booklet children drama
DESCRIPTION
Booklet Children DramaTRANSCRIPT
Drama Techniques
Prepared by Mydhili Muniandy, Michelle Elaine, Png Xiao Yen, Masliza David, Nor Syamimi binti Ali, Nurfazilah binti Nursyam, Frecylla May Gidor, Mohamad Rozainizam Usnie, and Mohd Zyarfan Hakim Mohd Rasid
Content of The Booklet a) Types of Drama Activities and Techniques
b) How and When Drama Activities Can Be Used In the KBSR
and KSSR Classrooms
c) The Advantages of Using Drama to Develop Multiple
Intelligence, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Language
d) Collection of Suggested Activities a Teacher Can Use In
His/Her Classroom
Basom, J. (2005). The Benefits of Drama Education. Retrieved
from http://www.dramaed.net/benefits.pdf
Boudreault, C. (2010). The Benefits of Using Drama in the ESL/
EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal. 16(1). Retrieved
from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Boudreault-Drama.html
Buchanan, M. (n.d). Why Teach Drama? A Defense of the Craft.
Retrived from http://www.childdrama.com/why.html
Dougill, J. (1987). Drama Activities for Language Learning.
London: Macmillan.
Maley, A., & Duff, A.( 2005). Drama Techniques: A resource book
of communication activities for language teachers (3rd
ed.).New York: Cambridge University Press.
Vani Chauhan. (2004). Drama Techniques for Teaching English.
The Internet TESL Journal. 10(10). Retrieved from http://
iteslj.org/Techniques/Chauhan-Drama.html
Credits to
Images are credited to : www.volunteerscotland.org.uk www.aoehome.com dramagames.wordpress.comTeachingtheatricks.blogspot.com www.emotional-intelligence-education.com www.dramaforkids.net
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The team would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to all those who help us to complete this
booklet. A special thanks to our lecturer, Mdm Angelia Lee Sor Geek, whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement, helped us to coordinate our project
especially in writing this booklet.We would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial role of the team members,
Mydhili Muniandy, Michelle Elaine, Png Xiao Yen, Masliza David, Nor Syamimi binti Ali, Nurfazilah binti Nursyam, Frecylla May Gidor, Mohd Zyarfan Hakim Mohd Rasid and Mohamad Rozainizam Usnie, who
gave all the commitment and hard works to complete this booklet.
Creating a Make-Believe Space
Whether it's a big empty box, a tent, or a tree house, designated "pretend"
spaces encourage kids to create make-believe worlds. In these magical
spaces, children feel free to be anyone—to leave the everyday world behind
and let imagination soar.
Performing for an Audience
Does your child love performing in front of the family? Encourage it!
Acting out skits, singing, playing an instrument, dancing, performing a
comedy routine—all these activities help kids develop talent and self-
esteem. There are many benefits to "putting on a show"—writing a script
requires creativity, working with a "troupe" calls on cooperative skills, and
facing an audience builds public speaking skills. And the sweet sound of
applause that follows a successful production is a terrific confidence-
builder. What child doesn't benefit from that?
ACTIVITY 1: ‘Pairs on Chairs’ (Mime)
This is a pair activity. Each pair needs to improvise a scene where
one person would be sitting in a chair and the other offering them a service
(hairdresser and dentist). While portraying the scene, they are not allowed
to speak to each other. They may pretend to speak without sound. The
teacher may set the time limit for each pair to perform. When the time
ends, the teacher could ask the class to describe the situation being
portrayed by the pairs. This activity could be adapted for larger number of
pupils where the teacher could design a scene that involves many
characters (scene in a moving bus or in a market)
This activity is suitable for pupils who do not have the confidence
to speaking the language. As they act and perform in front of their
classmates without speaking, they will slowly gain the confidence to stand
in front of an audience. Once they are comfortable, the teacher could
move to the next stage when she could provide structure for the pupils to
speak in front of an audience. This activity also creates room for discussion
which gives the opportunity to pupils to speak out their thoughts by
guessing what the scene is about. Pupils could use their imagination and
creativity to predict what the situation is about. The teacher needs to guide
the pupils through the discussion as different pupils might interpret a
situation differently. The teacher should also acknowledge the pupils’ idea.
Playing Dress-Up
In the wink of an eye, most kids can turn a towel into a superhero cape, a
royal robe or a cloak of invisibility. Playing dress up instantly transports
kids into the role of someone else—real or imaginary. Most children love
dressing up in grown-up clothes, and this is terrific. In addition, providing
your child with dress-up quality costumes is a great way to encourage these
role play adventures.
Acting Out Real-Life Situations
What child doesn't enjoy playing school, store, or doctor? One way to learn
about the people in the children’s world is by recreating real-life people,
places and situations. As they play,
they reinforce what they have
learned about appropriate behavior
in different situation. More likely
than not, when kids explore this type
of role play, they're not alone, they
are playing with a friend or two .
And that's even better! Cooperative
role play teaches kids how to negotiate, take turns, work as part of a team,
and play leader. These are all necessary to developing social skills.
Re-enacting Stories
When children re-enact stories, it helps them appreciate other people's
perspectives and feelings. How did Cinderella feel about missing the ball?
Was Harry Potter afraid before he opened the secret door? This
encourages feelings of empathy. In addition, repeating dialogue— whether
written in a book or spoken in a movie—helps kids build language skills
and vocabulary.
Types of Drama Activities and Techniques
Role Play
This is a common technique used in ESL classroom. Role play is short
scenes where learners can practice actual language use. All role plays have
defined roles/ character. Essentially lines are scripted. It is an effective
means for the teacher to introduce oral practice to reinforce the teaching of
certain structures and functions. They are short and manageable for
classroom use.
Play gives children many learning opportunities :
•Acting out and making sense of real-life situations
•Exploring, investigating and experimenting
•Collaborating with others
•Expressing ideas and feelings confidently
•Developing an awareness of themselves and others
If the role-play environment includes research for problem solving,
children are more likely to retain knowledge that they have constructed
themselves, than that simply handed to them in other classroom activities.
ACTIVITY 2: Pantomimes
• Solo pantomimes: each actor goes up and chooses an activity out
of the box. They have 30 seconds to act out that activity. Audience
player guess the activity.• Group: students are grouped into fours. They must create a stage
picture that represents that activity chosen from the box. The
audience guesses the activity.
Examples:
Lifting weights, taking picture, jumping rope, bowling, playing drums,
driving a race car, practicing karate, rowing a boat, tying your shoes
ACTIVITY 3: The Wind Blows
Put chairs in a circle. Choose someone to stand in the middle. That person
will have to say:
“The wind blows for………..• everyone wearing a watch• everyone who supports Arsenal• everyone who can swim a length• everyone who had breakfast today• everyone who likes ice cream
If the statement applies to a pupil, they must get up and change places.
The caller finds a seat. The last pupil left standing becomes the new caller.
No one can change places with the person sitting next to them.
A collection of Suggested Activities
Drama in KSSR and KBSR
Drama + Educational emphases
The Educational Emphases reflect current developments in education. These
emphases are infused and woven into classroom lessons to prepare pupils for
the challenges of the real world. Using drama end drama activities has clear
advantages for language learning. These educational emphases can be
incorporated in the ESL classroom where drama or plays are carried out.
Drama / Plays are a powerful language teaching tool that involves all of the
students interactively all of the class period. Drama can also provide the means
for connecting students’ emotions and cognition as it enables students to take
risks with language and experience the connection between thought and action.
Thinking Skills
Critical and creative thinking skills are incorporated in the learning standards
to enable pupils to solve simple problems, make decisions, and express
themselves creatively in simple language.
Drama for second language learners can provide an opportunity to develop the
imagination and the thinking skills of the students. The students can go beyond
the here and now and even 'walk in the shoes' of another. It provides an
opportunity for independent thinking where students are encouraged to express
their own ideas and contribute to the whole. In a role play, each student is
encourages to develop their own ideas to solve certain situation or making
certain decision.
For example, roles play on the story of “Sleeping Beauty”. Each group has to
act out the situation when the Sleeping Beauty could not wake up even
Dramatizing also allows children to add an emotion or personality
to a text that they have read or listened to. In the classroom, we often
expose children to small bit of language such as individual words, rather
than whole process or ‘chunks’. When speaking, children are not often
asked to combine the different structures they are learning. Drama is an
ideal way to encourage children to guess the meaning of unknown
language in a context which often makes meaning clear.
Apart from that, drama can add a change of pace or mood to the
classroom. Dramatizing is learner-centred so that the teacher can use it to
contrast with the more teacher-
centred parts of the lesson. It is
active and so the teacher can use it
to make a class livelier after quieter
or individual work. More than
often students feel engaged when a
drama takes place in the class
because it is more interesting and
enables them to take part in the
process.
Another advantage of using drama is that dramatizing a text is
very motivating and it’s fun. In addition, the same activity can be done at
different levels at the same time, which means that all the children can do it
successfully. The end product, the performance, is clear and so children
feel safe, and have a goal to work towards. Children are motivated if they
know that one or two groups will be asked to show what they have done, or
if they are being videoed or putting on a public performance.
Using drama and drama activities has clear advantages for
language learning. It encourages children to speak and gives them the
chances to communicate, even with limited language.
Using drama in classrooms brings many benefits to
young children. These advantages can be used to
develop Multiple Intelligence, creativity, critical
thinking and language among young children.
Stories and drama provide opportunities for children to
use different combinations of their Multiple Intelligences.
Through engaging different intelligences in storytelling and drama
activities, individual children have opportunities to build on their personal
strengths in order to consolidate, extend and deepen their learning. This
also provides for variety and helps to broaden and maximise the appeal of
activities and activity cycles within lessons.
Drama also helps to develop creativity among young children.
Events that happen in both stories and drama are playful. Even very young
children quickly learn to become adept at distinguishing between the
conventions and boundaries of stories and drama on the one hand, and
real, everyday life on the other. As well as being fascinating and pleasurable
for children, exploring the differences between stories, drama and real life
develops their potential for creativity and imagination in a similar way to
when they are engaged in play.
Stories and drama provide a wide appeal to children with
predominantly different learning styles, whether visual, auditory,
kinaesthetic, or a combination of these. Through the use of a wide range
of storytelling and drama techniques, children can also be helped to
develop and discover their own individual learning styles and preferences.
When children dramatize they use all the channels, and each child will
draw on the one that suits them best.
The Advantages of Using Drama to Develop Multiple Intelligence, Creativity, Critical Thinking
and Language with a kiss from the prince. It prompts each member to think of the
solving.
Constructivism
Constructivism will enable pupils to build new knowledge and concepts
based on existing knowledge or schema that they have. Drama can give
children an experience of using the language for communication and real-
life purposes and by generating a need to speak.
Most of the students in our classroom are exposed to limited amount of
English, usually individual words and phrases. Therefore, drama is an ideal
way to encourage learners to guess the meaning of unknown language in a
context based on their schemata. Learners will need to use a mixture of
language structures and functions if they want to communicate
successfully.
For example, in the story “The rooster who went to his uncle’s birthday
party”, there are lots of repetitive chants which provide plenty
opportunities for the students to learn the language.
Contextual Learning
Contextual Learning is an approach to learning which connects the
contents being learnt to the pupils’ daily lives, the community around them
and the working world. Learning takes place when a pupil is able to relate
the new knowledge acquired in a meaningful manner in their lives.
Drama can bring the real world into the classroom. Teacher can use topics
from other subjects to integrate into drama. In the classroom, the children
can act out scenes from history. Pupils not only understand the information
better, it also promotes some values to the students.
For example, pupils act out the scene of 13rd May 1963. In fact, elements
of patriotism and citizenship is also emphasised in the drama / play in
order to cultivate a love for the nation and produce patriotic citizens.
Creativity
Creativity is the ability to produce something new in an imaginative and
fun-filled way. Pupils in Year 1 and 2 will display interest, confidence and
self-esteem through performance and producing simple creative works. In
a theatre class where they create and produce their own plays or just
playing a role in a drama, pupils could feel the sense of achievement.
Thus, the arts are a wonderful arena for fostering creativity, an important
skill to have in a rapidly changing world.
In drama, the teacher can foster critical and creative thinking by
encouraging students to look for alternatives and give reasons for their
decisions and encouraging imaginative responses. Therefore, when carry
out a drama / play in the classroom, teacher needs to provide plenty of
opportunity for the students to think, imagine, discuss, speak out and look
for the solutions to a problem.
For example, in the story “The rooster who went to his uncle’s birthday
party”, the teacher can encourage the students to think of other solutions
when the wavy grass unwilling to help the rooster.
❖ Preparation for the real world
The application of knowledge must be able to bridge the theories
learnt to the world outside in order for the pupils to see the use of
those knowledge. One of the challenges in preparing the pupils for
the real world is on language use in society. Deeper exploration of
language will expose the pupils to more language aspects that they
can use later in life. Drama gives away similar opportunity with
extra package in which the pupils are not only expose to those
language aspects but are able to experiment with it by applying
them in drama. Drama provides real-life issues which encourages
pupils to operate in real-life situation. Drama gives the opportunity
for them to involve, face and solve these situations.
This method breaks the traditional view of learning as we have
always been confined to theory alone without proper environment
or situation where we can apply the knowledge. In the classroom,
teacher can use script produced by the pupils in reading, speaking
or listening lessons apart from the
drama itself. Activities with
different range such as individual,
pair or group helps to promote
opportunities of applying multiple
intelligences.
v Knowledge acquisition
Acquisition of knowledge in
drama is vast as it is integrated
with skills. For example, as pupils
begin to write their script in the
classroom, they will have to learn
different purposes of writing, how
to write in different voices and they are able to experiment with
vocabulary, speech patterns, rhythm as well as registers. By
exposing the pupils with different condition or criteria needed for
writing, they will discover other methods or aspects of writing
which is far different than the basic writing that they have learnt in
classroom.
How children's plays and drama can be used in the KBSR and KSSR classroom
v Learning how to learn skills
Learning how to learn skills helps in building
independent learners. This is a way to
inculcate some sense of responsibility
towards their learning. Drama offers chances
of exploring learning skills through different
methods. Drama incorporates information
skills, library skills as well as study skills
among the pupils. These skills are applicable
especially during early stage of drama
preparation in which they have to study
different aspects of drama such as script,
characters, scenes, props and etc. This can
be conducted in classroom as tasks on
preparation the drama.
v Multiple intelligences
Multiple intelligences such as verbal linguistic, visual spatial,
interpersonal and intrapersonal are some of the content of
knowledge offered by drama. It helps in character building as to
develop desirable personalities and able to expand their social
interaction circle properly. Use of language, teamwork and
communication are among the main focus of knowledge
application and these are valuable chances of learning.