Drama is a discipline that originates in the impulse to depict experiences, communicate understanding of those experiences, and give them form and meaning. Drama is a powerful mode of expression that has evolved over time to include a variety of forms and techniques.Drama is both a process and an art form. As an interactive, creative developmental process, it engages students in relationships with others and the environment. It involves spontaneous dramatic play and the games, roles, and dramatizations arising from students' imagination and experiences. Students learn to interpret and represent the dynamics of human interactions through their work in drama, and this understanding is the foundation of knowledge about drama as an art form. Through drama education, students also increase their knowledge of and critical appreciation for live theatre and film and television productions.
In drama education, students examine human experiences through imagined roles and situations and value the contribution of drama in bringing meaning to ideas and feelings. Drama reflects students' daily lives as they connect with others, experience tension, resolve conflict, and create meaning in their world. It allows them to experience life-like situations, to make choices, and to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions in a safe and nurturing environment. By taking on roles, students can gain enjoyment and a deepened awareness of themselves and others from a variety of perspectives.
Drama also reflects and affects the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which it exists. For this reason, drama education provides a unique opportunity to foster respect for and appreciation of a variety of values and cultures. In addition, students gain understanding of the role of the arts, including drama, in reflecting and challenging social values throughout history. Drama education helps learners make sense of their world by integrating experience with knowledge.
Learning in drama enhances learning in all other areas. Through drama, students are able to make connections between previous and current learning and among various subject areas. Drama education helps students develop intellectually by expanding their capacities for creative thought and expression, and by encouraging critical-thinking skills such as curiosity, inventiveness, and flexibility. Drama education also fosters personal growth, self-confidence, and a variety of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are transferable to a wide range of careers.
The Drama K to 7 curriculum develops the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that form the basis for drama education from Kindergarten to Grade 12. This IRP has been designed to make drama accessible to all students while encouraging the aesthetic, physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and career development of each individual.
As students participate in drama in the elementary years, they learn to define their own expectations and to challenge themselves, experiment, and grow. Success in drama education comes as students gain new understanding of issues or relationships through their experiences.
Drama education in the elementary years involves the use of specific techniques and structures that increase in variety, sophistication, and subtlety with experience. As they develop drama skills, students gain competence and confidence in assuming roles, interacting with others in role, and arranging playing spaces for dramatic work.
In the elementary years, students' own experiences will serve as a starting point for descriptions, discussions, reflection, and analysis of drama from other contexts. This in turn provides students with a window through which diverse cultures can be viewed.
Revised: July 8, 1998
