The Importance Of Drama Within The Classroom

I was having a Les Misérables kindof day. My monolog from Rent was perfectly rehearsed for

As the children engage in dramatic and imaginative play together, they are creating stories. These stories are then told to and transcribed by Paley (1990) and acted out on a pretend stage by the students in the class. Each student or storyteller in the eyes of Paley (1990), chooses classmates to perform the roles in his or her story, and each story is re-enacted at least once, if not multiple times. For example:

In a previous lesson, the teacher demonstrated a “Think-Aloud” strategy with Gary Soto’s short story “Seventh Grade,” to teach students the elements of a plot. The teacher read the beginning of the story and then stopped to ask the students to identify information about the characters, the setting, and the background information that establishes the exposition of the plot. She repeated this process with the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. The students recorded notes and observations in a graphic organizer.

My apprehension only seemed to grow as the time dragged on. Suddenly, I heard our school name. Adrenaline rushed through me as we ran out onto the mats with gaudy smiles on out faces. The music thundered behind us as we jumped, stunted, and danced. It felt like it was over in a heartbeat. The experience as a whole left me utterly exhausted; so much in fact that when it came time for awards, I was quite frankly too worn out to care. We had done our best and there was nothing we could do to alter our fate at that point. Still, I couldn't help but attempt to play back our performance in my head. "We were nowhere near as natural or well put together as the other teams." I muttered. As it turned out, I was correct. We placed last in our

Barber, who laughed so hard that she nearly cried. I wrote like a champ that night, fueled by the fact that this project will be the best one I have ever done. This rewrite would be something that I could be proud of. I don’t like presenting in front of people, but if I know what I wrote, as well as the quality of what I wrote, I would be a lot less nervous. This being said, I remember a time when I was partnered up with someone a few years ago. We were assigned to do a project in a science class. That person and I made a fun little newscast on the weather. That was when I discovered that I would be fine in front of people if I was in a video. This led to me offering to help people who were making videos on a scene. I ended up making an appearance in most, if not all, of their videos. I was in a few fights for them, as well as playing romeo in one of them. One of those days I had two or three different changes of clothes on me, one for each video. I loved

The story has a defined three-act structure and the script is goal focused. The script is easy to read.

I choose to read Stage Struck by Tomie DePaola to a kindergarten class. The book Stage Struck was about a kindergarten class putting a play on for the school. The play was Peter Rabbit and the main character wanted to be the star of the play like he was in the last play they put on. He was so excited about the play that he could not focus on his work and kept talking to his friends about the play. The teacher told him to stop talking and when he did not stop, she told him he will not the lead star in the play someone else will be. He was a rabbit in the play and they did not have any lines to say. He remembers in his dance class that the audience like when they react to things on stage, like a smile or frowned. He came up with a plan to

The Story Pirates Theater Troupe is a nonprofit educational sketch-theater group known for teaching kids the art of storytelling through writing. The group offers in-school and afterschool theatrical programs in New York and Los Angeles. These programs are “designed to create a safe space for students to express their most outlandish ideas and develop their creative writing skills” (DeBlasis, 2015). There were doubts whether this group would be able to continue to thrive in the age of the common core state standards and rigorous accountability expectations. However, they are!

As I looked into the audience, anxiety filled my body. I am a very quiet person who never does anything exciting. Anxiety is one problem in my life that I battle everyday. Last year, I decided to take a huge step out of my comfort zone: I auditioned for the school play. This was terrifying. I have never been a huge public speaker; at times, I can barely manage to get a sentence out because of my anxiety. The director and student director gave me a part in the play. My part was a narrator and I had to be on stage describing the history of theater. My goal with acting was to overcome my fear: public speaking and stage fright.

My childhood thereafter shaped me like desert sands or crystalline waves beating tirelessly against a rock until it’s softened and unique. In my youth I stumbled across my first storytelling outlet - books. Since then, I’ve been pulled through adolescence by my passions to the point I’m at today. My decisions, like the one in which I switched schools in eighth grade to pursue greener pastures, have brought me here. Now my existence is that of a high school senior, trapped in an enthralling love affair with performance and desire to inspire.

In speech and drama, we have to use our creative minds to think of great ideas.

Making: I used the process of observing when I wrote, filmed and edited my production as I looked at it from different perspectives to self critique my work, in order to improve it. I also, compared and contrasted variations of my work to make choices about which was the most effective.

We have been watching the in-school performances for the Drama Theatre Arts classes every year since eighth grade. To be apart of what I saw on stage was certainly a compelling experience. Being in Drama Club, I understood what I was getting myself into. It was great to still being with students like Nora and Alyssa who had a passion for theatre, but I also had to work with people who aren’t as into performing on stage. Theatre is a collaborative effort. Each group project provided an internal struggle in the group. Either someone didn’t know their lines, was uncomfortable on stage, or was just hard to work with. I often found myself trying to hold a group together and solving their problems. I know I’m going to experience people like in the theatre world, so I am glad I have experience in group thinking in an environment where I'm not

They are allowed become apart of something that is far greater than joining the football team. These students can show and portray true emotions whether it may be comedic or tragic, the power of theater will impact their lives in a positive way. Although the task is very challenging, students who are willing to take the risk use their creative thinking to find different solutions to problems that may occur. Connecting with others is inevitable when being apart of the theater program. Group scenes allow actors to work and collaborate with each other to make the performance interesting and life like. Back stage crew workers communicate to each other about lighting, costumes, makeup, sets, and props for the production of the show, along with stage managers and assistants. Theater arts teachers explain the importance of communication and working together to become closer to each other, and to develop relationships of trust and

When I first started to think about what the theme of my lesson was going to be, I immediately thought about my preschool and pre-k students that I work with on a daily basis. What are they learning now? What are some important concepts in life that haven’t been taught in depth? What concept can be difficult to comprehend without implementing drama? These were just some of the many questions that were going through my head. When I first came across the book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Speirs, I immediately was captured by the theme of perseverance in the book. The week that I found the book, I had been working with a student who was trying to complete a puzzle and she was getting frustrated. I sat down with her and encouraged her to continue trying and with a little help she completed the puzzle. The look on her face when she completed that puzzle was electrifying. She was so excited and so proud of herself when she finally fit that last piece into the puzzle. This experience helped me when choosing the topic of my monologue because when I came across the book, I realized that the concept of perseverance would be a perfect concept to teach through the integration of drama. One reason, I felt like the integration of drama would be so useful in teaching this concept was that many students are probably able to comprehend the definition of perseverance, but what does perseverance look like? How does it feel when you persevere? That is where I thought integrating drama