Drama in Small Moments

If you had of asked me prior to my teaching blocks where I thought I would teach more drama I would have guessed my junior placement. Ironically, I taught and evaluated more drama in my grade 7 and 8 placement then in my junior grade 5 placement. Often, drama had to be found in small moments and taught when the opportunity presented itself. I want to share a few small moment drama lessons where students were able to get up out of their seat and learn by doing.

Introduce Yourself: On my first day teaching grade 5 my associate teacher had his class sit in a big circle. Instead of introducing themselves using only words he had them tell me their name, stand in the middle of the circle and act out (using only their body) something that represented them. It could be something that they liked to do, a sport they played, or anything that they felt would describe or represent them. I was then given the task of guessing what they were doing and they would tell me a little bit about it. Students were giddy and excited for their turn. One of the learning goals was to really exaggerate their motions so that the audience could see each detail. It was also suggested that they act out their chosen topic in more then one way to give the audience several clues. My associate told them to think about their face and the emotions they could portray. Each student stepped into the middle and no two actions were the same. One student pretended to stick handle a puck, deke a goalie and score throwing his hands into the air! Another student sat cross legged, pulled out some tools and began painting her nails, pretending to blow on them to dry when she was done. A student stood in front of me, pretended to pull goggles over her eyes and then dove into the pool doing the front stroke. This activity lasted 15-20 minutes but was an excellent opportunity to integrate drama into the day. It was a small yet effective moment. My favourite part was getting to really know the students right away by engaging in an activity that was active, creative and fun! You could tell which students were more comfortable then others and which students pushed their comfort zone. It was a very effective drama mini activity.

The Invisible Box: In grade 5 my students needed bod

y breaks from their work. I taught in a portable and so the space was small and our entire day was spent away from the rest of the school. As a body break strategy we gathered the students on the carpet in a circle. The first student was handed an invisible box. I held my hands out pretending to hold this box and as I put it down in front of the first student I had my face squint as if to show it was heavy. We would give the class a theme and each student had to pull something out of the box that related to the theme. It was all done through mime so no words were used, only actions. On one occasion the theme was tools you would use around the house. A student would pretend to reach their arm deep into the box and struggle to pull something out. Then they would begin to act out using a hammer. Once they were done, they would pretend to pass the box to the next person. Again, this activity promoted a lot of laughter, choice in what the student was going to act out and the use of their bodies. Some students chose to remain seats and use their arms and face while others stood up, used their whole bodies and acted out an entire scene with their tool. Again this activity lasted 15-20 minutes but brought drama into our portable. You could make this more specific by making the theme match your learning. For example, if you started a science unit you might ask the students to pull their science equipment out of the box like a microscope, goggles ect.

Slow Motion: When I arrived at my grade 5 block I was tasked with teaching descriptive writing in language. A writing strategy that I introduced was slow motion writing which is where students pick a moment in time and write about it frame by frame to create the image of something happening in slow motion. Students are trying to create suspense and excitement while describing in extreme detail the moment. This was a difficult concept for students to grasp because they wanted to retell a sequence of events instead of slowing down one moment. I turned to drama to help me teach this writing strategy. The first group assignment was to describe the moment when you’re playing tag and the person who is ‘It” is about to catch you. I asked students to act out this moment in slow motion considering what they’d see, hear, smell and feel. Many of them used a face of surprise when they slowly turned their head over their shoulder to see they were being chased. They chose actions such as wiping sweat off of their forehead or slipping after trying to turn away quickly. Most of them included a person saying very slowly you “You’re ittttttt!”. By acting it out and having a group to collaborate with, students were able to really understand all the details they could describe in a single moment. By creating tension or excitement with their bodies they could then go back and write about it. This activity was a great way to use drama to support and teach another subject such as language.