SPEAKING and LISTENING Through Drama

This paper refers to part 1 in the E-Book “SPEAKING AND LISTENING THROUGH Drama 7-11” Francis Prandiville and Nigel Toye 

and foreword by Gavin Bolton 

How to Begin with Teacher in Role

1. Why we use teacher in role – pupils listen to teachers in role
2. The pupil’s role will be dominated by listening and this will be interlaced with questioning, responding and interpreting the meaning and sense of the fiction. The teacher’s role will be to communicate the text in a lively and interesting manner, holding their attention and engaging their imagination.
3. Operating the two worlds of drama, inside and outside the fiction
4. Moving in and out of role – managing the drama and reflecting on it
5. Building the teacher role with the support of the class
6. What, when and how to give information for maximum influence and effect
7. How to dialogue with the class – teachers learning to listen well
8. How we work with the class as collaborators
9. Choosing the role – the low status roles offer more learning possibilities
10. Handling drama – structuring for control – imposing shape and constraint

How to Begin Planning Drama

1. The frame of a drama : In planning a drama we have to write the main frame, the scenario, in a way that indicates the relationship of the component parts and how the interactions provide tension and potential. The way the elements link together to provide viewpoint for the class
2. How did the drama evolve? : Look at the key components of the frame here, a frame that could be outlined.
3. The ingredients of planning : is a more detailed, careful and thorough process to create a quality meal from scratch with good ingredients.
4. Learning objectives : Learning is often focused through a key problem or issue
5. Strong material : We need a stimulus to learning, to focus the exploration. This my be a piece of writing with key learning points, that are usually unresolved by the writer of the original material.
6. Roles for the pupils : The class need to be framed up as a community, where the class work together supporting each other and working for the same aims. This builds their ability to communicate with and understand each other, the best basis for all learning.
7. Tension points : risks – theatre moments
8. Building context and belief-building
9. Challenges and decision-making

How  to Generate Quality Speaking and Listening

1. The importance of speaking and listening in the teaching/learning process
2. How to dialogue with a class so that it is collective, reciprocal, supportive, cumulative, purposeful.
3. The teacher intervening as teacher, but also as other roles within the drama
4. How drama produces ilistening of high quality
5. Do the Speaking and Listening levels in the National Curriculum do justice to the levels of talk pupils can achieve here?

How to Use Drama for Inclusion and Citizenship

1. Drama is an inclusive way of working because it is structured on the principle of respect for persons.
2. It makes demands upon the teacher to adopt a teaching and learning style that generates positive social health in the group
3. The teacher models an attitude that protects pupils from humiliation and derision
4. Dramas themselves may examine the concept of the outsider and the inclusive solutions to problems
5. Drama protects pupils through the roles they are given, the roles teachers take and its analogous way of working
6. Drama is a method of delivering the Citizenship curriculum that embodies an inclusive approach

How  to Generate Empathy in a Drama

1. Drama is often promoted as a teaching and learning methodology that generates empathy in pupils, yet there is little debate about exactly what is meant by the idea. The word empathy is sprinkled liberally throughout education documentation and literature. Empathy is often misconstrued
2. The components of empathy

• Component One – the cognitive component
• Component Two – the affective component

3. How to structure drama for empathetic response

• Building the cognitive component: fictional context, that is, standing outside the workhouse and using their drama eyes in describing it
• Framing the affective component

4. Planning the role of the teacher and of the pupils for generating empathy

How  to Link History and Drama

1. There are tensions between history and drama but they can be resolved by adopting a conceptual framework that is clear about the learning intentions
2. Research is a key element in planning roles from history
3. Using a variety of sources helps to support the validity of the work
4. It is important to be clear about what you mean when you use the word empathy in relation to drama and history teaching
5. Using signifiers, not full costume, when taking on a role allows you to come in and out of role
6. Reference to modern day parallels allows you to make the connections between then and now

How  to Begin Using Assessment of Speaking and Listening (and Other English Skills) through Drama

1. The nature of assessment of Speaking and Listening
2. Taking account of the context and the interactions 
3. The purpose of the assessment 
4. Formative assessment – feeding back to the pupils
5. Recording and analysing what we see
6. Talk as the basis for writing