Lesson Planning



Lesson Planning

Creative Dramatics

Teaching Method

Every day’s lesson plan

Creative Dramatics used with Shakespeare is the heart of Shakespeare in the Classroom. The artist/leader is in a high-risk situation because no one can know what the students will or will not do when not desk-bound. No one can know what their response to and opinion of activities and story might be. No matter how the session looks, the leader

▪ quickly establishes a safe environment,

▪ activities are designed so as no one sticks out,

▪ no one refrains from participation,

▪ no one fails, and, in fact,

▪ all are brilliant.

This assured brilliance is not nor never due to the artist/leader, but to the fact that everyone is creative…brilliantly creative.

Creative Dramatics is a teaching method that can be used with any curriculum where a story is involved. In and of itself a group, a leader, and an empty space are all that is needed. Exercises or activities begin the session. These are unusual and surprise the individuals. One such activity serves as a segue into a story told in the oral tradition. Immediately, the students are asked to tell it back – students chosen by leader to speak and only allowed to give a small part of the sequence of events. The leader moving the group quickly through the re-telling, casts the story and puts the students on their feet with the only instruction that nothing real can be used.

The story is played – Playmaking, the participants creating everything out of nothing. The students are called back to the leader and a critique begins. The leader asks, “What did you like?” Feedback is followed by “What didn’t you like? What would you change or add?” The story is re-cast, acted-out, critiqued – three to four subsequent playthroughs. New characters and alternative endings are often created.

Skills of listening and collaboration; growth in confidence and language are evident, and peer evaluation develops the individual’s critical eye, learning to see the positive first, recognizing the seeming-negative, and problem-solving to new ideas that evolve the Playmaking to a better story each time.

It is an easy step to move to great and complex literature. Anything created can move to a written form.

This artist specializes in taking this further into many educational subjects, creating and writing curricula and an extensive creation of creative-based activities and resources for the professional classroom teacher.

Alignment with Alabama Course of Study: English Language Arts

Alabama Course of Study and CCSS:

“…raise expectations of student learning in several respects, including requiring more attention to reading and comprehending informational text and requiring an increased complexity in literary texts studied.”

“The standards do not define the nature of advanced work for students who meet the standards prior to the end of high school. For those students, advanced work in such areas as literature, composition, language, and journalism should be available to provide the next logical step from the college- and career-readiness foundation established here.

INTRODUCTION warm up activities (one to three)

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

To teach this lesson you will need:

open space – move desks and chairs – it is recommended to remain in your classroom or use an alternative space that is already open and/or carpeted

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

In this lesson, students will have opportunities to:

▪ participate in a physical activity within the normal sedentary classroom experience

▪ develop kinesthetic modes

▪ learn strategies to manage performance anxiety

▪ develop vocal power and be able to apply good voice and speech to language

▪ enhance and improve communication skills for personal communication and for presentation

▪ develop in personal evaluation

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTIONS

▪ Storytelling

▪ Re-telling by students

▪ Cast the characters and Playmaking

▪ Critique with immediate new casting

▪ Playmaking (method may be replayed a few more times with different casting)

CLOSING

▪ A “cooling down” activity

▪ Opinions of moral of story

▪ A final, short activity to return to seated or sitting up physical position

▪ Return attention and focus to the classroom teacher

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