The Really Useful Drama Book

Using Picturebooks to Inspire Imaginative Learning

Roger McDonald

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781138185999
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317288039
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Really Useful Drama Book offers busy primary school teachers a collection of step-by-step drama sessions, inspired by high-quality picturebooks, that will engage children and promote enjoyable learning across the curriculum.

Lively and thoughtful, the interactive drama sessions are structured around a wide range of texts, including wordless picturebooks, postmodern picturebooks, short stories, well-known texts by recognisable authors and some you may not have come across before, all chosen for their power to foster curiosity. The step-by-step sessions can also be adapted to incorporate your own ideas and passions, allowing you to structure them for the topics you're exploring with your class.

Each session is structured around two texts and offers a guide to the drama strategies used, teaching objectives, ideas for writing opportunities, problems, emotions and challenges to explore, and a clear guide to exploring each text. Ten key themes are explored:

• Suspense
• Prejudice
• Friendship
• Rhyme and rhythm
• War and conflict
• Nature
• Overcoming fear
• Possessions and obsessions
• Dreams
• Short stories

With a focus on the crucial role of imagination in the classroom, The Really Useful Drama Book helps reclaim a purposeful, passionate pedagogy and shows teachers how drama can place children right at the heart of a story, encouraging their desire to ask questions, solve problems and search out new information.

Part 1
Introduction

1
The changing educational landscape

A Shifting Pedagogy

In the busy world of teaching we can sometimes get swept away with the latest educational trend telling us what ‘good practice’ is. Over the last 20 years a range of initiatives have influenced the way we have taught. These have been government-based initiatives such as the National Literacy Strategy and the Primary Strategies, Local Authority-led initiatives as well as school-led initiatives. All of these affect our pedagogy and therefore impact on the children within our classes. However do we analyse where these initiatives originate from? Do we consider whether they are based in rigorous, relevant and current research and do we evaluate whether they are suitable for our classroom or school setting? Whatever the latest initiative is, the phrase which often gets espoused is ‘we are doing this in order to drive up standards’. It is worth taking a moment to explore this in more detail.

Understandably the need to raise standards seems to be a general mantra from head teachers, senior school leaders and class teachers. In fact the ‘drive to raise standards’ (Alexander, 2010 p. 1) has formed a central element of recent education policy in England. This has resulted in the proliferation of the ‘performance’ agenda within schools which in turn has heightened the tension between what Cox (2011) notes as the market-driven systems and an understanding that children are ‘active meaning makers’ (Cox, 2011 p. 37).

It is interesting therefore to consider and explore whether this performance agenda has influenced teaching within the classroom and the culture adopted by schools. Have teachers and schools inadvertently shifted their pedagogy? One factor possibly affecting the shifting pedagogy is the perceived pressure felt by teachers as a result of the increased accountability. Indeed Alexander (2010) notes that in many primary schools ‘a professional culture of excitement, inventiveness and healthy scepticism has been supplanted by one of dependency, compliance and even fear’ (p. 7).

The Performance Agenda

It could be argued that the performance agenda has led to an expansion of an objectives-led orthodoxy in primary schools with a focus on educational outcomes rather than educational processes. Take a moment to think about your own classroom and the pedagogy adopted. Can you articulate the pedagogy adopted? Do you know whether it is research based? Is it an autonomous or ideological approach? In some schools teachers experience a culture which relates to an objective-led curriculum. In these schools for each lesson children are told the objective, given a set of success criteria and their work is marked specifically against the set criteria. The danger with this approach is that the curriculum can become objective led rather than learning led.

This approach focuses on the minutiae of the objectives due to the need to prove and measure progress but can lose sight of the importance of creating desire, curiosity and intrigue in the work presented to the children. The use of objectives in this way suggests that learning can be predicted. A teacher can plan a sequence of lessons or learning steps and be certain of the outcome for each child in the class. This process does not take into account the imaginative or creative elements which, by their very nature, are unpredictable (Cox, 2011) and instead believes that measures can be made of progress and therefore of teacher effectiveness (Cox, 2011).

Performance Goals

The shift towards an objective-led, formulaic, structured and criteria-based learning experience identified in some schools results in an increased focus on performance. This can have devastating effects on creativity and the imagination. Dweck (1988) explains how the pressured learning experience and externally driven performance goals can lead to a decline in risk taking resulting in creativity diminishing (Burke, 2011). Therefore the implications of this approach impact on both the teacher, who increasingly looks to be told what and how to teach, and the child, who increasingly seeks reassurance that they are reaching their potential (whatever that may be).

Performance goals are externally driven and are apparent where the child feels the need to ‘document or gain favourable judgements of their competency’ (Burke, 2011 p. 19). These goals focus on ‘the adequacy of their ability’ (Dweck, 1988 p. 6) and can result in the child feeling vulnerable in their learning leading to ‘the helpless response in the face of failure, setting up low ability attributions, negative affect and impaired performance’ (Dweck, 1988 p. 6). Parallels could be drawn between the definition of performance goals and the pedagogy in the classroom; the use of objectives, success criteria, individual targets and formulaic writing techniques where children are given sets of ‘ambitious’ vocabulary, sentence openers, punctuation and connectives to structure their writing. These approaches are mainly concerned with measuring ability.

Indeed it is interesting to examine the effects of performance goals as identified by Dweck (1988) and consider whether these are prevalent in class rooms across England. She notes five cognitive and affective factors associated with performance goals. The first is a loss of self-belief and in the utility of effort. The second effect sees a withdrawal of effort due to the belief that continued effort will ‘further document low ability’ (Dweck, 1988 p. 7). The third effect is the focus on the goal itself at the expense of the learning. Fourth the child may exhibit signs of anxiety or shame which in turn motivate them to try to escape the task or learning. The last effect is the barrier which is put up to intrinsic rewards due to a concern over a possible negative judgement.

You may be able to identify with this pedagogy as it not only affects the children but also the teachers. The process of focusing on the performance of children has inevitably led to the measuring of teacher’s performance. The pressure, accountability and performance-generated goals for both teachers and children have therefore led to a move towards the adoption of a form of measuring process to indicate progression. This allows a class teacher, year group leader and ultimately the head teacher to demonstrate the progress which has been made by both children and teachers leading ultimately to the ‘raising of standards’.

Measuring Progress

The measurement tool for assessing literacy can originate from a number of sources. Assessing Pupil Progress materials are still available and used by a number of schools. Also a range of end of key stage descriptors were recently published by the Department for Education, with evidence suggesting that they have been adopted and adapted by some schools. In addition there are a number of schemes available which can be adopted. Indeed one increasingly popular resource published by Andrell Education is called ‘Big Writing’. This resource comes complete with an assessment tool in the form of a criterion scale which it is believed can demonstrate progress in writing.

Many schools in South East England have adopted the ‘Big Writing’ scheme (Barrett, 2014) which is based on the work of Ros Wilson (2002) with the aim of raising writing scores by the end of Key Stage Two. By adopting the teaching techniques children are expected to make progress by learning how to use the features of VCOP (vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation) in their writing and in turn are able to up-level their sentences. However as Cremin and Myhill (2011) note, this widespread approach is ‘little more than an incremental process of skill acquisition, which fails to recognise the role of reading, of texts and of literature in particular as a rich source of imaginative possibilities for writing’ (p. 60). To me there can be no doubt that the principles of this resource, if used how the publishers recommend, can support the work in the classroom. However the danger here is that if we abandon our principles, disregard research and follow a formulaic, mechanistic and structured approach to teaching literacy it will inevitably be in opposition to what Alexander (2009) argues for, which is a pedagogy of repertoire and principle as opposed to one of recipe and prescription.

It could be argued that I have painted a bleak picture of the educational landscape at the current time. I do not necessarily see it like that. In contrast to performance goals we can turn our attention to learning goals. Learning goals are internally driven and are concerned with the individual’s desire to increase their own learning, understanding and skill development (Burke, 2011; Dweck, 1988). In this situation the child, who may indeed have low opinions of their current ability, will adopt a distinctive attitude towards learning because, as Dweck (1988) notes, ‘(a) they are not focused on judgements of their current abilities, (b) errors are not as indicative of goal failure within a learning goal and, (c) low current ability in a valued area may make skill acquisition even more desirable’ (p. 6). It is on the need to readdress the balance towards learning rather than performance that this book will focus.

There have always been challenges in education and conflicts between political needs and educational ones. However, the dedication and hard work from teachers in the classroom on a daily basis who resist the specific shift in pedagogy noted here and the determination of leaders charting the school’s direction through the educational land scape are testament to what can be achieved. Therefore, as long as we recognise current and relevant research, we are in safe hands. These are the teachers and school leaders who recognise the importance of teaching with passion and purpose.

Teaching with Purpose, Passion and Empowerment

You may remember, as a teacher or as a child, the summer term ritual where the whole school sits expectantly in the school hall while the classes for the year ahead are read out. Children look around the hall with beady eyes and a sense of anticipation as each class is read out with the name of the new teacher. From the children’s point of view they know which teacher they want and are ready to erupt with a choral ‘yeeessss!’ if the teacher’s name matches their class. Also from the teachers’ point of view they wait with the same anticipation to see what the reaction will be from the children when the head teacher reveals the classes and the teachers for the year ahead.

I wonder what it is that causes the resounding ‘yessss’ or conversely what it is which means that a teacher’s name would be met simply with quiet acceptance? Maybe the children have built perceptions of each teacher, looking at how they operate around the school, listening to their friends and noting the degree of ‘fun’ emanating from their classrooms. Of course there may be many other reasons for children to want to be taught by a particular teacher. However, for the anticipation and expectation to be borne out as meaningful and lasting I would argue that the teacher would need to display passion in their teaching and for their care of the children, a clear joint purpose in what they are doing which takes the children’s individual needs into consideration and the understanding that they are empowering the children to make choices for themselves.

In essence children are possibly looking for teachers who respond to them as children, who adapt the plans for them and create excitement and curiosity within the lessons. Children and teachers will be learning together, finding out and discovering new things and bringing their own backgrounds and perspectives to bear on the work they are doing. Children, I would argue, are looking for teachers who reject the shifting pedagogy and instead focus on something more important than the performance-focused goals referred to earlier. They are looking for teachers who are themselves excited about education, motivated by learning and creators of intrigue and curiosity.

This is highlighted in Ken Robinson’s (2013) excellent TED talk entitled ‘How to escape education’s death valley’. Ken talks about the importance of the role of a teacher in not just teaching but in educating children. He makes the comparison between the practice of ‘teaching’ and the practice of ‘dieting’ noting that you could be involved in dieting without losing any weight and likewise could be involved in teaching without children learning anything! He equates this with the delivery system of education which, it could be argued, has penetrated our teaching through the various schemes schools adopt.

It is not, in my view, the schemes which are necessarily the problem but the way in which they are adopted by schools. For example one academy trust with over thirty-five schools has adopted schemes for both Maths and English with the expectation that teachers follow the scheme exactly in order to ensure a similar ‘rate of progress’ across the year groups. It may be helpful to briefly look at the history of the pedagogy which has built up around such planning frameworks. These schemes or planning frameworks are mostly derived from Tyler’s rationale (1949) which, in turn, is based on the principles of John Dewey. The schemes and lesson plans follow a familiar formula often beginning with statements of objectives for the lesson or unit, followed by a selection of content that will meet the objectives, and finally some means of evaluating whether the objectives have indeed been met. Egan (1992) notes that while Tyler’s work, drawing on Dewey, is ‘clearly hospitable to imaginative activity, the systematizing of his frame work over the past 40 years or so has fallen increasingly into the hands of people who have aimed at a desiccated sense of efficiency and have favoured a more behaviourist approach’ (Egan, 1992 p. 91). So here we can see an example of taki...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• How to use this book
• PART 1 INTRODUCTION
• PART 2 CREATIVE IDEAS WITH TEXTS
• Index