Drama Usage

While reading chapter four in "You Gotta BE the Book" I really connected with the section on reluctant readers. My first years of high school, I was a slow reader, had not much interest in reading, and did not connect reading to myself as a reader. I saw reading as something required. This section talks about students alike how I was. Using drama helps a reader to connect the dots in reading.

I became more interested in reading when I class I took used a LOT of drama. We read everything out loud and acted them all out. I began to understand what was happening in the plays and could connect it to myself as the reader. Because of this, I began to be able to think about my reading more creatively rather than just reading when it was assigned.

This section talks about how drama is used to build relationships with characters, taking other perspectives, and thinking about the setting and world of the story- basically engaging students in the story. It really helps lower level students, like myself, to succeed and get something out of the reading for themselves.

Another section also discusses passive reading, which ties in directly with this idea. Wilhelm states that "students' past reading experiences and schooling appear to have given them a reductionist, information-transmission view of reading." Incorporating drama with these students helped them see that the book has a message for each individual and gave them a better experience with reading overall.

Wilhelm gives many examples of drama he used in the classroom- I am putting a few here to reference at a later time and to show what he experimented with :)

1. Revolving Role Drama: take on role of a character; switching roles with a partner
2. Dramatic Play: use a prompt from the story, enact what would happen
3. Guided Imagery: imagine scenes and write about them as they mentally picture them (with guide of visual description/musical accompaniment)
4. To Tell the Truth Game: students play character roles and are interrogated by "judges" about their character lives; who becomes the most convincing character? they win!
5. Missing Scene Scripts: identify what is missing from the story and have students elaborate on what could be happening in these gaps

Here's a cool LINK of why we should use drama texts in the classroom (so we can exercise the creative side of the brain!)