Drama Across the Curriculum

            The arts curriculum provides an authentic medium through which students can explore and express themselves and through which they can understand and interpret their everyday world. According to the Ministry of Education  Arts Curriculum document, “The drama curriculum is intended to help students to develop an understanding and appreciation of drama, as well as the ability to create works using the forms, concepts, elements and conventions of the discipline” (p. 15).  Without connecting drama strategies to other curriculum areas, students will fail to see the relevancy in their life. Although drama should be viewed as a critical subject within the curriculum, integrating the strategies and development of dramatic arts skills into other subjects will create meaningful learning experiences for students and motivate them to participate in their dramatic arts education.

            Teachers should be focusing on deepening the educational experience for students. Referring back to our guiding theories, there are multiple intelligences in which students possess and because students remember more when they are actively engaged with content, it is critical that teachers facilitate meaningful, hands-on learning activities for students. Integrating dramatic arts strategies with mainstream subjects can be a great tool to building authentic learning experiences. By integrating drama strategies, in one lesson you can reach students of all learning styles and educational backgrounds.

            Integrating arts into the curriculum proves that teacher-directed lessons and paper-and-pencil tasks are not necessarily the most effective pedagogical methods for engaging students. It is important to incorporate a variety of learning styles and provide an outlet that students can remember and reference throughout their education. Students motivation levels are affected by the strategies and teaching techniques that teachers choose to implement therefore, by creating movement opportunities, having students act out scenes, creating soundscapes, interviewing characters or debating through role taking, students will be more engaged in their learning process. By integrating drama into other subjects, students are encouraged to actively participate and given ownership in building their knowledge.

            Throughout our Arts Course, drama was integrated across the curriculum. This helped to give meaning to the drama strategies that we were participating in because they were connected to familiar content. The strategies were matched with language, social studies, science, and physical education.

Referring back to the drama strategies explained previously, I’ll give you a glimpse of how they were incorporated into various subjects within the curriculum…

Science& “What if?”

·         Grade 4 - Science and Technology- Pulleys and Gears

o   1.1 assess the impact of pulley systems and gear systems on daily life

o   3.6 identify pulley systems (e.g., clotheslines, flagpoles, cranes, elevators, farm machinery) and gear systems (e.g., bicycles, hand drills, can openers) that are used in daily life, and explain the purpose and basic operation of each

·         Drama

o   B1.3 plan and shape the direction of the drama or role play by posing questions and working with others to find solutions, both in and out of role

Review – “What if?” strategy requires students to think quickly to answer the what is questions that are directing their dramatic situations. Students must consider possible problems, outcomes and solutions to their presented scenarios.

In this activity, students were required to create a scene with a given instrument that used either pulleys or gears. Students were then presented with a problem through a what if strategy and had to use their knowledge of pulleys/gears to modify their scenario based on the question. For example, a fishing rod uses both pulleys and small gears within its mechanics. Students were posed with two questions, what if they caught a small fish, and what if they caught a big fish. Students then had to use their knowledge to act out the scene to exemplify that in order to catch a big fish they would have to reel really fast to turn the wheel and axel to activate the pulley. Using the drama strategy of “what if?”, students were able to identify a simple machine that are used in every day life, and how to accommodate the pulley system by posing questions in the role play.

Language, Social Studies & AlterEgo

Resource - Mirror by Jeannie Baker (picture book)

·         Grade 2 - Curriculum Connections:

o   Social Studies Strand: Features of Communities Around the World

o Demonstrate some similarities and differences in the ways communities around the world meet their needs 

o  Identify similarities and differences between their community and a community in another part of the world

o   Language: Reading

o  1.8 express personal thoughts and feelings about what has been read

o   Drama: Creating and Presenting 

     o B1.1 Engage in dramatic play and role play with a focus on exploring main ideas and central character in stories from diverse communities, times, and places

Review: Alter-ego requires one students to be in the ‘hotseat’. The character within the hotseat is presented with a scenario and a decision. The rest of the class has to situate themselves on either side of the person in the hotseat to determine whether they have a positive outlook, or negative outlook on the scenario.

During this activity, students were shown the book Mirror in which two boys lives, from Australia and Morocco, were being compared. One student is selected to be in the hotseat and told that she is to imagine herself as the child from Australia. Show the students the traveling picture in the book with people walking or riding on donkeys. Students were then asked to think about how they would feel if they were the boy from Australia and had woke up in Morocco. How would they feel if they had to walk or ride a donkey everywhere. The class was to then choose which side of the debate they identified with, if they would be happy in Morocco or unhappy. Students were then selected at random to share their ideas with the class. Through the combination of literary texts and alterego students were required to think about similarities and differences between their life and communities around the world, as well as to express their thoughts and feelings about these differences.  By taking on a role, they were exploring character development and understanding of differing communities.

Science & Mantle of Experts

·         Grade 4 – Relating Science and Technology to the Environment

o   1.1 analyse the positive and negative impacts of human interactions with natural habitats and communities, taking different perspectives into account, and evaluate ways of minimizing the negative impact

o   1.2 identify reasons for the depletion or extinction of a plant or animal species evaluate the impacts on the rest of the natural community, and propose possible actions for preventing such depletions or extinctions from happening

·         Drama

o   B 1.22 demonstrate an understanding of the element of role by selectively using a few other elements of drama (e.g., time and place, relationship, focus, emphasis) to build belief in a role and establish a dramatic context

o   B1.3 plan and shape the direction of the drama or role play by posing questions and working with others to find solutions, both in and out of role

Review: Mantle of Experts put the students in a role of expertise. An imaginary world is created in which the students represent members of a community, board or group of experts on a specific topic.

During this session, we explored the living conditions of polar bears in Northern Canada. We were presented with a scenario that due to their declining habitat and need for food polar bears were coming into our small town. The Minister of the Environment was invited to a town hall meeting because they were wishing to allocate funds to solve the polar bear problem. Each group was given an expertise within the town; Environmentalists, Oil Drillers, Business Owners, Waste Management, Community Members, Tourism Board and Researchers. Each group was to prepare a proposal for the Minister of the Environment to convince him to give their group the money to help the Polar Bears from becoming extinct. Each group had a chance to present and defend their argument to other members of the town hall meeting in order to come up with ways of minimizing the negative effects of human interaction on the environment to save the polar bears from extinction. This activity required students to adopt viewpoint of specific characters within a community to evaluate the impacts of human life on natural habitats. It also required students to stay in role when debates got heated, and to work together to find solutions to the problem.

Teacher in Role & Social Studies

·         Grade 4 – Social Studies – Medieval Times

o   Describe the hierarchical structure of medieval society and the types of people in it (e.g., peasants, officials, scholars, clergy, merchants, artisans, royalty, nobles), and explain how and why different groups cooperated or came into conflict at different times

o   Use artistic expression to re-create or respond to imaginative works from medieval times

·         Drama:

o   B1.1: Engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on exploring drama structures, key ideas, and pivotal moments in their own stories and stories from diverse communities, times and places

Review: Teacher in role is a drama strategy in the teacher takes on a role for the entire lesson. The teacher can command, start discussion and direct learning from within their role.

During this lesson, I took on the teacher in role as a character from medieval times. I lent a sense of authenticity to the learning environment because students were able to ask me questions about the time period. Also, as teacher in role I created scenarios that were relevant to my village in the medieval times. I tried to create a role in which I could lead the class while still carry an air of lightness and fun. As a jester, I was able to take on a funny, outrageous role and encourage participation through my antics.

Court Jester Johnston was not the only example of teacher in role throughout the duration of the drama course. Kari-lynn Winters incorporated teacher in role into almost every one of her lessons. This assisted us in our pedagogical development as we viewed her as an intricate part of the class. She demonstrated the importance of staying in role, conducting classroom management and participating in student presentations. 

Integration Across the Curriculum

            Ultimately, integrating drama across the curriculum allows students to interact with concepts, materials and ideas in ways in which they would not have been able to previously.  It provides opportunities for enjoyment, full understanding, experiential learning and contexts for develop critical thinking. And finally, drama enables students to be highly involved in their learning and become responsive, imaginative and creative learners.