The Purpose

This is a drama source book for children in grades 3 through 8. Here are:

• Drama vocabulary words and their definitions, and
• Activities to help students understand basic theatre concepts and to start developing skills for:
  creating stories to improvise (playwriting and screenwriting), improvisation (acting), scene design, critiquing their work and the work of others, storytelling and puppetry. (See the navigation list that directs you to instructions for using the activities with the children.)

This 'dictionary' and set of activities are based on a set of premises that are related to the national theatre standards and child drama/process drama practices. The concepts and activities may act as reinforcement for any drama activity, but are particularly appropriate for drama integrated with general school subjects. Currently we are interested in drama integrated with Social Studies content, but drama is naturally a part of the Language Arts and certainly can be integrated into Science and other subject area lessons. Our intention is that students learn about drama as they learn other subject matter.

The material in the Theatre book is written for the students to read, but you can use the material as a lesson plan and do the presentation yourself.

Drama Teaching Strategies

Teaching about drama and film is like any good teaching, but there are several strategies that are particularly important to the performance areas. They are listed and described here. Examples of practical classroom strategies are included in the lesson plans that follow this introduction. 

• Questioning, who, what, how and why questions to develop original ideas; leading brainstorming sessions; questioning to guide student analysis and interpretation of the drama work
• Side Coaching, quietly responding to student drama behaviors such as warm-ups, imaging activities, improvisations and rehearsals to deepen their concentration and heighten the quality of their work
• Stepping into Role, assuming a character in the students' improvisations to facilitate their involvement
• Assessment, gently guiding student's oral criticism of their creative work and performance. Our suggestion is to use the questions we've supplied in the Criticism section and then to help the students develop their own rubrics. Also see Assessment at http://artswork.asu.edu/arts/teachers/assessment/index.htm
• Classroom Control, assuring that all students are respected and that all feel free to commit to the drama work. This requires that students listen to one another, cooperate and willingly compromise to reach consensus, and develop careful response to the work so that the self esteem of everyone is always reinforced.
• Use of Computers as a teaching tool, our teachers put the computer text on the video screen in their classrooms when they read the text with the students. They use the computer lab when the students work individually to do online research about the play.
  

The Standards Met

 The Drama curriculum focuses on:

• The elements of drama: character, problem and sequence, setting
• Playwriting requirements for finding the voice and motivation for characters, then writing dialogue and stage directions
• Screenwriting requirements for visualization of environment and action
• Acting skills: concentration, interaction with other characters, vocal variety, physical freedom and control, development of consensus in a group
• Technical theatre understanding of environment, set and costume design
• Positively critiquing scripts and performances
• Ultimately, the comprehension of character motivation and story meaning so that the students can construct their own premises about the world around them

The Language Arts curriculum focuses on:

• Developing vocabulary
• Summarizing stories and historical material, drawing defensible conclusions about characters and stories, drawing conclusions about cause and effect, comparing and contrasting characters and stories with real life

• Developing, writing and polishing scripts
• Speaking and listening

The Technology focus is on:

• Reading and typing online
• Searching the web for material related to the Social Studies
• or other subject area content

 Vocabulary

Within each activity lesson, vocabulary words are in red and underlined. Each word is linked to he Theatre Book definition.

My Vocabulary is listed at the beginning of each activity lesson. When the students click on this link they will open a page that has listed the vocabulary words for that general topic. There is bubble for the students to type in words of their choice to include in their own dictionary. There is also space for them to use the word in a sentence. The thought is that the students can type their words online and then print the words for inclusion in a folder for new words. Or the students can print the page and write in their answers. Here is an example.

May the drama activities be fun for your children and deepen their understanding of your classroom work. We’d be pleased if you’d like to share some of your drama experiences and lessons with us. We are always looking for material to add to the Teachers section of Artswork. Let us know lin.wright@asu.edu