Teaching English �with Drama Conventions

By Silvia Yu

7^th October 2017

Rationale

• Students are frustrated with limited ideas in writing. It may because of the limited exposure to the creative world of reading or real life experience.
• Drama can be considered a “linking”, “multi-modal” pedagogy, connecting words with body and senses, making learning holistic. Freeing the students’ body for English learning to compensate for their linguistic deficiencies and to stretch their imagination out of their linguistic boundaries.

Creative Learning Spiral

(Resnick, M. 2007)

• Developing creative thinking skills with 5 core elements

Flow of the Lessons

• Topic : Ian’s Birthday Surprise (Primary 5 Writing Lessons)
• Learning Outcomes : 1) To prosper creativity of students.

2) To provide support for students to write a story based on pictures with an open-ended ending

• Reading input - 2 stories, ‘Olivia’, ‘Birthday Surprise for Mum’
• Session 1 : Role on the wall for character building / Still images for given circumstances
• Session 2 : Story Whoosh / Story map
• Session 3 : Teacher-In-Role for extension of data base / Improvisation
• Writing 1st Draft

Reflection - Achievements

• Characterisation - Contribute to improvisation
• Ownership - Motivation
• Playfulness - High engagement
• Teamwork - Sparkles for more fruitful ideas
• Trust - More room for creativity
• Drama for English Language Learning - Enhance learning by doing, apply the daily language in the authentic context

You may download the ppt for reference!

Thank you!

References

• Bowell, P., & Heap, B. S. (2001). Planning process drama: Enriching teaching and learning. Routledge: London
• Resnick, M. (2007). All I really need to know (about creative thinking) I learned (by studying how children learn) in kindergarten. MIT Media Lab: Cambridge