The School Drama Book: Drama, literature and literacy in the creative classroom

Drama, literature and literacy in the creative classroom

Robyn Ewing, John Saunders

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781925005929
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica nell'arte e nelle discipline umanistiche

School Drama is a professional learning program for primary school teachers, which focuses on the power of using drama and literature to improve English and literacy in young learners.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%School Drama was developed by the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) in 2009, in partnership with the University of Sydney. It has been acclaimed by Australian and international critics, and is now a cornerstone of the STC's Education program.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%This book is a comprehensive School Drama resource. It includes: %##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%- A summary of how drama and literature enhance literacy%##CHAR13##%- An explanation of the School Drama approach and methodology%##CHAR13##%- Learning outcomes from the School Drama program so far%##CHAR13##%- An exploration of the art and pedagogy of drama (via elements, devices, and roles)%##CHAR13##%- 22 classroom dramas: each comprised of a series of workshops that progress through common themes and texts.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%The School Drama Book is essential reading for teachers and theatre practitioners who want to educate confidently with drama, either through the STC's School Drama program or on their own. It uses drama as a critical pedagogy, and encourages learning through activities, rather than teaching 'about' the texts. This approach has been shown to develop rich imaginations and creative capacities for the future.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Includes a foreword by Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Erratum: the unit published on page 248 titled Stolen based on the book The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan should read 'appropriate for years 6 to 7 (and beyond)', not 'years 4 to 7'.

Chapter

1

Making meaning

and

Developing literacy

through the artforms of

Literature and drama

No philosophy, no analysis, no aphorism, be it ever so profound, can compare in intensity and richness of meaning with a narrated story.

Hannah Arendt in McGowan 1988, p. 138

The need to be literate is a given in today’s world. The definition of literacy has changed dramatically over time: at one time you were considered literate if you were able to sign your name; at another, only if you could read Latin or, at still another, if you could read the Bible. In 1998 the United Nations determined that two per cent of the world’s population were illiterate because they were not able to read a single, simple sentence. Today we need to be able to sift through, understand and intelligently analyse information shared through books and printed materials, emails, social media, websites, mobile phones, blogs, photographs, paintings, billboards and podcasts (to name just a few). On the other hand, some researchers in the United States of America are suggesting that many adults are losing the desire (and then the ability) to be literate and that the steepest declines are in reading for ‘literary experience’ (National Education Association 2013). If we accept that literacy is about making meaning then all art forms are different forms of literacy (Livermore 2003). In this chapter we are exploring our use of drama to deepen understanding of literary texts – in effect using one artform to extend, investigate and develop another.

This chapter first discusses the influence of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural approach to how children learn with particular focus on literacy and drama. We then define literacy and critical literacy and explore the central role children’s literature can and should play in learning to be literate. The concept of literacy (or, more accurately, literacies) must be re-imagined through the Arts. We then examine more particularly the significance of using the art form of drama with quality literary texts to enhance students’ literacy and English outcomes. We also suggest a range of criteria for selecting quality literature to use with drama as a precursor to the Drama and Literature units that follow in Part II.

We believe drama and literature go hand in hand in developing critical literacy. In this chapter we concentrate on the concept of using drama as critical, quality pedagogy (Ewing 2010b, 2006) with contemporary children’s literature to enhance children’s literacy development. The essence of educational or process drama is embodiment and enactment. By physically getting involved in a story we can turn its pages metaphorically, bend space and time and create our own version of the world. We can suspend what’s happening in our real world to explore other possibilities. In doing so we can learn more about both ourselves and others. Drama strategies can develop deep interaction and understanding through dialogue, questioning, provocations, exploration of dilemmas, confrontations and risk-taking. Drama engages children in deep explorations of text and image and activates their imaginations to develop new understandings and perspectives about their worlds. As Atticus famously says to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, ‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’ (Lee, 1960, p. 36).

Finally, we explore how drama used with richly interpretive or imaginative literature can encourage the ongoing development of students’ imaginations and creativity in English and literacy classrooms. While we focus on early childhood and primary classrooms, these principles are just as relevant for middle and secondary contexts. The next section of this chapter documents the research evidence alongside concrete examples of how drama can enhance learning in English and literacy.

The influence of Vygotskian concepts on literacy and drama

Many educators have been influenced by Lev Vygotky’s social constructivist theory (Vygotsky 1978). Our research and practice in the School Drama program are underpinned by four important Vygotskian concepts: the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (1978); guided participation (1978); dual affect (1933/1966); and perezhivanie (1935/1994). Each of these concepts is briefly outlined below.

Zone of Proximal Development and Guided Participation

Vygotsky (1978) argued that student learning is often mediated by a more expert peer, teacher or parent and that it is through this interaction that the learner develops more quickly than if left to learn individually. He called this the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and defined it as the ‘distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving through adult guidance or in collaboration with a more capable peer’ (Vygotsky 1978, p. 86). Through the School Drama program, students learn from the teacher, teaching artist, the author of the pre-text and their peers. Barbara Rogoff describes this as guided participation explaining that: ‘children’s cognitive development is an apprenticeship in social activity with companions who support and stretch children’s understanding of and skill in using the tools of the culture’ (Rogoff 1990, p. vii). Vygotsky’s concept of guided participation resonates with the facilitated process drama experiences for students. The facilitators (in our case the teaching artist with the class teacher) guide the students through the Drama, allowing opportunities for embodied action in role.

Ewing (2015) builds on Luis C. Moll and Kathryne F. Whitmore’s (1993) work to discuss the concept of a ‘collective Zone of Proximal Development’ in the School Drama program. Ewing argues that a collective ZPD occurs for students, teaching artists and teachers involved in the School Drama program (pp. 144-148). She asserts that ‘Dramatic play and process drama can encourage adults and children to work in a collective ZPD and enhance children’s language and literacy development, as well as their collaborative skills and their understandings of other’ (ibid., p. 148). We can even go further to include the pre-text (in our case quality children’s literature) as the fourth teacher in the program’s collective ZPD.

Dual Affect

Dual affect (Vygotsky 1933/1966) is connected to Plato’s concept of metaxis (the in-between or middle ground) and is significant in process drama work, particularly in relation to role. John O’Toole and Julie Dunn (2002, p. 166) define dual affect by explaining:

A child (or any other actor) involved as a character in dramatic play or performance will be simultaneously ‘inside’ the role (identifying and empathising with the character and their situation) and ‘outside’ (enjoying or analysing the sensation).

Metaxis and dual affect provide ways of analysing the state of being ‘in role’ as another, and being conscious of the real world at the same time. Through process drama work and School Drama, students work in role, and this opens up the opportunity to experience a state of metaxis or dual affect. This experience enables students to explore and connect with characters, particularly through making emotional connections.

Perezhivanie

The fourth Vygotskian concept relevant to this research is perezhivanie, a Russian term (which cannot be directly translated into English) but means ‘lived emotional experiences’ (John-Steiner 2015, p. xix). These lived emotional experiences or perezhivanie can be accessed through a lived and/or imagined experience. Vygotsky (2004) called this the cycle of imagination, which ‘explores the relationship between ‘imagination’ and ‘reality’. The cycle is a two-fold, mutual interdependence between imagination and experience’ (Bundy, Piazzoli and Dunn 2015, p. 157). In School Drama, by engaging in quality literary texts and exploring these stories through process drama, the students can experience lived and/or imagined emotional experiences that in turn, can assist in developing literacy. As Julie Dunn and Madonna Stinson state: ‘recent research into the functioning of the brain would seem to offer support for learning experiences that engage children’s emotions as well as their intellect’ (2012, p. 4) Hence, these lived and/or imagined emotional experiences that are formed through process drama play a crucial role in the development of literacy, particularly inferential comprehension.

Defining literacy and critical literacy

Literacy is not a single global skill that once mastered will be there for life. There are many kinds of literacies (visual literacy, mathematical literacy, scientific literacy, social literacy and so on) and there will be many more. Perhaps because of the importance of literacy, people often conflate reading and writing abilities with intelligence and parents and caregivers become anxious if their children do not learn to read when they first go to school. This anxiety can be palpable and sometimes inadvertently communicated to the children in question. If we truly care about all Australian children becoming literate we must stop perpetuating a narrow debate about what literacy is and no longer use outdated definitions. It is not an unfortunate coincidence that our gaols are filled with those who are not functionally literate. Tony Vinson and Margot Rawsthorne’s Dropping off the Edge report (2015) underlines this.

‘Literacy’ means more than simply being able to read and write. The ACARA, however, defines literacy as encompassing more than traditional notions of reading and writing:

[It is] the knowledge and skills students need to access, understand, analyse and evaluate information, make meaning, express thoughts and emotions, present ideas and opinions, interact with others and participate in activities at school and in their lives beyond school. (ACARA 2015)

UNESCO’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) definition also includes similar words (understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute) and stresses the importance of context (UNESCO 2006, p. 13).

Learning to be literate, then, goes beyond the initial sounding out and recognition of words or decoding a text. It is a complex process of constructing meaning(s) from a text – understanding, analysis and interpretation are part of the process.

It is also important to note that what is often termed ‘critical literacy’ goes further. It encompasses being able to go beyond what Colin Lankshear (1994) termed surface impressions, traditional myths, mere opinions and clichés to develop an understanding of a particular social context. He regarded the ability to uncover the deep meaning(s) of an image or text (or video clip) and then to think about that meaning in relation to one’s own situation and context and, if needed, to challenge the assumptions of the author as part of this process. Becoming critically literate is certainly a strong factor in determining children’s life chances in the twenty-first century.

Teaching literacy

Controversies about the most effective ways to help children’s literacy development have raged for the last century and are often polarised; some favour the use of a linear skills-first approach, others one that emphasises the importance of meaning-making. While we cannot explore the whole debate here, the most convincing research is emerging from neuroscientific studies of the brain. For example, Steven Strauss et al. (2009) strongly support the meaning-construction view of reading and how important prediction and confirmation are in the reading process. Other research demonstrates that the best way for children to excel in reading comprehension tasks is to read a wide range of books for pleasure (Krashen 2004; Sulli...