Drama Curriculim

The drama curriculum comprises interrelated activities which explore feelings, knowledge and ideas, leading to understanding. It explores themes and issues, creates a safe context in which to do so, and provides for opportunities to reflect on the insights gained in the process. It draws on the knowledge, interests and enthusiasm of the child. In drama, the child explores the motivations and the relationships between people that

exist in a real, imagined or historical context, to help him understand the world. The child is encouraged to make decisions and to take responsibility for those decisions within the safe context of the drama.

Rationale

The content of educational drama is life. It encompasses the entire range of a child’s experience and every facet of his personality; and because it constitutes a unique way of learning it should be an indispensable part of the child’s experience in school.

The Importance of Drama in the Curriculum

The true importance of drama lies in the nature of the learning experience it affords the child. Through the imaginative engagement of the child’s intellectual, emotional and physical capacities he can be brought to new perceptions and new understanding. This is done through the experience of creating a drama text. It is in this act of creating the story that the educationally liberating power of the drama resides. The endless possibilities of fiction allow for the exploration of the unbounded range of human experience. Furthermore, the improvisational nature of the exploration can give a spontaneous release to the child’s intuitions and a context that enables him to clarify and to express them. Through the enactment and the reflection on it— through adopting a character and empathising with it, and through interaction with other characters in the drama—the child finds a gateway to new experience, knowledge and understanding that no other learning experience provides.

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Organisational Planning: Roles and Responsibilities

Developing a shared sense of purpose for drama

The development of drama in the school involves consultation and collaboration among the partners in education.

Board of Management

Provides support for the development and implementation of the school plan for drama within its available resources. A key element of this role is to provide and maintain a safe environment in which drama can be taught.

Principal

• Oversees the development and implementation of the school plan
• Consults with Board of Management and parents with regard to the provision of resources
• Raises awareness among all teachers with regard to their complementary roles in the teaching of drama
• Ensures that teachers are supported in their teaching by their colleagues
• Ensures that sufficient time is made available for drama
• Identifies teacher(s) with particular expertise and interest in drama to lead staff discussion and to draw up policy document on the place, purpose and content of drama in the school

Special Duties Teacher (s)

• Encourages the teachers to participate in the formulation of the drama plan
• Gathers information about the amount of drama currently taught and the content of the existing programme
• Devises a written plan, in consultation with the staff
• Organises the necessary resources to implement the plan
• Presents draft documents to the staff at each meeting
• Supports colleagues as they prepare schemes of work and implement the plan
• Informs new members of the teaching staff about the school plan
• Provides information on in-career development opportunities with regard to drama

Other teachers

• Devise balanced programmes in line with the school plan which cater for the needs of each child
• Help the child to develop a positive self-image and a sense of fair play
• Foster a stimulating and secure environment
• Link drama activities with other curricular areas where appropriate
• Provide information for parents about the class programme for drama
• Consult parents on the progress of the child
• Have due regard for safety by ensuring that the children adopt safe practices

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Aims

The aims of the drama curriculum are

• to enable the child to become drama literate
• to enable the child to create a permanent bridge between make-believe play and the art form of theatre
• to develop the child’s ability to enter physically, emotionally and intellectually into the drama world in order to promote questing, empowering and empathetic skills
• to enable the child to develop the social skills necessary to engage openly, honestly and playfully with others
• to enable the child to co-operate and communicate with others in solving problems in the drama and through the drama
• to enable the child to understand the structures and modes of drama and how they create links between play, thought and life
• to enable the child to acquire this knowledge of drama through the active exploration of themes drawn from life (past and present), whether they have their source in other curriculum areas or in general areas relevant to the child’s life
• to enable the child to begin the process of translating a knowledge of drama into the active exploration of life themes from drama literature, leading to the appreciation of world drama culture
• to form the criteria with which to evaluate the drama texts, written or performed, to which he/she is continually exposed.

Broad objectives

When due account is taken of intrinsic abilities and varying circumstances, the drama curriculum should enable the child to

• develop the ability to enter physically, mentally and emotionally into the fictional drama context and discover its possibilities through co-operation  with others
• develop empathy with and understanding of others and the confidence needed to assume a role or character
• experience and create an atmosphere where ideas, feelings and experiences can be expressed, where conflict can be handled positively, and life situations explored openly and honestly
• develop personal adaptability, spontaneity, the ability to co-operate, verbal and non-verbal skills, and imagination and creativity, in order to ensure that the drama text reflects real life in a fresh and valid way
• develop the ability to decide what course is likely to lead to significant drama action
• develop the ability to steer the drama  towards areas that are likely to lead, through whatever genre, to insights in to the subject matter to be explored
• develop the ability to co-operate with others in solving, out of role, the problems that are presented in making the drama
• develop the ability to co-operate with others, in role, in keeping the drama alive, in creating context, and in exploring the problems that are presented in making the drama
• develop the ability to use drama to promote or express a view on a subject on which he/she may have strong views or feelings
• develop the ability to use drama to examine and explore unfamiliar material so as to reach an understanding of the patterns, meanings and concepts contained in it
• develop concern, curiosity and understanding of the increasingly
• sophisticated patterns that comprise drama content and of the increasingly refined insights that can flow from it
• use drama to explore actively the human aspect of all learning as a
• means of curricular integration
• become aware of subtexts, which manifest themselves involuntarily, in drama and in life
• begin to develop, through active s to r y-making in drama, an appreciation of plot and theme so that these can form the basis of an understanding of drama literature and how it relates to text-making in a specific time and place
• begin to be able to discern the covert or overt messages in drama texts,
• ranging from advertising to Shakespeare, through becoming aware of
• how values and attitudes are woven into drama
• begin to develop the ability to assess critically the validity of the meanings hidden in drama texts and what can be learned from them.

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Curriculum Planning 

Overview

Infant Classes

Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge, and ideas, leading to understanding

Exploring and making drama

The child should be enabled to

• develop the instinct for make-believe play into drama
• develop the ability to play in role as an integral part of the action
• experience how the use of space and objects can help to create the reality of the make-believe world
• experience how the fictional past and the desired fictional future influence the present dramatic action
• develop awareness of how he/she, as part of a group, helps to maintain focus in the dramatic action
• develop awareness of tension in the drama

Reflecting on drama

The child should be enabled to

• develop the ability to reflect on the action as it progresses
• experience the relationship between story, theme and life experience
• share insights gained while experiencing the drama

Co-operating and communicating in making drama

The child should be enabled to

• develop the ability, out of role, to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
• develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama

First and Second Classes

Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge, and ideas, leading to understanding

Exploring and making drama

The child should be enabled to

• use the ability to play at make-believe to enter fully into participation in drama
• use his/her emerging awareness of the differences in people in order to begin to develop an understanding of the relationship between role and character
• experience how context is built and a drama reality created through the use of space and objects
• experience how the fictional past and the desired fictional future influence the present dramatic action
• develop the ability to help maintain the focus in the dramatic action
• begin to see how tension adds to drama the suspense that ensures the interest of the participants

Reflecting on drama

The child should be enabled to

• use reflection on a particular dramatic action to create possible alternative courses for the action
• experience, through drama, the relationship between story, theme and life experience
• share insights while experiencing the drama or insights that arise out of the drama

Co-operating and communicating in making drama

The child should be enabled to

• develop, out of role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
• develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
• develop fictional relationships through interaction with the other characters in small-group or whole-class scenes as the drama text is being made
• re-enact for others in the group a scene that has been made in simultaneous small-group work

Third and Fourth Classes

Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge, and ideas, leading to understanding

Exploring and Making Drama

The child should be enabled to

• enter into the fictional dramatic context with the same spontaneity and freedom that he/she has earlier applied to make-believe play
• understand the relationship between role and character and develop the ability to hold on to either role or character for as long as the dramatic activity requires
• discover how the use of space and objects can help in building the context and in signifying dramatic themes
• explore how the fictional past and the desired fictional future influence the present dramatic action
• become aware of the rules that help maintain focus in the dramatic action
• begin, as a member of a group, to include in drama activity the elements of tension and suspense
• begin the process of using script as a pre-text

Reflecting on drama

The child should be enabled to

• use reflection on and evaluation of a particular dramatic action to create possible alternative courses for the action
• learn, through drama, the relationship between story, theme and life experience
• use the sharing of insights arising out of dramatic action to develop the ability to draw conclusions and to hypothesise about life and people

Co-operating and communicating in making drama

The child should be enabled to

• develop, out of role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
• develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and to communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
• develop fictional relationships through interaction with the other characters in small-group or whole-class scenes as the drama text is being made
• enact spontaneously for others in the group a scene from the drama, or share with the rest of the class a scene that has already been made in simultaneous small-group work

Fifth and Sixth Classes

Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge, and ideas, leading to understanding

Exploring and making drama

The child should be enabled to

• enter appropriately and with facility, whether watched or unwatched, into the fictional dramatic context
• extend playing in role and in character to include the ability to accept and maintain a brief that has been decided on by either the teacher, the group or himself/herself
• discover how the use of space and objects helps in building the context and in signifying the drama theme
• explore how the fictional past and the desired fictional future influence the present dramatic action
• become adept at implementing the “playing rules”that maintain focus in dramatic action
• help to plan dramatic activity to include the particular tension and suspense appropriate to the theme being explored
• become comfortable with script and understand the basic processes by which script becomes action
• distinguish between various genres, such as comedy, tragedy, fantasy

Reflecting on drama

The child should be enabled to

• reflect on a particular dramatic action in order to create possible alternative courses for the action that will reflect more closely the life patterns and issues being examined
• learn, through drama, the relationship between story, theme and life experience
• use the sharing of insights arising out of dramatic action to develop the ability to draw conclusions and to hypothesise about life and people

Co-operating and communicating in making drama

The child should be enabled to

• develop, out of role, the ability to co-operate and to communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
• develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
• develop fictional relationships through interaction with the other characters in small-group or whole-class scenes as the drama text is being made
• enact spontaneously for others in the group a scene from the drama, or share with the rest of the class a scene that has already been made in simultaneous small-group work

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Approaches and Methodologies

The principle that should inform all process drama activity in the school is the fostering of the child’s spontaneous impulse for make-believe play and its preservation in a fulfilled experience of drama activity throughout the primary school.

The essential components of process drama are:

• the strand units of the curriculum as above.

• the three prerequisites for making process drama

• the eight elements of drama.

The prerequisites for making drama

• content
• the fictional lens
• the creation of a safe classroom environment.

The first two, content and the fictional lens, provide the approach, the gateway, into a drama activity in the classroom. The third, a safe environment, is absolutely essential if the drama is to be successful.

The Content

The content of drama is always some aspect of life. Its source is a combination of

• material experienced, imagined or read about 

• aspects of life from the past, present or possible future that will arouse the pupils’ curiosity 

• the needs, concerns and preoccupations of the children 

• issues such as relationships that the teacher may wish to explore through drama 

• curriculum material, whose codes drama can crack and the human aspects of which may need to be explored actively

The fictional lens

When the content is chosen it is examined through the medium of the fictional lens. This is the means by which content is translated into story. For example, the issue of bullying might be examined through making a fiction about a boy and his dog, his friends, his parents, their kindness and their cruelties. The lens of fiction distances the issue enough to make it safe for the participants to handle while at the same time presenting it in such a way that the essential elements become clear.

Creating a safe environment

The making of drama involves entering the drama world with as much honesty, authenticity and spontaneity as possible. The degree of spontaneity will be in direct proportion to the emotional and physical safety that the child feels. Insecurity may be caused by the child’s temperament, his family background, the social relationships in the class, or how emotionally safe he/she feels with the teacher. The teacher, in the drama class, can address these problems directly by creating fictions that explore such issues as gender equity, self-esteem, the valuing of difference, the acceptance of responsibility, or the development of positive attitudes towards problemsolving. However, he will get truly spontaneous work and innovative thinking from the class only if positive attitudes in these areas are continually nurtured at a practical level in the drama class.

The elements of drama

Drama has a number of defining characteristics. These are the elements of drama. They dictate the structure of dramatic form and give the drama its characteristic mode of expression. They are as relevant to process drama in the classroom as they are to the corpus of world theatre. The elements of drama are

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Approaching a Drama Activity

Using a Stimulus

Great drama can arise from using an interesting and stimulating base for the work. Following are various ideas for what to use to stimulate a drama lesson or scheme of work.

Poems

Search around for anything which has a central character or which highlights an issue strongly, or has good physical or comedy potential.

Pictures/Photographs

Find pictures in books or magazines or bring in photographs from home to use as a starting point.  Use old photographs to develop a Drama lesson based on an era in History.

Pictures from newspapers also work well. Keep an eye out everywhere for anything which is interesting, unusual or which sparks your imagination.

Newspaper Headlines

Excellent for exploring a range of topical issues.  

Objects

Search your cupboards for anything slightly old, very interesting or unusual. Everyday objects can also have a ‘story’ built around them if approached in the right manner.

Quotations

Any quote which sparks your imagination can be a good basis of a lesson – historical or current.  Could also use Seanfhocal’s as Gaeilge.

Music

Any piece of music ranging from classical to pop can be used in Soundtracking or students may improvise what they feel is happening in the composition.

Stories

Reading extracts and then exploring central characters, or ‘what happens next’, can instigate a variety of drama work. Encouraging them to invent their own stories can also become the basis for drama work.

Fables, Bible Stories, Myths

Highlight one small aspect or explore in full detail. Central characters can be used to highlight personal dilemmas. Themes and issues can be linked to the pupils’ own experiences.

Subjects

All subjects can provide a stimulus for Drama lessons.

Drama Strategies

Visualisation:

Imagining the setting in which the drama takes place or imagining what a character or a scene looks like.

Soundtracking:

Using sounds to accompany an action. Can use dialogue, voices or instruments to create a mood or paint a picture.

Freezes/Still Image:

Using their own bodies, members of a group create an image of an event, idea or theme similar to a waxwork or still photograph.  Still images can be brought to life through improvisation.  Can be combined with flashbacks and flashforwards.

Hot-Seating:

A character is questioned by the group about his or her background, behaviour and motivation.

Teacher-in-Role:

The teacher assumes a role in relation to the pupils. A role signifier is usually used to help the transition from teacher to the role.

Small Group Improvisation:

Small groups plan, prepare and present improvisations as a means of expressing understanding of a situation, idea or experience.

Forum Theatre:

A situation or improvised piece is enacted by a small group whilst the rest of the group (including the teacher) observe. Action may be frozen at any time by both the actors and the observers. Observers may step in and take over roles or add to them. Proceedings may be controlled by the teacher if necessary. Excellent for assessment.

Mime to a narration:

The teacher reads aloud instructions or an extract to the class and children mime what is being said.

Briefing:

A suggestion or instruction may be given to one character, of which the other characters may or may not be unaware, which gives a new direction to the drama.

Hidden Brief:

One group of pupils is given a piece of information, while the remainder of the group are given a conflicting piece of information or set of instructions. In this way when the two characters come together to play the scene, their objectives may clash dramatically.

Conscience Alley:

The class are formed into two lines between which a character can walk. As (s)he walks down the ‘alley’ the lines form, individuals offer various opinions (as when listening to one's own conscience) as a character tries to make a decision.

Thought Tracking:         

The private thoughts or reactions of a character are spoken publicly by the character. It might be used when the action is frozen or used in conjunction with still images.

Role on the wall /Role on the Floor: 

An important role is represented on paper through drawings or words identifying key facts and exploring attitudes, relationships, feelings, etc.

Character profiling:

Similar to role on the wall – children fill out a profile sheet on a character including details such as name, age, likes, dislikes eye colour.

Writing in role:

Similar to character profiling, the children write about their character in the first person.

Collective role:

A character is improvised by a group, any one of whom can speak as that character.

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Linkage and Integration

The content of drama is life experience itself. This may come from children’s own general experience or from the content of one of the other curriculum areas. Drama provides the child with a unique and potent means of learning, whatever the content.

Drama may be used as a means by which a piece of knowledge becomes accessible to the child in a way that is not possible in any other learning context.  It can be integrated with other parts of the curriculum by using drama itself as the starting point. An approach to learning about the Great Famine, for example, might begin with a drama about a family in famine times. Through it the child could not only ‘live through’ and come to know what it was like to live then but, as a series of drama activities develops, he would be led to research factual material and internalise it by incorporating it into the drama world and refracting it through the drama experience. 

An Ghaeilge agus drámaíocht

The greatest benefit of drama in Irish is that it can bring fluency in the language to the speed of life. Drama activity in Irish should not, therefore, be inhibited by continued interruption from the teacher to ensure accuracy. Any common mistakes can be referred to later and corrected. More than anything else, a lack of vocabulary can inhibit the success of the drama. To counteract this the child should be encouraged to use whatever language is most effective and appropriate in order to retain the spontaneity of the drama.

The content of drama in Irish sometimes needs to be simpler than that used in English drama and is often slightly restricted to allow the child to create freely within a language range with which he/she is reasonably comfortable. A pleasant drama game is to ask the children to create playlets around groups of words supplied by the teacher. This can form the tréimhse réamhchumarsáide (pre-communicative phase) and lead to the teaching of the vocabulary.

Using different short improvisations in Irish to build up a day in the life of a certain character is another useful strategy. The pre-text for this activity can be four six-line scripts supplied by either the pupils or the teacher.

The integration of Irish and drama in ways like these will assist the child’s drama education and at the same time help him/her to achieve greater fluency and expressiveness in Irish.

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Assessment

Looking closely at children's work

Assessment in drama, as in every other area of the curriculum, is an essential element of the learning and teaching process. It is through continuous monitoring of the children’s engagement with drama that the teacher can plan the drama experiences that will develop their drama skills 

A successful drama experience will have at its core the child’s ability to enter fully into the drama, engaging with as much depth and belief as possible in the characters and accepting the dramatic logic of their situation in the drama.

The content objectives of the curriculum above indicate clearly the drama skills that the child needs to acquire and they also incorporate the concepts based on the elements of drama that he will develop. In taking part in the various drama activities the child’s progress in mastering these skill and concepts can be monitored.

Since the learning benefits of drama derive principally from the drama process itself only a limited number of assessment tools are appropriate to it.  These are

• teacher observation 
• teacher-designed tasks and tests
• work samples, portfolios and projects

Writing, art work and other examples of children’s response to, reflection on and extension of their drama experience.

• curriculum profiles

Short descriptive statements of pupils’ achievements, behaviour and attitudes in relation to drama and to learning through drama.

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Children with Different Needs

Because of its nature and the unique learning experience it has to offer, drama is particularly relevant to children with special needs. It can be of enormous benefit both in terms of affective and cognitive development.

The drama experience in general and the activities in the strand unit ‘Co-operating and communicating in making drama’ provide learning opportunities that are crucial to children with special needs. It can, in particular, contribute to the child’s language development in extending vocabulary and expressive ability. The physical dimension of drama will also assist non-verbal expression. In developing the child’s concepts of drama, elements such as place and time, spatial awareness and more accurate perceptions of time relationships are cultivated. Furthermore, the story base of process drama will help to develop the child’s ability to understand and express the sequential nature of events, and the importance of focusing on different aspects of a drama activity will foster powers of concentration.

Because drama is a co-operative activity, it provides a valuable experience in turn-taking and in working with others in order to achieve particular goals. One of the essential learning benefits of drama is that it provides the opportunity to deal with questions of choice and conflict by distancing them in the fictional context, thus helping to provide a safe environment in which to explore them. Above all, because it gives such scope for self-expression and selfrealisation, the contribution drama can make to the child’s self-esteem is incalculable.

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Organisational Planning

Allocation of Time

The contribution that drama has to make to the child’s development and learning in school underlines the importance of planning for it when allocating time to the different curriculum areas and to the subjects within them. The allocation of time to drama will have two sources:

•  in the time allocation given to Arts education

•  in its integration with other subjects and curriculum areas.

The most obvious locations for drama are the classroom and the school hall, although there is no reason why, in good weather, effective drama activities cannot be pursued out of doors.  Teachers will be allocated two half hour slots in the school hall as part of the yearly timetabling.  With effective communication on weather permitting days, a teacher may avail of their partner – teacher’s allocated Hall time while they conduct their P.E. class outdoors.

Time will be allocated to Drama as part of the The Arts Education programme in co-ordinance with The Primary School Curriculum guidelines

Resources

At present Drama Resources are kept with the postholder.

• Drama Resource Folder
• Drama Lessons for five to Eleven-Year-Olds by Judith Ackroyd and Jo Boulton
• 101 Drama Games For Children by Paul Rooyackers
• 100+ Ideas for Drama by Anna Scher & Charles Verrall
• Large selection of Ladybird Well Loved Tales

Suggested Websites for Drama

General Reading on Drama

www.childdrama.com/mainframe.html
www.creativedrama.com/
www.dramaineducation.com
www.artsonthemove.co.uk
www.drama-education.com/site/

Planning for Drama

www.pcsp.ie
www.sdps.ie
www.ncca.ie

Drámaíocht agus an Ghaeilge

www.pcsp.ie
www.into.ie
www.scoilnet.ie
www.tobar.ie (put drámaíocht into search engine)

Drama Games

www.creativedrama.com/theatre.htm
www.artsonthemove.co.uk/
www.aspa.asn.au/Projects/
www.bced.gov.bc.ca
www.learnimprov.com

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Health and Safety

Consideration must be given to the following when planning for drama:

• Children’s ability to move furniture in order to create adequate space for activities in classroom.
• Children move and act in a safe way during all lessons.
• Understanding the key concept – When the class is over the drama is over.
• Mutual agreement on a Drama Contract at the beginning of each year.

Our Drama Contract

During our Drama Class:

We agree to:

• Work together
• Listen to each other
• Respect each other
• Try to take part in each activity
• Follow our teacher’s instructions

We agree not to:

• Tease each other
• Boast or show off

When the class is over, the drama is over.

Signed _____________

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