Day Four: A Perfect Day in Perfectville

Our fourth class and I'm getting the hang of drama! Here we go, class four.......

Theory:

The ideas behind the Multimodal Theory is that contexts (whether it be fixed or situated) shape the way we communicate and represent. This is something we discussed in the fifth class as well so I'll talk about it more during that blog entry. However this is something that I do believe is true for every individual. The things about us definitely shape the way we do everything in life. And more specifically, the way we learn. For me, this goes hand in hand with the multiple intelligences theory. Our personal attributes are what pushes us toward a specific intelligence and thus the way we learn. 

Strategies:

The strategies the group presented were picture walk, alter ego, mask, hot seating, gibberish and slow motion. As I talked about in a previous post, a picture walk could be used in a variety of instances and grade levels. And a picture walk is something that I used every week during my placement. When introducing the class to a new book, I would ask them to look at the pictures before I read it to see what they predicted would happen. 

Alter ego was also an interesting strategy that would help look at a character and how they were feeling. This can give students a deeper insight into what their character was feeling and why. This could also give them a small insight into how they themselves feel. While this picture is from the week before in reference to the Giraffes Can't Dance book, this is an example of alter ego. In this picture, Donna and I were Emily's alter ego. It was a really eye opening activity to examine the different ways in which she could be feeling as the giraffe.

Another strategy I really saw the value in was the use of masks. In classrooms where children are nervous to get a little silly in drama class or let go of their inhibitions, masks could be a great addition. Masks allow for students to act in a certain way without feeling embarrassed because while in drama, we are always in character, a mask allows a little extra security to that fact. I also really liked in class how we had the ability to create our own masks. It gave us more ownership over the strategy, which I think is a great idea when teaching.

The next strategies we did in class were: wild thing, pop up story, teacher in role, exquisite corpse, and flash forward. To direct these strategies, we used the book "Where the Wild Things Are." I had never read this book but I had seen the movie and I wasn't a fan so I was unsure how to feel at this point. But using these drama strategies really changed my feelings on this story.

The first strategy we examined was wild thing. I think it was a good idea to start with this strategy as it was a great lead in to the story we were looking at, and it was a great way to shake things up in class.

The next strategy was pop up story which I thought was a great (second) introduction into the story we were about to base all of our drama strategies on. It also added a second element to the story for everyone else in the class, as well as for those of us who are participating. In order to encourage participation in my own class, I would use this strategy but in a little bit of a different way. I would assign different pages to different groups so that each student was participating. Instead of having some students just watching the story. 

When we used the strategy of exquisite corpse, I wasn't quite sure of how it would fit into the strategies that would come next. But the best thing that I have seen about any of these drama strategies is that they're all very adaptable to any concept that is being taught. In this case, these pictures we made came up later when we were using the strategy of teacher in role. In a class, I think this would really interest and excite the students as it is something they made coming into the story and holding meaning. This just furthers my philosophy of teaching that students need to make connections and take ownership of their learning. What better way to make connections than to include something they created in the process.