West Cast Presentation February 16, 2017

About me:
Just to give you all a quick glimpse into where I am coming from in presenting
this workshop to you today. I am currently a 2nd year student in the elementary
education program at UNBC in Prince George. I was involved in theatre and Speech
Arts & Drama for 15 years. There were limitations I experienced in areas of physical
education, and keeping up with all of my friends. Yet, when I look back on my time
in theatre and plays I remember being involved just as much as every other child.
Theatre became that place for my limitations to disappear and I was able to
experience the same amount of success as my peers. Then, in my university years I
involved myself in doing lighting for the UNBC Drama club.
Introduction:
When I first began exploring the new curriculum, the cross curricular
opportunities came to me by way of generic themes across subject areas. However,
I believe that students learn best through hands on and authentic learning
opportunities. This is where I became stuck, and challenged during my planning. I
began thinking about the fact that the core competencies must be embedded
throughout the curricular content. Then, it came to me, I can use drama and theatre
as a way to engage all students in learning.

Text Book Support:

The Arts Go to School David Booth & Masayuki Hachiya (editors)
Drama is experiential, active learning. Through drama, all students including
those with exceptionalities- can improvise action and dialogue using a set of
teaching strategies that guide them to imagine, explore, enact, communicate, and
reflect upon ideas, concepts, and feelings at their own level of development (p.
60).
I personally found dramas as a way to create authentic opportunities within a
classroom setting, as drama is process-centered learning, learning that is taken
into the personal realm (p. 60).
Drama now becomes not only a subject within the curriculum, for me, it became a
way of driving content delivery. I prefer using drama games as a way to include
drama into other curricular areas. I like games because they are quick, and allow for
all students to participate in the game.

Games allow students to develop a sense of acceptance and significance within the
larger group and they eventually show more willingness to risk participation in
open-ended games that invite them to respond creatively and spontaneously (P.
61).
Through games students can learn:
- Social rules, how to follow directions, how to listen, and how to communicate
Drama across the Curriculum Workshop:
Easy drama games that create authentic learning opportunities for students:
Fruit Salad:
(For this game there is 1 less chair than there are people (including yourself))
Directions:
1) Have students sit in a circle. Choose 3 -4 types of fruit (ie. Apple, banana,
orange). Give each student the name of a fruit, alternating the pattern. This
will ensure you have roughly equal amounts of all 3 types.
2) Call the name of a fruit (ie. Apple), all of the students who had apple must get
up and find a new chair to sit in. When the caller has called the fruit they too
have to find a chair. At the end of it, there is 1 student standing. They then
get a turn to call the name of a fruit. This goes on as long as you choose.
3) You can also call FRUIT SALAD, in which case all students have to get up and
find a new place so sit.
Alternative versions:
For each theme you typically want 3 4 different choices.
Instead of FRUIT SALAD I have given some options of phrases you could replace it
with.
- Rhyming words: ALL WORDS THAT RHYME WITH ____ (ie. Bat)
- Planets: SOLAR SYSTEM
- Plants: PLANTS
- Seasons: 4 SEASONS
- Forest Creatures: FOREST CREATURES
Why I like this game: It becomes a fun an interactive way for students to learn
vocabulary that pertains to a unit they are working on. The students are able to
practice their listening skills, and personal responsibility within the group. It also
gets students up and moving. Any group of students that I have played it with love
it.

One Word Story:

Directions: The students all sit in a circle. Each person is only allowed to contribute
1 word to the class story they are building. They typically start Once Upon A
Time (The teacher could start that part. These are great because they can either
be silly, or have a theme to them.
Alternative Versions:
- Math Stories (i.e. once upon a time jimmy bought 3 apples, and then amy
gave him 6 more)
- Social studies ( time periods) (i.e. In the 1990s Terry Fox ran across Canada
to raise money...)
- Using the entire alphabet (Ally bought crackers, dates, eventually Fred gave
her.)
Park Bench/ Bus Stop:
Directions:
1) There are 2 chairs at the front of the room.
2) 1 person is there waiting for the bus stop
3) Another student goes up, and their job is to do whatever it takes to get them
to leave.
4) It usually helps if each student has a personality trait or quirk.
5) Usually 1-2 mins is the range for the person to get bothered enough to
leave the bus stop.
6) Then, the person who was initially being the pest, moves over and another
student joins them.
Alternative Versions:
- Language Arts (novel characters)
- Math (can involve math i.e. The person could obsess about losing a certain
amount of apples)
- Science (can involve mad scientists in a lab)
- Social Studies (time period, or a habitat)
Why I like this game: This game allows students to be creative and think on their
feet. They have to respond instantly to something that the other student is saying
or doing. It teaches them to be aware of their personal surroundings, and how to
read non-verbal cues. I find this game is a fun brain break, but also reinforces a lot
of the core competencies in an unforced way.
News Casters:
Directions:
1) There is a person with their back to the computer screen (news reporter)
2) There are 2 people sitting in chairs facing the computer screen (news casters)
3) A Youtube video is playing on the screen (sound muted).
4) The news reporter is trying to describe the situation they are reporting about,
they ask questions to the news reporters in the studio (two people in the
chairs) to figure it out.
5) The news casters are able to ask questions, and give subtle hints to the news
reporter.
6) The audience members (the class) are allowed to call in to the news station
and report things, or ask questions that provide hints to the news reporter.
 7) The game goes on until the news reporter guesses what they are reporting
on.
Alternate Versions:
- Social Studies Can report on a current event.
- Science Have to explain a science experiment.
Why I like this game: It allows the students to practice their communication skills, as
well as think creatively. The news reporter has to use critical thinking in order to
figure out what theyre reporting on. It also allows all students to be involved in the
game, as they can call into the news station, therefore, preventing them from
getting bored.
Other Website:
http://dramaresource.com/drama-games/