Day 2-Diving into Drama

It is exciting to be in the second drama class of the year, it is great to be up and moving early in the morning as it really gets your day started. Today my group had the opportunity to present several drama strategies including choral reading, mirrors, tableau and caption making. We chose a classic Robert Munch book (one of my favourite authors) for our mentor text today. One strategy that stuck out for me was mirrors. I found this one very challenging and I am thinking it would be best used in a junior setting rather than a primary setting. I think the concept is easily grasped by students however perfecting it (making the movements look they are legitimately being mirrored) is challenging. There were only a few students in the class today that had the technique really down pat. This exercise was a great way for to use space and movement incorporating the elements of dance. 

Mirroring performed by students in the class 

Another great strategy we used today was the dance cards! What a fantastic idea, as a dance teacher i find it easy to use my body for expression and creativity however i know this is not the case for everyone. Having the cards down on the floor in front of the students allowed for ideas but still left so much room for creativity for students picking how they would display that movement. I also really loved how we put our movements together creating a sequence, this showed students really how a dance or movement sequence is created. I always tell my dance students (when i ask them to create their own dance) that creating a dance is easier than you think you just combine movements together in counts of 8. I do similar exercises in some of my younger dance classes... to really get the kids thinking and creating not just 

dancing.  

  

I also think the creative movement aspect of drama is fantastic for students in need of specific accommodations. Students who cannot use their legs or arms can still discover other parts of their body to incorporate in their movements. I also find dance is a great way to help focus students, if you let students move around and shake it off you can see a refocus in them (especially the young ones).