Volume 2 Number 14 - Sept 20, 2004
Hi Folks,
Kim's Drama Blog
WOW... it has been a while since I managed to sit down
and apply flesh to keyboard!
As far as I can see I've not sat down to write
anything here since before I headed off to Ottawa for the IDEA World
Congress. The main reason being - I've been bloody busy!
Needless to say Ottawa was a great opportunity to
reacquaint myself with what's really happening in the world of Drama
Education. While life here in Perth is wonderfully uncomplicated and
relatively easy compared to most western cities - it also generates a certain
complacency and in terms of Drama Education we have a tendency to be rather
inward looking and parochial.
"Piss on his face" revisited
One of the most reassuring aspects of the
congress was the recognition that Process Drama, in-role teaching and learning
are still at the core of cutting edge Drama education. This is especially
refreshing as "Idol" mentality seems to rule many Drama
classrooms. Process work seems to be sacrificed for the sake of a somewhat
hollow but glitzy showcase of student performers.
Since I've been working in teacher education I've
had fairly regular feedback from pre-service teacher that some mentor teachers
are telling them that Process Drama, teacher-in-role and other generative,
transformative and student-centred approaches to classroom Drama are passé.
Well Ottawa certainly proves them wrong. I'm glad to see that new talent
shows such as "Storm the Stage" (which I had the pleasure to be a heat
judge recently) are being pitched at the general community and not into our
classrooms.
I believe many Drama (and Dance and Music)
teachers are being unwittingly enlisted and used as a covert marketing arm in
schools - even within the state (public) system. To my mind this minimises
the value of Drama in schools and, at the risk of re-igniting the great
Hornbrook-Bolton stoush of the 80's, the pendulum has swung too far in favour of
product... and let's face some facts - one of the key reasons is that product
focussed work is far less demanding cognitively, and is much safer in terms of
classroom management... but I wonder how valuable it is when isolated from the
important and engaging process work. Drama was not introduced into
the school curriculum (at least in WA) simply to get students strutting around
on stage in plays they can barely comprehend... no, it was recognised as an
engaging and pedagogically sound approach to learning.
Classroom Management in Drama
I had a great class with my university students
recently. We were looking at issues of classroom management in Drama...
and in many ways they are not so different from any other classroom. I
came up with this rather interesting in-role dramatic pre-text approach...
I asked for a student volunteer to be
"teacher"... one student volunteered. I sent her outside with a
selection of short lesson plans that she was to read and select one that she
would deliver. She was unaware of what the rest of the class were doing.
She was out of the room for about 10 minutes while she selected her lesson and
familiarised herself with her own approach to facilitation. Each lesson
involved students working in small groups.
Meanwhile... the rest of the class were with
me... and here's what transpired - I told the class that the lesson would
involve them working in small groups and that I would be roaming the roam
monitoring how the lesson was proceeding... I also told them that I would
allocate a number to their groups and each number reflected how that group would
behave...
- This group would follow all teacher
instructions and remain on task throughout the lesson;
- This group intends to do the right thing but
may get distracted if there are disruptions in the classroom;
- This group are to give the outward appearance
of being on task but in reality are doing nothing related to the assigned
tasks;
- This group has free rein to do as they please.
What ensued was very interesting.. the ambitious
young teacher came in and started to deliver the lesson... groups were formed
and they settled in to focussing on the task - I wandered about and covertly
allocated behaviours to groups. The "teacher" was unaware this was
happening.
Group 1 worked on the task and prepared the work
they were to present to the class - Group 2
did the same - Group 3 looked like they were doing it too (but careful listening
revealed otherwise) - Group 4 disintegrated almost immediately with one student
making a cell phone call, 2 boys started playing catch with a rubbish bin and a
blackboard duster, and the last student simply wandered aimlessly about the
class.
The teacher began to focus on the 2 throwing
things... they occupied much of her time... Group 2 started to become restless
at the commotion - Groups 1 and 3 continued as described above.... Teacher tried
to get Group 2 back on task, Group 4 became more disruptive and bordered on
behaviour that put others at risk...
Soon it was evident the class was out of
control.... Teacher decided to gather them together - she reorganised groups and
this unforeseen happening had an interesting effect, the students maintained the
roles they established at the outset...
Eventually we called a halt to the
exercise. Several interesting aspects emerged -
- members of Group 1 had become genuinely
frustrated - they had created some work they were proud of and wanted to
show it for feedback;
- Group 2 were probably least effected in
emotional terms - they didn't realise what they had missed by getting distracted;
- This Group enjoyed the exercise being
"naughty" and felt somewhat thrilled at having "gotten away
with it"
- Group 4 had seen a real challenge in gaining
control over the teacher responses and had set out to see what they could
get away with.
Interestingly, there were some preservice
teachers in the class who felt this scenario was an exaggeration, that it would
"never really" get that bad... others were convinced that the scenario
represented classrooms they'd experienced - I must say it brought back
frightening memories of my early years of teaching and some of my own school
days. Discussion soon turned to "how to deal with it"... at this
point it dawned on me that my original idea to use this experience as a pre-text
for discussion could be extended to introduce the whole thing as a scenario for
exploration in a Forum Theatre frame. Unfortunately, time was short and we
had to wrap up the discussion before we could explore the Forum.
What was really interesting and reinforced some
validity for students about process work was that the emotional situation of the
"fictional world" of the drama transcended the fiction and became
"real" for a brief time.... Group 1 were annoyed both in-role and
out-of-role because the work they'd created was real... needless to say it
also highlighted the point that there are no easy answers to classroom
management - and that the power of desks and chairs as positional anchors, once
removed, leaves the teacher to having to think about "relationship" as
the basis for classroom interactions.
DramaPlayShop.org
You may be aware that I was in Ottawa to co-chair
Special Interest Group #7 - Drama and New Media - basically looking at the nexus
between Drama and IT. We had a wonderful week of contention and some
amazing proposals emerged. One of the key ideas was to establish an online
community of interested Drama teachers and practitioners to playfully explore
the possibilities in an ongoing format - we abandoned the notion of
"workshop" in favour of a new concept, the PLAY shop...
and I have taken the liberty of trying to get the ball rolling with establishing
http://DramaPlayShop.org (also sig7.org)
- we have a small community so far ( about 30 interested bodies) and its all a
little quiet as people work out how to make it all function... that's part of
any new online delivery - a familiarisation phase... and we are trying to get a
couple of people to take on facilitation roles... so if this sounds like it
might interest you - drop by - sign in as a new memeber and get familiar with
the site - we'll be organising some online get-togethers and projects as the
year progresses... nothing too demanding - remember our emphasis is on PLAYFUL
exploration.
POSITION WANTED
I'm
genuinely looking for a new context in 2005, so if anyone
knows of any Drama positions - anywhere in the world really! -
I'm willing to consider anything from classroom
teacher to Arts leadership... Prefer something
able to accommodate University lecturing - please let me
know. (My CV is available online)
LESSON/ACTIVITY IDEA
The Queensland Studies Authority has a collection
of Modules (Schemes of Work or Programs) available for download
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
The
DramaPlayShop (incorporating sig7.org)
is an online community being established as an experimental playground for
Drama educators exploring the nexus between Drama and IT.
Emerging from the
Special Interest Group on Drama and New Media Forms convened in Norway
during IDEA2001 and continuing through to Ottawa during IDEA2004 and
focussed on a range of projects and explorations to be recapped and
reviewed in Hong Kong for IDEA2007. This group was originally
convened in 2001 by Kim Flintoff (Australia), Klaus
Thestrup (Denmark) and Liliana Galvan (Peru). In 2004
the group chairs were Kim Flintoff (Australia), Klaus Thestrup
(Denmark) and Alistair Martin-Smith (UK).
If
you have an interest in Drama and Computers then this site will
eventually have a lot to offer. It is an interactive site that
is built upon the interests of the users.
PROFESSIONAL NEWS
PLEASE ADVISE OF ANY UPCOMING
PROFESSIONAL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES AND I WILL LIST THEM HERE
DRAMA AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE
"Heart of the Nation"
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Drama Australia Conference
Hosted by ACTDA
Canberra, ACT
1-3 October 2004
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Diversity, validation,
celebration and strong teaching practice maintain our heART
beat. Drama education is at the heART of
the Nation.
Conference Details
From 6.00pm Thursday 30
September - 4.00pm Sunday 3 October 2004
The School of Music
National Institute of the Arts
Australian National University
(Note: this is a public holiday weekend in the ACT. Floriade is also
in full swing)
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Kim Flintoff
Copyright © September, 2004
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