” (possibly mother talking about her child’s depression).  Then I would use the “private property” activity to develop the main character of the child (a school bag with diary, cigarettes, letter, clothes, etc).  Then next I would employ a circular drama to see what ideas students come up with about how the main character acts in different situations.  These scenes could be analysed and a central story could be constructed as a group.  Then I would ask the students to go away and research different themes that have emerged (possibly depression, drugs, suicide etc) and ask them to present their group findings as “mantle of the expert”.  After this the “gestus” exercise could focus on what is loneliness/aloneness?  Finally, I would like to finish with a “documentary” or “come on down” exercise to thread the entire story together.  This unit could run for at least four lessons.

In terms of Multiple Intelligences I’m a bit of an all rounder really (I had a small range in scores: 9, 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 5). This probably gives me an advantage as a teacher because I can relate to all intelligences and thus I am conscious of the importance of devising learning experiences which cater for different learning styles. I would have guessed that my highest score would be for word smart as I have always enjoyed reading and writing and have therefore had an advantage in the traditional school setting. However, I am also aware that I learn by doing and seeing, and am therefore quite self and body smart also. My spatial awareness is not very finely tuned, so I’m not surprised that I scored lowest in this department. I think it is important that all teachers are aware of their strengths and weaknesses (so to speak) so that if they strongly favour or disfavour a particular intelligence they are consciously aware how this may influence their teaching style and strategies. It would be helpful to set up some type of checklist to confirm that you are catering equally for all intelligences.

Kathryn (http://tubs80@vineblogs.net) made the point that even though schools may be taking the MI theory into consideration; universities aren’t quite up to scratch yet. In this course we have been encouraged on a few occasions to present assignments in different formats (films, performances, etc) but there has always been a large written component involved as well. The real world situation for which we have to prepare our students is that society still revolves around written texts. Even though the world is becoming an increasingly multi-modal place, to be literate (in the traditional sense) is still highly important.

I am also a middle-brainer and I’m wondering if this is why I have always been an all-rounder who has never excelled at one thing in particular? I’m fascinated by these types of study into neurochemistry and hope to learn more about this area. I think it explains much more about a person and the way they think and act than, say, star signs which have never interested me.

I have never been overly interested in science, so when the explanation of matter was given in class I was left mumbling, “Huh?” However, when we acted out the different states of matter I could easily understand and remember this explanation. I think the main reason why I actually enjoyed our science maths/class last year was because we were encouraged to present ideas in schools via various teaching strategies and this aided not only my students, but also my own construction of knowledge. I don’t think I utilised drama enough in my science teaching sequences last year, but now I am learning new ways to do this, which is very exciting.

The reading (Campbell, Campbell & Dickson 1996) suggested lots of different ways to involve drama, movement and dance to enhance interdisciplinary learning. I also liked reading about the different suggested zones within a primary classroom as I have been wondering how I would like to set up my own room. Most of all I enjoyed reading the example of how using a preferred learning style to initially motivate a student can eventually lead them towards learning in other areas (ie. how Paula learnt to write through dance). I think it is important to help foster positive neurological associations between learning and enjoyment in children and an awareness of MI can help a teacher to do this.

This first class was great! It was so much fun to act out the “Fertifree” drama (it’s been a long time since I’ve done any acting improvisation.) I must say I initially had trouble staying in character and kept giggling, but this was mostly because I was enjoying myself so much! I think I just need a little more practice to fully get back into the swing of things. It was also good to compare notes with the reading and to see how the same scenario was played out by a different group. The main fault with our drama was that nobody wanted to take on the “boss” role. It was difficult because everyone put in their two cents worth but when we disagreed about the solution there was no one to make a final decision. In a real life situation, this would not be the case – ultimately someone would call the shots - and therefore our drama was not realistic (perhaps it doesn’t need to be though?). Other than this though, I personally found the experience very worthwhile. It was interesting to see the different characters and ideas that people invented – things that I would never have dreamt up on my own! Even though I don’t feel like we achieved a proper solution to the problem (quite a few of us opted for the unrealistic “magic fix” of deciding to ignore the pollution), this task helped me to see the potential benefits of the collaborative problem-solving process.

In the reading for this week, the main reason why Chris’ session was more successful than Derek’s seems to be because Chris is able to keep her students on task by taking on a main guiding role within the drama. She also effectively directs the course of the drama by injecting different props and focussing the children with thought-provoking questions. Although Derek had also created an interesting scenario, he hadn’t adequately catered for the possibility of the children diverging away from the real problem at hand. If he had some back-up props or re-focussing questions ready, he may have been able to more successfully influence the course of the drama, without taking the control away from the students. Obviously different groups work in different ways also, and perhaps Derek’s students were less practised at learning through drama, or did not have enough prior knowledge about the issues at hand. Chris’ students, on the other hand, had been studying conservation for a number of weeks before the scenario was introduced, and this prior learning obviously aided their problem solving within the drama.

The areas of learning covered in the drama include:

Knowledge-based
- How a factory may operate (the types of jobs and machines that may be found there) (incidental)
- That chemicals can potentially have good and bad effects on the environment (focus)
- That this may affect different people in different ways (focus)

Skills-based
- Practise at miming, staying in character, improvising (and other associated acting skills) (focus)
- Listening skills (incidental)
- Working as a team (focus)

Cognitive development
- The ability to examine all sides of a story (focus)
- Problem-solving (focus)
- Decision making (focus)
- Metacognition (incidental)

(Obviously I didn’t plan this learning experience so it is difficult for me to say exactly which ones were a focus for the teacher and which ones were incidental – I can only guess…)

It’s quite scary but until now I don’t think I have really realised the deeper educational value inherent in imaginative play and how valuable it can be as a teaching strategy (especially when it is structured and well developed like the “Fertifree” exercise we did in class). To tell you the truth, after years of nannying I have become a little bored of playing tea parties/doctors and nurses, and have neglected to consider the important lessons (be it social, cultural, skills-based, or otherwise) that children are learning in socio-dramatic play. More importantly I am now starting to consider what information I can introduce when playing these games so that the children involved have a more fully rounded learning experience. The possibilities are endless! From the discussions in class, it is obvious I’m not the only one who has failed to see the full potential of imaginative play. We’re all aware of the games we played as children, but I don’t think we’ve all analysed “why” we needed to play them or “what” we were learning through the experience. The games that featured highly in my repertoire were post office, shops, perfume factories, soldiers, and ones involving special powers (such as talking to animals). I remember thoroughly enjoying making realistic props (stamps, envelopes, etc) and setting up a life-like stage, but most of all, I think the benefit to me was the social/cultural learning that occurs when taking part in this type of play. Growing up on a farm I didn’t have a lot of interaction with other people before kindergarten, so I think these types of games helped me to try to understand how people relate to each other in different situations.

The reading raises five main points about successful collaborative learning:
- Improved pupil self-esteem and motivation
- The benefit of working in groups of mixed ability
- The different ways of working regarding action and abstract tasks
- Group problem solving generates higher order learning, and
- The importance of clear instructions and feedback from the teacher (Galton & Williamson 1992).

Personally, I think task description and expectation of outcomes is of vital importance. I remember times when a group I’ve been working in have failed terribly in a task because we were unsure about the exact requirements. I also think for some tasks it is helpful if you have similar learning styles to other people in the group, as you may share common ideas and goals (although in the same way it is often beneficial to work with people of varying abilities and ways of working as this stretches your development in the long term). The skill of listening to others and being able to compromise is also a huge advantage in group work, and this is something that often needs to be practiced and modelled in the classroom. It is important to try to remain objective and to give everyone a fair chance to contribute to the drama. This type of behaviour will generally bring about a better learning experience for everyone involved.

Whoops, I think I may have written too much (sorry)…

Well helloooo! (Finally!)

You may not believe me, but I have been writing my hard copy of my blog each week, I just haven’t been able to work out how to open this account the right way (many issues which I won’t bore you with…) Anyway, it is all good now, so here goes.

PS My close friends call me Ruby but you may know me better as (Sometimes Late For Class) Ruth.

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