Drama Practicum Experiences

PRACTICUM EXPERIENCES

Reader’s Theater 

Literacy

            Throughout my three practicums, I unfortunately did not get a chance to teach drama. However, looking back at my experiences, I recognize that I have used a couple of drama strategies to make my lessons more engaging. 

            I was teaching my Grade 8 class to write Science Fiction stories. Before students began writing their own stories, I had them read a couple of short Science Fiction stories to get an idea of necessary components that need to be included (i.e., setting, characters, rising action, climax, conflict, resolution). To make it more interesting, I had them do Reader’s Theater.

 In Reader’s Theater, the teacher would make a couple of copies of the story or act/play.

• Then, students would choose roles or characters from the story. They would read the story ‘dramatically’ from their seats without acting it out. 
• No memorization, costumes or special lighting is needed. 
• One of the stories I had students read was “The Legend of Lightning Larry”, the cowboy with a huge smile, a gun that shoots bolts of light, and a hankering for lemonade takes on Evil-Eye McNeevil’s outlaw gang. My students really enjoyed using this drama strategy to read literary works.    

An extension to this could have been to have the students act out their own Science Fiction stories. They could be asked to act out beginning, middle, and the end of their story including the main parts of the plot (setting, rising action, conflict, climax, resolution). Students could work in small groups of 4, complete a graphic organizer summarizing the main parts of the plot for each student’s story and then they would decide how to preform it. The teacher can have students focus on specific drama strategies (i.e., tableaux, voices in the head, rolling theatre, voice over narration, story board making, etc.). Students could also focus on a specific element of drama throughout their performance (e.g., role/character, relationship, time and place, tension, focus and emphasis, etc.). 

Mock Debate 

Literacy/Drama/Geography

Another drama strategy I utilized in one of my practicums was Literature-based Mock Debate. I was teaching a cross-curricular Geography/Literacy unit on Kenya. We read various articles on how tourism affects the environment and the people living in Africa. I had students choose a side (tourism should be banned in different parts of Africa or tourism should not be banned). Student worked in groups of 4. Each group took on a role that represents a specific group of people (e.g. Village Elders, Park Rangers, Hotel Workers, Young Maasai, Shopkeepers, Ecolodge Owners, Tourists). Each student within a group was require to write a speech that they would use during the debate to help them defend their position. Students were given time to review the articles we read and research additional information to help them make their case. During the mock trial, my students were very engaged and got into their character roles. 

I believe this is a great activity to use in Drama classes when teaching the element of drama “role/character”. It allows students to adapt various roles, consider both “the inner and outer life in developing a character”, and sustain familiar and unfamiliar roles. After the debate, I had the students use the information they acquired to write a persuasive letter on this topic (tourism should/should not be banned in Africa). Students were allowed to change their initial position if they believed the opposing side had made better arguments during the debate. 

  

*Useful Resources for Teaching Dance and Drama:

Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators (CODE) is a great resource for both Dance and Drama programs. It has hundreds of lesson plans available, including complete unit plans. The website also provides information on relevant (drama/dance) workshops, conferences, articles and provides direct links to other online resources.

TeAch-nology is a great resource for teaching Drama and Dance. It has a variety of lesson plans. The vision of this source is to provide teachers with lessons plans that incorporate technology. 


Drama Resource is a website that offers a variety of drama games for breaking the ice, physical warm-ups, group dynamics, etc. It offers strategies for integrating drama into other curriculums and it has great lesson plans. The website also defines various drama techniques in simple terms and gives examples of how they can be used to enhance performance skills such as character development and storytelling.  

Pulse provides a comprehensive unit for teaching Dance at the elementary level. 

Arts Online is a resource that provides free access to unit plans, lesson plans, website links and other teaching materials for Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts.