Involving Students in the Drama Process, K-12

Abstract

A few years ago, at a session on Creative Dramatics for English Teachers, I watched a group of willing, but puzzled teachers force themselves to be good sports and to go through a series of activities expected of them. Now we will do warm-up exercises, they were told. Make a big face; make a little face; make a big voice; make a little voice; mill around and when you hear the word 'stop', enter into animated conversation with the person nearest to you; when you hear the word 'start', move away again. There was nothing wrong with these exercises per se. What was unfortunate was the fact that these amiable teachers didn't know why they were doing what they were doing. They did not know either the momentary or broader purposes of the exercises. Here is another example of the wrong use of creative dramatics: I visited a student of mine