Entry 5 part 2

Entry 5 marks my last visit to the Elements of Drama. I chose to highlight the elements that I felt was vital to students' understanding of drama and which needed scrutinizing. On top of that, however, I will not be forsaking the other elements of Drama as listed by practitioners like O'Toole in Dramawise. I believe firmly in teaching Role and relationship,movement and language to the students as well. I have highlighted some drama games pertaining to role and relationships in the first entry which would be great entry points for all drama lessons especially those in the Lower Secondary. Movement and language, however, are ever present lessons in class as I will explain in the podcast below. With all these elements, i believe students will be well equipped with the basic applications of the elements. Understanding these are vital as I will mention in my next few entries, the O level Drama syllabus' written paper requires student to be competent in identifying these elements and go beyond that and examine their overall effect.

On top of that, these elements also help Lower Secondary students have a basic idea of what Drama is and when we infuse them in our lessons, their understandings are heightened and they have a stronger sense of what Drama is.

So here is the last podcast on the Elements of Drama and their classroom use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlgkDHSzKzo

Entry 5 Part 1

The Element of Drama I will be approaching next, and the last one that I will look at in detail, is that of the usage of Symbols in Drama. As seen from the slides below, I highlight some aspects of symbolism from my group's ensemble piece. We had a clear direction as to what we wanted to do for the piece and all of our symbols were well placed to bring out the overall meaning of the play. In the same way, I would want students in my class to be able to understand the usage of symbols in their play and understand the significance of it at the same time. In our recent stint to CHIJ St. Nick's we saw performances from Secondary 3 students where they used a lot of symbolism to negotiate their texts. They found the symbols to be an effective way in bringing out the overall meaning of their text.

(If slides don't appear below please click on the following link: https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ARC5rVSbLPmZZGh3Y3NmOV8xMmZiYzloOWdm )

Entry 4 Part 2

 As i approach the end of my exploration of Elements of Drama in the classroom, I have to start looking at lesson planning which was also covered in class..

The link below labeled "Lesson plan Newspaper", leads to the "Curriculum Times", a newspaper editted by me on the expected things to look out when planning a Drama lesson in the classroom (Please click on link directly below):

 

Lesson plan Newspaper

Entry 4 Part 1

Taking cue from last week's podcast and thoughts on Focus, this week i will explore more on space and place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPEJJA_-p0g

Teaching Space/Place in a Singapore Classroom

           

     One of the things that can be done is to give students a certain setting and ask them, to recreate the setting on stage. They can do this in various groups and they can explore their different interpretations and manipulations of the space to achieve the setting. They should also be equipped with basic technical knowledge on how to work the lighting and sound in the space given to them. Most drama schools in Singapore will have their own Drama rooms. It is vital for them to understand how they can transform the room to the liking of their own plays. This will also do them good during the recordings for the “O” level examination submissions when they reach Secondary 4, should they decide to major in Drama for their “O” levels.

Also, students must know why they choose that particular piece of staging and why the use of certain lightings or set design? There must be a reason set for it as “many settings carry with them very strong associations” (Hoseman & O’Toole, 1986) which will be conveyed to the audience. Students must be able to understand this and provide an adequate rationale for their choices

Challenges

             

   From my experience during my practicum in a school offering drama, I noticed that there were many limitations to the spaces on offer. The drama rooms did not have that many facilities that one would expect from a Drama space. Students are limited. Thus, students must work on their envisioning skills to transform the space creatively. Furthermore, from my recent visit to CHIJ St Nick’s, I learnt that the requirement for an overly elaborate set is not there. Thus, students should only need to know the basic technical skills and as a teacher we should not dwell too much on it.

                Students also tend to get carried away and start making up settings that do not tie in well with the demands of a scene or act. They may even stray off course and allow the constraints of the space to block their progress in developing a good setting via the space. It is vital for students to stay focused here and also think critically about every set design and usage of space onstage. They cannot deviate from their requirements. Teachers must monitor this closely as students are often susceptible to such things.

Reference:

Haseman, B., & Toole, J. (1986). 4. Dramawise: an introduction to the elements of drama (pp. 52-60). Richmond, Vic.: Heinemann Educational Australia.

Entry 3 part 2

Teaching Focus/Place/space and in a Singaporean Classroom

                As I showed from the video, one of the ways of teaching focus to students is to get them to act out a scene from different perspectives. For this exercise, I will use scenes that are synonymous with the Singaporean context. For instance, using scenes like in a Singaporean hawker centre, MRT train, bus stop or a HDB block of flats may be relatable for the students and they will be able to devise it faster. It can also allow them to critically assess the characters involved. For instance, taking cue from my group’s ensemble piece, while removing the “foreign talent” aspect of it, I can actually get students to enact a scene where there are characters like an old man trying to get a sit from a younger passenger, someone observing them from a far and a news reporter. I will then ask the students to guess which part of the focus of the scene they were. On top of this, we are also exploring some Singaporean Social issues and students begin to see different perspectives and are encouraged to wonder how to negotiate the scene. A questioning process can be conducted after this scene is enacted to get the students to think about how the issues in the scene can be negotiated. The responses from the students can be recorded in journals and this helps to shape them as 21^st century concerned citizens with greater social awareness. A forum theatre understanding may also be developed through this as the format is similar (though there is no acting involved to remedy the situation here) and in the future, this serves as an entry point into venturing into that just to beef up the student’s knowledge on a dramatic style and technique which is part of the Drama O level syllabus.

                Another aspect of focus is the focus in constructing Drama. This is a crucial aspect in the classroom setting as based on my experience during my practicum as students tend to get sidetracked, distracted or restless during lessons and while devising. One of the methods that can be used to teach them focus would be to get a student to lead another using the palm of his/her hand. The other student follows the palm and focuses on it, blocking off any other distractions. This allows the student to understand how good focus allows them to follow through the task at hand and also this helps the students’ relationships and they build trust from this game.

Challenges

                The lesson on focus is a bit tricky as the various angles of focus may be hard for the students to decipher. Thus, it is crucial that before they go into practicing the different angles of focus that they understand it well.  The Normal Academic and Normal technical students may not be able to critically analyze the scenes they depict so I will concentrate more on getting the technical aspects of focus right. Their lower abilities mean that they may struggle to move further on in the lesson so I must take that into consideration and maybe just add some guiding questions along the way for them to identify the rights and wrongs. Also, using a questioning process where students sit down and discuss the issues together may also not work if it takes too long. As identified by David Hornbrook in Education and Dramatic Art, Pupils who enter a drama lesson do not want to spend long periods of time locked in discussion (Hornbrook,2002) . From my previous observations during practicum I find that to be especially true as students tend to get very restless if left sitting on the floor and in discussion for too long. Thus, if my discussions span too long, I should avoid them or do something else like making students discuss in role where they stay in character and exchange perspectives. For the lower Secondary students, I must also be aware that the aim of the lesson would be to teach the students about focus so I will not overtly dwell on issues that invite a lengthy discussion. I will concentrate my effort on showing them the different outlooks of a piece and how it affects it.

References:

Hornbrook, D. (2002). 2 The Players: Dorothy, Gavin and the New Muggletonians. Education and dramatic art (Taylor & Francis e-Library ed., pp. 17-28). New York: Routledge.

Entry 3 Part 1

For this post, I have explored the Element of Focus and how I will teach it in a classroom. For more understanding of the idea of focus and place. I have came out with this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyuhK90ihlY



This video will help in my lesson for the student which will be explained further in this podcast::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjmNgSjl96U

Entry 2 Part 2

Teaching Dramatic tension in Singaporean classroom

As mentioned in the podcast, there are several ways for us to teach the 4 aspects of Dramatic tension in the classroom. However, as I have mentioned in the first week, there needs to be more done than just the learning outcome of their ability to identify and perform a certain kind of tension. We must infuse some personal development in the students as well. So, for instance, in a game like “Grandmother’s footsteps” to teach them about the tension of surprise, I could make variations of it like giving students roles as they approach to “Grandmother” so that they have a sense of role-playing and character development even, through this exercise. I can also give the more timid students or less outspoken students a chance to take centre stage and become the “Grandmother” to get them feeling confident and be immersed in the lesson, hopefully allowing them to gain some confidence in the process.

Possible challenges

                As I go about teaching Dramatic tension in class, I must be vary of the fact that there are many games from which students need to trust each other and, thus, I must be involved in the student’s learning process and guide them carefully through the game to prevent any clashes amongst themselves or cheating. One thing I could do is, as mentioned by Toole, Stinson and Moore (2009) in Drama and Curriculum, making myself a “teacher-in-role” and getting involved in the roles students play (Caroll,1980 ).  Some games like those that require blindfolds may be difficult for some students and some may even struggle to grasp the concepts brought about by these games. Thus, scaffolding carefully is of the upmost importance. I cannot assume students will gain the knowledge based only on the games and if I feel that students cannot get the concepts (especially the NA and NT students), I must add variations and simplify the games. I will not be able to cover all the aspects on Dramatic tension in one lesson as it would be too heavy on the students so I will need to plan this out to ensure that it spans at least 2-3 weeks so that students effectively grasp the differences in the concepts and have a clear understanding.

References:

Toole, J., Stinson, M., & Moore, T. (2009). Drama and Language. Drama and curriculum a

giant at the door (p. 51). Dordrecht: Springer.