Reflection #4 Drama

I have a hard time following the what, so what, now what formula. Tonight I am just going to write about what I know and have learned.

I don't remember drama ever being used in the classroom when I was a child. What I do remember was getting very much involved in drama in Jr. High. I know that this was what the book called product oriented drama and not process drama,but it really helped me to gain confidence and self esteem. I was very shy all through my elementary, Jr. High and High school years. Drama "gave me a voice." I remember when I was in 8th grade the most popular boy in school tried out for the school musical, he was a ninth grader. It was the first time ever that a "jock" tried out. The play was Annie Get Your Gun. I played a saloon girl, he had the male lead. In one of his songs we were suppose to flirt with him. I went for it. I kissed him. I never would have done that in real life and I never did talk to him. But I could honestly say that I kissed the most popular boy in school. In real life I was timid, shy and reserved. On stage I was free. I could be anyone or anything I wanted to be.

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to see drama used in a few different ways with students. As a Cub Scout leader, every summer we take the boys to day camp. The first thing they do is learn the camp rules. The older boys act out the rules, both braking them and keeping them. I thought it was just a fun way to introduce the rules. I didn't realize then that it was a way to help the boys learn. Two years ago I substitute thought a class that had an Autistic student. The teacher left a lesson plan for me, to read the book " I Feel Silly and Other Emotions" by Jamie Lee Curtis and she wanted me to discuss emotions with the students. As I read the book I noticed that the Autistic child didn't seem to be paying attention. I figured that the purpose of this lesson was to help him. Children with Autism have a hard time reading peoples faces and understanding emotions or how to control their own. I know this because I have a son with Aspergers syndrome ( high functioning Autism). The teacher didn't leave any guide lines for the discussion so I took some liberties with it. First I had the students show me the different emotions with their faces. I noticed that the Autistic student was now watching his fellow classmates from a distance. After that I had the students stand up and show me using their whole bodies what each emotion would look like. Now the Autistic child was completely engrossed in watching his fellow classmates. Then we discussed how everyone has felt everyone of those emotions some time or another and how it's OK to feel angry, sad, scared or frustrated. The important thing is how we deal with our emotions. Then we discussed what would be some expectable ways to handle anger, sadness, fear or frustrations. It was a lot of fun and it was exciting to see the Autistic boys curiosity peeked.

Last year when I was doing my field work for my intro. to education class. I twice got to see drama used in the classroom. The first time was for literature circles. The students are put into groups of five students and assigned a book to read, they are each given assignments that they rotate through such as connector, vocab, artist and summery. The teacher has several individual activities for them to do for her to make assessments. One of the activities is for a student to convince the rest of his group to act out a seen from the book. The student leads the group, assigning parts, costumes and props. Then they put on a performance for us. It was great. The second time there was also another student from BYU doing field work. I was not there the day before so I'm not sure of the objective of her lesson but she broke the class up into groups then assigned each group a scene from a Shakespearian play. The students then had a certain amount of time to come up with costumes, props, decided who was doing what parts then practice. They performed the next day. That's when I was there. I was very impressed by the performances, especially when I found out that they had only started the day before. One group was particularly creative. It was a scene, I think, is from Macbeth. Were three witches our making a potion or a brew. The girls were leaning over a cauldron that had homemade root-beer and dry ice for special affects. After their performance everyone got a cup of root-beer.

I have always thought of drama as being an important part of learning. It gives students a chances to come out of their shells and explore other people, emotions and situations. What better way to learn about oneself and others.