The lesson began with a guided visualization, which allowed students to travel through time as a character from Medieval Times - seeing, hearing, smelling and doing things of the age all using their imagination to guide them in a dimly lit setting and a teacher narrator.
Students were then given the opportunity to learn a role from their unit that had to connect with another role, through the use of connection webs. Some examples of the roles used were merchant, priest, witch hunter, king, knight, and so on. Some individuals connected automatically based on relation or occupation relatability, but others were more difficult to decide. One of the presenters came into the room as a jester, as teacher in role, who announced the civil unrest in the village. Students are to create a flashback scenario that alluded to why the unrest was occurring. The traveller/merchant group indicated the civil unrest was because no one appreciated them going across the land finding the best products and reporting back to the village. Finally, the lesson's twist was that there was secretly a spy in each group who was using the eavesdropping strategy to report their finding to the jester to report to the king.
 |
| Connection Webs |
 |
| Flashback scenario: Civil unrest in the town! |
Click the link below to watch a short clip of...
This lesson has many accommodations and modification options. First, the content area could be applied to Ancient Civilizations, Exploring Global Contexts, etc. within Social Studies and has many cross-curricular opportunities in Science, Math and Language. For example, the different systems of the body could be the roles given in connection webs or sums/products of numbers need to connect, or characters from a novel or short story need to connect.
As suggested by the presenting group, the eavesdropping strategy can be modified for younger students by tending to the concept of rumours spreading and how not everything we overhear is true - character education, and Health connection to the grade 1 and 2 curriculum on bullying. Modelling the techniques for the students is always an appropriate way for them to engage in the activity, such as flashback where considering different perspectives may be difficult for younger students. Older students may also enjoy creating their own guided visualization to lead a small group or the class through.
Although I have yet to have the opportunity of teaching Drama in a practicum environment, my experience with camp has always influenced me to enjoy trying dress up, role play and other strategies. The more time we have to explore the strategies on our own, to discover what works and does not work for us, the more confident I am becoming in my ability to teach Drama.
No comments:
Post a Comment