Alter Ego

Dear Drama Diary,

I can’t believe it!  This is my very last week of drama class.  I am going to miss it for sure. 

The final strategy that I’m going to tell you about is called alter ego.  For me, this is the kind of activity I imagine when I think of a drama class.  Students work in groups of three—one person plays the role of the character, the second person plays the role of the “angel”, and the third person plays the role of the “devil”.  The angel and devil are responsible for conveying the positive and negative thoughts of the character.    

We used this strategy as an opportunity to explore the Heritage and Identity in Early Societies unit in Social Studies.  We had the chance to look at different aspects of slavery and critically examine the day-to-day activities of people from different backgrounds.  In this case, the character played the role of a slave who had been separated from his wife and child.  The angel was trying to persuade the character to escape from slavery in an attempt to be reunited with his family.  The devil was encouraging the character to stay and carry out his duties as a slave.  The slave was allowed to interject to either agree or disagree with the angel and devil.  What a tough decision! 

 This strategy is so versatile that I think it could be used to connect with every subject.  Don’t you?  It would make a very interesting twist on a debate, either in small groups or as an entire class.  Half the group could represent the “angels” and the other half could represent the “devils”.

Diary, I want to thank you so much for supporting me throughout my drama education journey.  I can’t wait to test out some of these strategies in my own classroom someday!  I promise to let you know how it goes.

Goodnight Drama Diary,

See you soon,

V

Collective Drawing

Dear Drama Diary,

Sorry I haven’t been able to write to you in a while.  School has gotten very busy.  I’ve missed you!

We did another drawing activity in class this week.  It was called collective drawing—we got to work as a team!  In this strategy, small groups (or the whole class) work together to create a picture that incorporates everyone’s thoughts and ideas.  Groups can choose to add words or short sentences to enhance their drawing.  Collective drawing gives students a chance to collaborate with their peers and generate discussion about and reflect upon the dramatic arts.  What a great way to get students talking to one another!

In order to test out this strategy, we used the mentor text Jeffrey and Sloth by Kari-Lynn Winters and Ben Hodson.  We read the story, stopping at key parts.  In small groups, we drew pictures of what we predicted the next section of the book might be like.  As we continued reading, we adapted our original pictures to include the new information.  Jeffrey and Sloth was a great text to use for this activity because it had many plot twists and cute moments.  Plus, who doesn’t love sloths?!  As if that wasn’t enough, we then got to go around the room and share our creations with the other groups.  It was important that we justify our thinking and explain the meaning behind our creations.  This is such a wonderful way to gain insight into what students are thinking and also get them comfortable with oral presentations in an informal setting.  I have some great photos of my classmates’ drawings to show you!

This week’s cross-curricular connection was especially cool because it combined THREE subjects—drama, visual art, and language.  The visual art was evident in the creation of the drawings and the language portion was linked to the reading of the mentor text.  Because our activity dealt with the concept of making predictions, I think it would be an awesome activity to use in a science class.  Students could predict and draw the outcome of an experiment they’re working on.  Once they have completed some of the steps in the procedure, they could adapt their drawings to reflect new predictions.  Instead of including words or short sentences, they could include labels using scientific vocabulary.

I am looking forward to learning a new drama strategy next week! 

Goodnight Drama Diary,

See you soon,

V

Corridor of Voices

Dear Drama Diary,

I am having a very nice day, are you?  I hope so.

Guess what, Diary?  I learned ANOTHER new drama strategy.  This one might be my very favourite of them all.  It’s so neat, you won’t even believe it!  It’s called corridor of voices. 

For this strategy, the class is divided into two groups.  Each group forms a line.  The lines face each other to create a sort of hallway (or corridor).  One person, or a pair of people, will take on the role of a character(s) and walk through the corridor.  As he/she/they walk, the students who are acting as the corridor walls speak.  They voice any thoughts or feelings the character(s) may be having.  Corridor of voices seems like a very beneficial strategy to use if the character is having some kind of internal struggle or moral dilemma. 

In class this week we were talking about bullying.  Bullying is such an awful thing, I wish it wouldn’t happen. 

We used corridor of voices in two ways.  First, someone walked down the corridor acting as a victim of bullying.  The students forming the corridor had to make mean or negative comments and show negative emotions.  I’m really glad I didn’t have to walk down the corridor.  Some of the things people were saying would have really hurt my feelings!  Next, the same person walked down the corridor.  Again, they were acting as a victim of bullying…BUT…this time the students on the outside shouted kind words and showed positive emotions. The idea was to show what kind of negative thoughts can go through your mind when you’re being bullied and how positive thoughts and kind words can make a difference.  What a fabulous message!

I bet you can guess what I’m about to say now… another cross-curricular connection!  Corridor of voices was connected to both the drama curriculum and the health curriculum.  Who would have ever thought to put those two subjects together?  Obviously, from the description of the strategy, corridor of voices could also be used in combination with the language curriculum.  Students can take on the role of a character experiencing an internal struggle or moral dilemma and work through some of the thoughts he/she might be having.  It is an excellent activity for perspective taking.

The reason, Diary, why I said this is my favourite strategy so far is because of a twist my instructor put on it.  Like I mentioned, I was glad that I didn’t have to walk down the corridor.  I found it intimidating to have my peers shouting things at me.  My instructor suggested that maybe the student playing the role of the character could wear a puppet on their hand.  This way, the comments being made are directed at the puppet instead of an actual person.  I just love that idea.  It is an accommodation that allows everyone to feel comfortable, which is so important!

 Well, it’s bedtime for me.  Thanks for listening.

Goodnight Drama Diary,

See you soon,

V

Draw and Pass

Dear Drama Diary,

How have you been?  I’ve had another busy week of classes.  Language and math have been hard, but drama is still awesome!

I learned a new strategy this week.  I can’t wait to tell you all about it.  It’s called draw and pass.  Each person in my class got a blank piece of paper and some pencil crayons.  We were then asked to draw a picture of an inclusive scenario that represented a positive peer relationship.  I drew a group of people holding hands.  I know… not very original, but hey, we only had two minutes.  When the two minutes was up, we passed our drawing to the person on our right.  Then they got to ADD something to make the picture even more representative of a positive peer relationship.  We passed our papers three times.  It was so nice to see my classmates’ drawings.  They were wonderful and definitely promoted an inclusive environment.  But wait… I’m not done yet.  It got even better!  At the end, we put all of the drawings up on the board TOGETHER!  They made a beautiful quilt.  I even have a picture of it to show you. 

The idea of draw and pass is for each student to create an original work depicting their thoughts and/or feelings about a topic.  Then, students make connections with their peers by adding to each other’s drawings.  Finally, the drawings are used in collaboration with one another to construct a larger creation.  Isn’t that an amazing idea?  Everyone LOVED it!

You know what, Diary?  I noticed something.  This strategy also created a cross-curricular connection.  Remember last week when we combined language and drama?  This time it was visual arts and drama.  I didn’t even know you could do that!  I was thinking that it would be really cool to use a similar strategy in other subject areas, specifically language and math.  In language, students could write a sentence on a piece of paper and pass it to their neighbour.  Their neighbour could then add another sentence or more details.  By the time the paper has been passed around, the class could have a great story.  Similarly, in math, students could write a multistep equation on their paper and pass it around to be solved as a team.  Wouldn’t that be neat?

I’m feeling very tired after so many classes.  It was great to talk to you again. 

Goodnight Drama Diary,

See you soon,

V

Tableaux

Dear Drama Diary,

Today was my very first drama class at Brock.  Can you believe it?  I’m taking drama!  I started out feeling very nervous.  You know how I can get.  I’m always scared of new things. But guess what?  It was great! I actually enjoyed myself. 

We learned about this wonderful drama strategy called tableaux.  A tableau is when people make a still picture with their bodies.  You have to be absolutely silent… you can’t even whisper!  It is used to represent a specific scene, theme, or important moment in a narrative.   The idea is to communicate the meaning of a concept using facial expressions, body language, and gestures instead of words. 

 We started by listening to a story.  The title was Mortimer and it was written by Robert Munsch (one of my favourite authors!)  When we reached an important part, we would stop reading and, as a small group, create a tableau to depict our interpretation of that moment in the book.  We had to pick our poses carefully and act absolutely still like statues.  I liked it a lot because we got to use details from the story AND our imaginations.  How cool is that?!

 What I loved most about working with tableaux was the way that they allowed us to combine drama with another subject area—language.  In this case, the story Mortimer acted as the merger between the two subjects, but do you know what I was thinking?  We could use tableaux in other subjects, too!  What about social studies?  We could make tableaux about heritage and identity, roles and responsibilities, early societies, or Canada’s interaction with the global community.

I hope drama continues to be such a terrific class.  I will try to learn as many new strategies as I can. 

Goodnight Drama Diary,

See you soon,

V