Prescribed Learning Outcomes
It is expected that students will:
- demonstrate a willingness to express their feelings and ideas
- demonstrate respect for the contributions of others
- describe their response to a dramatic work
- demonstrate a willingness to work co-operatively
To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Exploration and Imagination in other grades click on an icon below.
|
Suggested Instructional Strategies
- Divide the class into two groups and ask each group to create a new set of actions for the same nursery rhyme or song, keeping the feelings and ideas of the original piece. Have groups perform the actions for one another. As each group performs, ask the audience questions such as:
- How do the characters feel about what they are doing or what is happening to them?
- How do you feel about what they are doing?
- After watching a dramatic performance or attending an art display, conduct a class discussion in which students share what they saw, what ideas were expressed, and how they responded to the work.
- As students listen to a piece of program music, have them work with partners to create story ideas based on the music. For each pair, have student A describe student B's story ideas to the class, then reverse the process. Emphasize listening carefully to the ideas of others and accepting all contributions. As a class, choose from the given ideas to create a class story.
- Present children's literature with pictures to evoke emotions. Help students to identify the various emotions of the characters. Ask them to use their faces and bodies to show how they would express their feelings in the same situations.
- Ask students to sit in a circle. Select a simple object in the room (e.g., a pencil) and have them use their imaginations to explore ways to change it into something else (e.g., turn a pencil into a toothbrush by miming brushing teeth).
Suggested Assessment Strategies
- As students participate in drama activities, note and encourage behaviours such as:
- listening attentively and courteously to one another
- showing interest and attention by asking questions or offering praise
- recognizing how others are feeling, and responding appropriately
- making suggestions about how an activity might develop or what to do next
- answering questions with relevant ideas
- When students view and discuss pictures from children's literature, look for evidence that they are able to:
- talk about a variety of feelings
- make logical connections between facial expressions, body language, and feelings
- use an increasing range of language to label and describe feelings
- make connections to other characters, people, events, stories, or pictures (e.g., "I know who felt just that same way!" "That's how ---------- looked when ------------- .")
- make connections to their own feelings (e.g., "That's how surprised I felt when my sisterer brought a puppy home!")
- mimic some of the expressions they see
- project into the pictures to speculate about what people or characters might say
- Model positive and encouraging questions and comments that students can use to offer feedback after a drama activity. For example:
- When we were in role, I noticed that you
---------- .
- I liked the way you ---------- .
- How did you feel when ---------- ?
- What part of the drama was most fun for you?
- Have students draw and label pictures of themselves taking part in drama activities. Encourage them to show what they are doing and thinking (some students might use thought balloons). Their pictures can become part of portfolios or collections for reporting.
Recommended Learning Resources
Print Materials
- Building Plays
- Center Stage
- Christmas On Stage
- Drama Guidelines
- Dramathemes
- In Role
- Readers Theatre for Beginning Readers
- Story Drama
