Volume 1 Number 33


Hi Folks,

Kim's Drama Blog  

Hi all,  I hope the week has been a good one for you.  Its been a very challenging one for me.   Ever have those weeks when you wonder "why the hell am I doing this?"... I guess everyone does at some stage.   On a positive note I just completed one of my study units towards my M.Ed and was awarded the best grade I've ever received, timely as I am applying to change into a Thesis program...  opportunities are apparently quite limited and competition is high... let's hope my efforts get me over the line.

This has been a bizarre week... starting on Monday with students being decidedly unpleasant... one decided to lean against my car with a bag over her shoulder - the resultant scratches will cost about $300 to respray...  needless to say the little dear denies it was her despite the fact I watched her for a full two minutes until I could get close enough to ask her to get off.  That was just the beginning of a whole series of strange and unpleasant events during the week... I can't be too specific as there might be some embarrassment to the school... let's just say that I found myself trying to explain to some students that security guards and police at school performances is not a global phenomenon, that lewd and derisive comments being yelled at student performers by audience members doesn't happen at all schools, and that weapons being produced to solve teenage love triangles is a fairly bizarre circumstance in anyone's book.

Well, that's probably already enough to get me in strife... no names... no dates, no specifics.. let's hope its OK.  

I also came to realise this week just how much I miss having pre-service teachers working with me.  This year especially I've been blessed with some very promising young teachers and by an unfortunate happenstance the teacher due to work with me this term is unable to do so.   It is a reminder of just how isolated a Drama teacher can be in some environments - especially when looking to discuss education in terms of Drama.  On that note, I've included details below (Professional News) from Nicole Loke about an opportunity with DramaWest to get together with other Drama teachers on Nov 14.

LESSONS/ACTIVITIES

I've a few little activities to share this week.  Not complete lessons in any sense but they are useful inclusions in introductory classes, or classes that need to refocus on their group dynamics.  I can't claim that all of these are entirely original and I'm sure I've poached some of these ideas from various workshops sessions and conferences that I've attended... feel free to claim ownership of any concept you think is your original work.  I'd also like to recommend Gill Chesney-Green's lesson called "Sharon's Dilemma" on shoplifting (see Lessons section), I've been using it as the basis of some work with my special ed classes and it has proved to be quite successful.   Obviously I have had to modify the work to suit the limitations of the group I'm working with, but with a focussed mainstream group it is likely to be a fruitful lesson.

As the end of the year draws ever closer I have recently organised some assessment activities to supplement the evidence of student achievement.  I'd like to share one that seems to be working quite well.

This has been set for Year 9 students.

After a series of activities in basing small group devised improvisations, and a year of learning playbuilding and issue-based forms students have been assigned a task in small groups.  With 3-5 students in each group they are required to read a couple of paragraphs from an article entitled The Art of Effortless Living Newsletter
(March 2003) By Ingrid Bacci, Ph.D. -

I was nine years old when my parents divorced and my father remarried. His second wife, my stepmother, had a daughter from her previous marriage. Lara, as my stepsister was called, was seven years old. I slept in the same room with Lara when I visited my father. Every time that I slept over, Lara wanted her mother to sit outside the bedroom door until she fell asleep. She complained that she was afraid of the dark, lonely and anxious. Every night, for months, my stepmother sat outside her daughter’s bedroom, sometimes for hours, until Lara fell asleep. As my stepmother told me years later, she was concerned for her daughter, who was upset and confused on account of her mother’s recent divorce and remarriage. Looking back, I realize my stepmother was more than concerned. She felt guilty. And for years, she gave her daughter special treatment, “understanding” her fears, her needs, listening to her complaints, and gently reassuring her.

Today, my stepmother is still being “kind”, but now it costs her a lot more. Her daughter never outgrew the habit of being supported, and now that her own husband has left her, she expects and even demands her mother’s support, financial as well as emotional. My stepmother’s kindness of years ago unfortunately encouraged my stepsister not to grow up and become responsible for herself. By being “supportive” my stepmother enabled her daughter to avoid confronting and transcending her fears and needs.

They are required to devise a short dramatic presentation based on the themes and issues they can identify in the piece.  Additionally they are to draw on their knowledge of various theatrical devices to choose appropriate elements to include in their performed work.  Each group is also required to document their process and maintain a collective weekly journal reflecting upon and evaluating their work over the next few weeks.

This has proved so far to be a very engaging task - the students concerned are not always the most focussed of groups but recently this type of work seems to have captured their attention.

Students must translate the themes and issues into another context and create a 3-5 minute performance.   In the first session students discussed the nature of personal responsibility, learned helplessness (although I had to provide that term for them), mother-daughter relationships, step relationships between parents and siblings, jealousy, guilt, and even "tough love"...  I am excited to watch the work develop over the next couple of lessons and to see the final product each group creates.

The work done recently with this group seems to be paying off and they are actually engaging with the issues at more than arms length, they actually seem to be examining their own values base...  and thinking about their behaviours.  

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

A brief explanation of the concept of "sociodrama" - although it is only one conception... there are others including Jacob Moreno's and probably much of Boal's work could be framed as such.  This is part of the Arts on the Move site and has many more general resources to discover.

The GROUP of Studies and Researches in Educational Sociodrama are coordinated by Prof. Dr. Antonio from Santos Andrade, professor at the Department of Psychology and Education of FFCLRP/USP and composed by a Team of Researchers of the areas of Psychology and Education.

PROFESSIONAL NEWS

Just to let you know that Juliana Saxton and Carole  Miller have
extended the final date for proposals for the IDEA 2004 Congress to
October 20th. This is partly to accommodate us, given the date of our
DA conference. This will enable us to promote the IDEA 2004 Congress
in Brisbane and to talk amongst ourselves about  ideas for  papers
and workshops  for Ottowa!

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Friedman's Fables (with Booklet)
by Edwin H. Friedman

Also available as an audio book.

Teaching by parable has an old and honourable tradition. Ed Friedman, beloved rabbi and noted family therapist, is a great modern master of the art. Friedman's Fables is a delight, of course. These stories are funny, but they are also profound, provocative, even shocking, as they present crucial truths of systemic thinking, vital lessons of family therapy and family life, and a slyly modern, hard-nosed re-evaluation of the wisdom of the ages. Friedman is using these stories to punctuate his lessons, lessons to therapists and to anyone else who expects to deal with people, lessons about human relationships, human suffering, and human integrity.

 

 

Creative Training: Sociodrama and Team-Building
by Ron Wiener

Sociodrama: Who's in Your Shoes?
by Patricia Sternberg, Antonina Garcia 

 

 

 

 

Communication Magic
by L. Michael Hall

L. Michael Hall has revised and substantially expanded his classic, The Secrets of Magic. On the face of it this book is about how to communicate more effectively but it is much more than that. In its explanation and development of the Meta-model, which lies at the heart of communication excellence in NLP, Dr Hall demonstrates how your life can be dramatically enriched by having complete control in how you relate and interpret what you are communicating to others.In a clear and logical manner the author examines: how language affects the mind-body system; how language can perform magic-like feats in the nervous and immune systems, and how the magic can bless, empower and enable us to take charge of running our own brains.

 

 

Beginning Drama 4-11
by Joe Winston, Miles Tandy

Updated and revised in the light of the National Literacy Strategy and the new 2000 curriculum, this text provides an introduction for early years and primary school teachers who are new to drama and for student teachers who wish to specialize in the teaching of drama.

It offers step-by-step guidance to help teachers and children grow in confidence in their use of drama and shows clearly how drama can contribute to work in English, to learning across the curriculum and to the broader cultural life of the school.

 

 

Teaching Through Drama: Creative Approaches
by Patrice Baldwin, Kate Fleming, Patricia Baldwin 

Based on tried-and-tested units of work, this book shows teachers and student teachers how they can engage children's learning through drama.

 

 

 

eBOOKS - Can be downloaded immediately - A full listing of available eBooks.

 

Kim Flintoff

Copyright © September, 2004