Social Justice through Drama

       Social justice and equity for children has become an increasing concern for me over the last few years. I have discovered that I have a heart for empowering children to understand that they are capable to do anything that they desire - and they can even change the world. An example of this has been through my 'Making a Difference' lesson that I taught to my Grade 5/6 Science Class on Conservation of Energy and Resources. I showed them the following clip (in this link here) of Craig Kielburger as he founded Free the Children at the age of 12 - the same age as the students in my class. From there, we had meaningful discussion about how they could use the knowledge that they have in Science to help change the world through a conservation campaign. Additionally, freerice.com and freeflour.com were introduced websites to them where they can play games from the comfort of their own desk or home and still make a difference. Each correct answer on either website had the companies provide the United Nations with either 10 grains of rice or 1 tsp of flour to be used in areas of need around the world - they thought that was great! How does this connect to my understanding of drama principles and how I can integrate Drama into the program that I am beginning to form with my students? How can using drama in classes such as Science solidify understanding and empower students?

 

I found great relevance to this concept in two books written by Kerri-Lynn Winters that were used a tools for discussion and for drama within the classroom. "When Chickens Fly" allowed students to explore different perspectives by creating a news report and flashforward to gain insight into how different characters from the story would respond to the chicken's desire to participate in the Winter Games. In doing so, the definition of what is 'unfair' is explored - as some stakeholders believe that having the chicken compete in the Games is unfair and others believe that not having the chicken compete is unfair. Also, the exploration of students' perspective on how they position themselves to discrimination through position mapping with tap in, the teacher is able to gauge students' awareness of the topic diagnostically. For example, a few of us represented Rosa Parks as our historical character experiencing discrimination first-hand. Through this activity, the conversation is opened up with the students - they can choose to associate discrimination personally or divert the emotional connection to another being (i.e. a historical character). This activity is similar to another lesson taught in Language Arts by Jennifer Rowsell and our association to homelessness. I believe that a hook through a drama strategy, such as position mapping, is a safe way to begin the conversation and gauge where students situate themselves in relation to a particular topic. By providing students the right to pass and  the ability to take on a historical figure role, students can actively engage or distance themselves. As an educator, I want to challenge my students to engage in conversations that are difficult and inspire them to go beyond themselves to see change in their lives and in the world around them; however, my first and foremost concern is that they feel comfortable to explore these topics. I believe there is much merit in engaging with the creative process through these discussions as students can explore how they feel, how others' perspectives are similar or different to theirs, and create new meaning from what they learn that influences their lives.

News Report

"Gift Days" is another book from Kerri-Lynn Winters that explores issues that are unfair. I see this book directly relating to my lesson on making a difference as children's rights are discussed - how one child in one area of the world receives such a different proportion of wealth - material or basic rights - than another in the Western world. Also, within the text, the female is given much less freedom to go to school than her brother because of rules imposed by social hierarchy. These issues are great conversation starters for children of all ages to have. It was wonderful to see this lesson in action with students from Grades 4 and 5. By having a student in the hot seat as a character from the book, they were able to take on the perspective of someone else and answer questions according to the gist of the book's meaning. In doing so, this challenged the class to think beyond themselves in a role that they can or cannot relate to in some extent. I really found the use of a Q-chart valuable in formulating questions for the person in the hot seat. By having leveled questions, students could see visually which questions were lower or higher ordered questions - this assessment strategy is helpful in taking a quick snapshot of where a student's questioning skills are. The Q-Chart also came up the next day at a professional development day in Hamilton's Brock campus where it was discussed as to how to accommodate this strategy for different learning styles. An integration of Physical Education is to have the different key words around the room and for students to collect a piece from either side of the room to formulate the highest level thinking question possible. There are so many opportunities to adapt strategies utilized within these lessons into other subject areas.

Literature has been a great opportunity to explore perspectives, create choral chants in 'Gift Days' and address the learning needs of many individuals. Creating still frames, or tableaux, to solidify understanding of a particular topic, such as the different chores that need to be done in a day or how a character is feeling at a particular moment, gives the teacher an assessment opportunity to gauge student understanding. The best part of this all is how the student also benefits from employing a different perspective other than their own. The hands-on nature of all these tasks really tends to the whole learner - multiple intelligences and Maslow's hierarchy of needs are evident throughout these activities in addressing multiple levels of the child's learning experience.

In future, I plan on using these pieces of literature and other books to explore issues of social justice, equity and fairness with my students. In doing so, I believe that the students will gain perspective in areas they may not have otherwise gained, and learn in a creative way that engages the whole learner.