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1. Course Information
Course Title: Drama for Teachers
Department: Drama, Theatre & Dance
Department Contact: Dr. Barbara Waldinger ([email protected])
PLAS Area Requirement: Appreciating and Participating in the Arts
Number, Title, Credits, Prerequisites of Proposed Course:
Drama 244
Three credits; no prerequisites
This is an existing course
One section to be offered every semester; 25 seats
Course Description:
This is a hands-on creative drama workshop designed for prospective teachers. The New
York State Theatre Education Association, under the aegis of the New York State Education
Department, has declared instruction in Drama/Theatre to be an essential part of all students’ K12 Education. This course introduces a methodology, “creative drama,” grounded in theatrical
techniques, that can enrich the pedagogical experience in a variety of disciplines.
While Queens College offers seminars in the teaching of English, Math, Science, Social
Studies, Foreign Language, Art, Home Economics, Music, and Health Education, none is
available in Drama. The proposed course will help to fill that gap, and will thus be attractive to
Drama majors or minors who intend to teach in the field. Such students can benefit from the
course in their work in summer camps, schools (as full-time teachers or in after-school
programs), and as artists-in-residence.
This course is also designed for Education majors. Creative drama can enliven the
teaching of every subject in the curriculum at the elementary and secondary school levels.
Each week of the semester will be devoted to a particular subject area. Students will be
assigned to teach a lesson on the topic of their choice, submitting a lesson plan to be xeroxed for
all members of the class for future use. There will be a final take-home exam in which students
will be asked to design a curriculum for the teaching of a different subject from the one they
chose for their lesson.
II. Criteria for Perspectives Courses
Because this course employs the techniques of theatre, it belongs in the category of
Appreciating and Particpating in the Arts. According to Judith Kase-Polisini, Creative Drama
“uses elements of the art of theatre, and its fundamental creative processes, to guide people in all
walks of life to realize their full potential.” Some of these theatrical elements involve students
pla ying different roles, acting in a way that reflects the illusion of real life, and collaboration,
which is the essence of dramatic art. Creative Drama is most effective when used as an artistic
process. (Judith Kase-Polisini, The Creative Drama Book: Three Approaches, 11-12).
What is Creative Drama? It is “the group creation of a play, under the guidance of a
trained leader, using the theatrical techniques of pantomime and voice improvisation.”
(Kase-Polisini, 6). According to the Children’s Theatre Association, Creative Drama is defined
as: “an improvisational, nonexhibitional, process-centered form of drama in which participants
are guided by a leader to imagine, enact, and reflect upon human experiences.” (Kase-Polisini, 7)
This method works with every population: “the young and the old, the healthy and the mentally
ill, and the handicapped.” (Kase-Polisini, 12). I have used it to teach students from pre-school
through senior citizens.
Creative Drama was first introduced by Winifred Ward at Northwestern University in the
1920s. Her published books, Creative Dramatics (1930) and Playmaking for Children (1947),
encouraged the use of improvised drama with children. Since then there has been “a geometric
explosion of publications offered in the field of improvisational drama in the United States and
England.” (Kase-Polisini, 4). In 1954, Peter Slade’s Child Drama was the first major book on
this topic in England, followed by the work of Dorothy Heathcote, Gavin Bolton, Brian Way,
Tony Jackson and Jonothan Neelands. Today there are hundreds of colleges and universities that
offer training in Creative Drama, both on the undergraduate and graduate levels.
This teaching methodology, which encourages creativity and imagination in a nonjudgmental atmosphere, will help future teachers to gain an understanding of children of all ages
and what they need to feel secure and comfortable. Only then can any of us be open to the skills
we are being taught.
Because this course offers lessons in the arts as well as the various subject areas, it will
address a liberal arts curriculum as well as the larger society in which it is placed. Subject areas
the students will teach and learn include: poetry, art, music, exploration of puppets and masks,
dance/movement, stories and storytelling, folk tales from around the world, scenes from plays,
playmaking, Theatre of the Oppressed, Drama and Theatre in Education, language arts, science,
math, history, and tolerance.
The goals for this course are varied. Students will learn that the classroom does not have
to be a place in which they or the children they teach need to sit at their desks passively. In this
class students will use their bodies, their voices, and their imaginations to understand each of the
subject areas intuitively as well as intellectually. As a result the teachers trained in this method
will encourage their own students to think creatively, to learn with their whole being, to respond
in an organic way to various subjects. They will learn to respect every student’s individuality
and to work with each other in group exercises. This type of learning is one that students will
not forget after they have graduated.
In addition , students in the course will be required to study the work of contemporary
practitioners of Creative Drama, which will inform their own lessons. They will research and
write about the approaches they discover, so that they will be aware of the latest methods and
breakthroughs in their fields.
Students are encouraged to consider diversity in their lessons. They will explore the
contributions of various cultures to each of the areas we will study. We look at each of the
subject areas (arts, sciences, literature) with a global approach, comparing and contrasting
different ways of looking at the world. For example, in teaching about puppets, masks and folk
tales, students are encouraged to bring in material that highlights different beliefs and cultures.
We also teach lessons in tolerance to avoid stereotyping, emphasizing the contributions of the
Southern Poverty Law Center and its publication, Teaching Tolerance, and the methodology
known as the World of Difference. In studying Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, we
come to understand our own behavior and the ways in which we feel oppressed or are
unknowingly oppressing others. We learn how what we do impacts on people around us. We
study how these methods have become more responsive to student needs over time. And in
every case we use the techniques of theatre to deepen our understanding of the world.
As each of the students in the course teaches his/her lesson, the rest of the class become
their students, taking on the role of whatever grade is being taught. The questions and reactions
of the class give immediate feedback to the “teacher,” who can instantly see what part of the
lesson is successful and what still needs work. Every lesson demonstrates the commitment of the
class and the “teacher” to active inquiry: how do we provide an atmosphere conducive to
learning and growth in our students?
III. Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
Suggested Course Readings:
Creative Drama
(These books offer practical exercises in movement, rhythm, mime
poetry, puppets, choral work, improvisation, stories, etc.)
Cottrell, June.
Creative Drama in the Classroom, Grades 1-3.
Heinig, Ruth Beall. Creative Drama for the Classroom Teacher.
McCaslin, Nellie.
Creative Drama in the Classroom, 5th Edition. (Required Text)
Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond.
Siks, Geraldine Brain. Creative Dramatics: An Art for Children.
Kase-Polisini, Judith.
Playmaking
Cullum, Albert.
The Creative Drama Book: Three Approaches. (This book discusses
differences between playmaking, theatre games, and educational drama.)
Aesop in the Afternoon.
Greek Tears & Roman Laughter.
Shake Hands with Shakespeare.
Push Back the Desks. (The first three books offer short plays
for children; the final book offers lessons on how to teach
various academic subjects through drama)
Siks, Geraldine Brain Children’s Literature for Dramatization: An Anthology.
Ward, Winnifred.
Playmaking with Children.
Stories to Dramatize.
Poetry
Koch, Kenneth
Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? Teaching Great Poetry to Children.
(This book is filled with ideas that demonstrate that great works can
and should be taught to children of any age.)
Theatre of the Oppressed
Boal, Augosto.
Games for Actors and Non-Actors.
Rainbow of Desire. (These books offer exercises in teaching
students how to recognize and fight oppression.)
Theatre Games
Johnstone, Keith
Spolin, Viola.
Impro.
Improvisation for the Theatre. (These books offer hundreds of
quick-thinking exercises designed to free the body and release
creativity within students.)
Drama-in-Education
Heathcote, Dorothy Collected writings on education and drama
Bolton, Gavin and
Heathcote, Dorothy
Drama for Learning; Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert
Approach to Education.
(These books explain the use of role-play in learning across the
curriculum, in which students and teachers identify a problem or task, and
explore it in role. This methodology is currently being taught at Barnard
as Reacting to the Past, to explore volatile moments in history.)
Theatre-in-Education
Jackson, Tony, editor Learning through theatre: Essays and casebooks on Theatre in Education
Learning through theatre: new perspectives on theatre in
education
(These books explore a methodology begun in Britain in 1965, in
which actor-teachers devise and research a topic relevant to children’s
own lives, presented in the schools. The CAT program, based at CUNY,
is a company that employs this method in their touring productions.)
______________________________
Assignments:
Each student will teach a 30-45 minutes lesson in one of the subject areas we will explore
this semester. The following week, the lesson, with modifications, will be typed, xeroxed and
presented to every student in the class.
Students will submit a five page research paper on the topic of his/her lesson, describing
the work of two theoretician/practitioners in the field that helped the student in the preparation of
the lesson and in future work on this topic. Footnotes and bibliography are required.
Final exam: every student will submit a take-home exam, in which they will be required
to design a one-week curriculum in a subject area that is different from the one they taught in
class. They are encouraged to use and cite sources. On the day of the scheduled final, each
student will involve the class in a short, 10 minute original exercise on any topic.
Activities:
The first two sessions will be devoted to discovering what creative drama is and how it
can energize students. We will focus on icebreaker exercises involving movement, rhythm,
mime, improvisation, and trust. Each student will be encouraged to share his/her feelings about
the activities in which they participate.
Each session thereafter will provide an opportunity for students to teach their own
lessons. If more than one student is teaching on a particular day, the lesson can be team taught
or students can give separate lessons. Each lesson must adhere to the following model, which
has been provided to the students:
1. Note grade level, time of year, number of students, amount of time for the lesson
2. Objectives (what skills do you want to teach?)
3. Materials needed (books, crayons, markers, various fabrics and decorations, glue,
scissors, costume pieces, props, paper, written materials)
4. Warm-up activities (rhythm, movement, mime, relating to the main lesson)
5. Main Lesson (should include more than one longer activity)
6. Discussion and Evaluation (student reaction to different exercises; questions to
answer)
7. Cool Down Activity (a quiet, thoughtful way to end the class)
After each lesson the student is given feedback from the class and from the professor.
Then for the rest of each session, the professor will present various exercises on that topic.
Following each one, students are given time to take notes, so that they will be available for
reference in their own classes.
IV. Assessment
Lesson plans and final exams will demonstrate the knowledge the students have gained
during the course of the semester. Course evaluations will address PLAS criteria as well.
Since most of these students will be teaching in one form or another, perhaps an effort
can be made to contact them, to learn where they are teaching, and to find out whether and how
this class has helped them to work with their own students. Some may be teaching part-time
while they are taking the course. Some of my students have been teachers on sabbatical, who
will be using the skills they have learned when they return. Thus in many cases we will have the
opportunity for more immediate feedback.
In addition, we might contact the Queens College Department of Education, to see how
students are applying what their learned in Drama for Teachers in their education classes,
lessons, and in student teaching.