Week 3, Drama.

Drama Workshop

This workshop focused on Anthony Browne's picture book, "Voices in the Park". The text was simple and the illustrations supported the text nicely. This book could easily be used in primary classrooms of various ages cross-linking two KLAs (English and Drama). This workshop gave me many teaching tips and ideas.

Activity 1:
The book was read to us. There was focus on playing out different voices to suit the role of the character in the book. This was quite engaging for an adult audience so I felt that the use of different voices would definitely engage a classroom of students.
Two characters were drawn on the whiteboard and we were asked to write characteristics on post-notes then go up towards the board and stick in in the character's silhouette. We read through these characteristics together. For a primary classroom, this is a good activity that will ensure the students truly understand what the characters are like and this will be the solid foundation by which students will use to play the roles in the following activities.

Activity 2:
Freeze-frame. We split off into groups and with one person as the narrator, we moved into three different freeze-frames as the narrator delivered the story in one character's perspective. The part of the story did not actually have to be from a page in the book. This type of flexible activity is good in the primary classroom as it encourages imaginative thinking.

Activity 3:
Free role-play. In pairs, we had to play the role of either Smudge, who had to convince her new friend to play and the other person had to play the role of Charlie, Smudge's new friend who had to refuse or 'give in'. This role play was not scripted and allowed us to think for ourselves and deliver opinion.

Activity 4:
Conscience alley is an excellent activity in the classroom but often, it is difficult for the whole class to participate as a long line of thirty students wanting to speak out their idea will be time consuming and towards the end, many children will have overlapping thoughts. A new strategy was introduced to us where pairs would share their idea and speak out their best one. This activity supports classroom inclusivity and encourages collaborative thinking.

Activity 5:
Writing in role. We were then given time to write in the perspective of a 5th person that does not actually exist in the text of the storybook. This allows students to use their imagination and be creative.