Creating Drama with 7-11 Year Olds

Lesson Ideas to Integrate Drama into the Primary Curriculum

Miles Tandy, Jo Howell

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9781135191603
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This practical book gives you all the ideas you need to make drama a regular and integral part of your school's curriculum, offering detailed suggestions of drama work for ages 7 to 11. The teaching units are arranged around four strands: drama for literacy; drama and the whole curriculum; drama film, media, and ICT; and drama for performance. The authors provide a wealth of practical activities throughout. Each unit includes:

• explicit links to the Renewed Framework for literacy and the wider curriculum
• a list of resources needed
• clear learning objectives and outcomes
• steps for teaching and learning including how to modify activities to suit your school
• links to writing
• assessment guidance.

Based on the authors' experience as teachers and in-service trainers, this book provides a wide range of ideas and activities for inspiring drama across Key Stage 2, and is essential reading for all those interested in bringing drama into their school.

Appendix 1

Drama structures and strategies used throughout the book

Guided tours

Played in pairs, one player leads their partner (whose eyes are closed) through an imaginary landscape, describing what they see as they go. We often use this in conjunction with a ‘word carpet’ which offers the leaders plenty of words and phrases to support their language. See, for example, Unit 4L, Theseus and the Minotaur.

Improvising dialogue

Usually done in pairs, the children take roles and improvise the conversation that happens between them. This can often lead to writing, perhaps putting the dialogue into a story, or writing it for a playscript. See, for example, Unit 4F, Space.

Make me a . . .

A game that encourages spontaneity and creativity in groups. The teacher calls out ‘Make me a . . .’ followed by an object or idea like a straight line, a circle, or perhaps ‘Make me fear’. See, for example, Unit 6L, Leon and the Place Between.

Meeting in role

The children sustain their roles while they meet together and discuss what has happened in the story/drama and what they should do about it. See, for example, Unit 3F, Dr Xargle’s Book of Earthlets and the ‘alien summit’.

Soundscapes

Using their voices, sounds they can make with their bodies, everyday objects and/or musical instruments, children create mood and atmosphere with sound. See, for example, Unit 4L, Theseus and the Minotaur.

Still images or tableaux

A very widely used strategy in which children make pictures using themselves. These might show people doing something, or they may be more abstract as in Unit 5C, Howard Carter and Tutankhamen.

Teacher in role

The teacher takes a specific role within the drama and engages in ‘live’ action with the children. It is a very powerful strategy from which you can question, challenge and extend children’s thinking and understanding as, for example, in Unit 4C, Change in the environment.

The Wooden Sword of Paris

A game in which children choreograph fight moves. They play it in pairs, one calling out a move – for example, ‘A blow to the head!’ – before making a move to go with it. The second player then speaks and moves in response. All the actions are mimed and there is no physical contact between the players. This game is used and explained more fully in Unit 6P, Coriolanus and also in 3C, The Romans.

Word carpets

Words and phrases developed through the drama are written on scraps of paper and put out on the floor to create a ‘carpet’. These might be used to create a setting, or developed further into mood and atmosphere as in, for example, Unit 4L, Theseus and the Minotaur.They are very useful resources for later writing.

Appendix 2

Further reading to help develop drama in your school

Ackroyd, J. and Boulton, J. Drama Lessons for Five to Eleven-year-olds. David Fulton 2001. Highly practical, detailed and well-structured lesson plans, some for this age group.

Dickinson, R. and Neelands, J. Improve Your Primary School Through Drama. David Fulton 2006. A detailed and uplifting account of how one inner-city primary school placed drama at the heart of its curriculum with remarkable results. Plenty of practical advice and examples.

Winston, J. Drama and English at the Heart of the Primary Curriculum. David Fulton 2004. Detailed plans with thorough underpinning theory. Examples are included for all the primary age groups.

Winston, J. and Tandy, M. Beginning Drama 4–11. David Fulton, 3rd edition 2008. A very practical guide, aimed at those who are new to teaching drama and designed to lead you through the process step-by-step.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• How to use this book
• 3L: Gentle Giant
• 3C: The Romans
• 3F: Dr Xargle’s Book of Earthlets
• 3P: All about our town
• 4L: Theseus and the Minotaur
• 4C: Change in the environment
• 4F: Space
• 4P: The Comedy of Errors
• 5L: The Listeners
• 5C: Howard Carter and Tutankhamen
• 5F: The Invention of Hugo Cabret
• 5P: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• 6L: Leon and the Place Between
• 6C: Shipwrecked: Making for survival
• 6F: Silent film
• 6P: Coriolanus
• Appendix 1: Drama structures and strategies used throughout the book
• Appendix 2: Further reading to help develop drama in your school