Creative Dramatics Research Articles

Creative dramatics for the gifted: A multi‐disciplinary approach

The author explains how creative dramatics, used as a technique for interating the disciplines, can be an integral part of a gifted program.

A Creative Dramatics Project at the Georgia Academy for the Blind

Open City theatre—funded by a grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts and Humanities—offered a series of in-depth workshops in creative dramatics to students and teachers at the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon in August and September 1979. Through the process of using and adapting Open City's exercises, activities, and skills for a blind population, growth and development occurred among the members of both Open City and the academy's staff. This article describes Open City's work during these two months.

Writing the Arts into Individualized Educational Programs

Why should we consider the arts when implementing the Act for the of all Handicapped Children, known nationally as Public Law 94-142? First, because the arts are basic; they are unique ways of learning about the self, the world, and how the two interact; second, because the arts are structured disciplines that can make a child's mind and emotions reach far beyond a handicap; and finally, because for some children the arts are the best or only way they are able to learn. If we agree with these three statements, if we think that these things are important for the growth and development of all human beings, then we must think of the arts as vital components in the implementation of P.L. 94-142. The purpose of this article is to alert educators to the process through which it is possible to fuse the arts into the lives of children: the management tool of P.L. 94-142, known as the Individualized Educational Program or IEP. The law states that every child identified as handicapped must have an IEP designed to meet his or her unique learning needs. This is how the IEP becomes the written document whereby a handicapped child will be assured of education in the arts. The world of creative dramatics, puppetry, mime, and movement, as well as drawing, painting, and constructing will become available to every child who has had the arts specifically written into the IEP by the school's designated IEP team. For a successful fusion to take place between the arts and special education, the administrators, teachers, and parents who will be part of these IEP teams need a working definition of arts education that meshes well with the needs of special education. Such a definition might be: Arts education is Education Must Not Be Limited To What We Think a Handicapped Child Is, or Is Not, Capable of Doing. . . .This Is Why the Arts Are of Crucial Importance.

Fostering Moral Development Through Creative Dramatics

Wallin used creative dramatics to stimulate the moral development of students in inner‐city schools. Moral dilemma situations were dramatized. At first, the source of the dilemmas was commercially available materials, but later the students created their own materials, three of which Wallin summarizes. The dramatic presentations, followed by discussion, may be a method for growth in moral judgments and ultimately in advanced moral behavior.

Teaching Elementary Science Through Creative Dramatics

Teaching Elementary Science Through Creative Dramatics

In Search of Theatre: Ritual, Confrontation and the Suspense of Form

Schooling comprehends three forms of theatre. Theatre as ritual is associated with the formal school culture. Theatre as confrontation is associated with the counter-school culture. These first two forms emerge in the daily interactions of school life, the former providing the ground for the latter. The third form, theatre as a deliberate aesthetic enterprise, most often collapses into the ritual of the school play that legitimizes the formal school culture. Creative dramatics programs celebrate feeling and fantasy but avoid the school situation, severing action from the situation from which it is derived. Finally, the possibility of developing theatre in education that will support the transformation of the school culture is explored. It is theatre that contains the richness of ritual but merges confrontation with critique.

Research Roundup: Research on Creative Dramatics

Research Roundup: Research on Creative Dramatics

Research Roundup: Research on Creative Dramatics

Research Roundup: Research on Creative Dramatics

Just for Fun: A Creative Dramatics Learning Center

(1978). Just for Fun: A Creative Dramatics Learning Center. Childhood Education: Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 169-175.

Creative Dramatics and Gifted Children

Creative Dramatics and Gifted Children

Reviews of teaching/learning resources

Books Trends in textbooks for the teaching of speech communication methods courses ESSAYS ON TEACHING SPEECH IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. Edited by J. Jeffrey Auen and Edward B. Jenkinson. Bloomington, Ill.: Indiana University Press, 1971; pp. xii+243. $4.50. Paper. INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION: TEACHING STRATEGIES AND RESOURCES. By Alton Barbour and Alvin A. Goldberg. New York: Speech Communication Association, 1974; pp. ix+85. $2.00 member, $3.00 non‐member. Paper. SPEECH FOR THE CREATIVE TEACHER. 2nd Edition. By Seth A. Fessenden, Roy Ivan Johnson, P. Merville Larson and Kaye M. Good. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company, 1973; pp. xi+363. $8.95. SPEECH/COMMUNICATION: AN INTERPERSONAL APPROACH FOR TEACHERS. By Kathleen M. Galvin and Cassandra L. Book. Skokie, Ill.: National Textbook Company, 1972; pp. xx+121. $6.00. Paper. SPEECH COMMUNICATION INSTRUCTION. Edited by Deems M. Brooks. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1972; pp. xiv+367. $6.95. Paper. SPEECH COMMUNICATION IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 2nd Edition. By R. R. Allen, S. Clay Willmington and Jo Sprague. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1976; pp. vi+ 461. $8.95. SPEECH METHODS AND RESOURCES. 2nd Edition. Edited by Waldo M. Biaden. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1972; pp. vii+472. $12.00. TEACHING SPEECH. 4th Edition. By Loren Reid. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Company, 1971; pp. xiv+479. $13.95. TEACHING SPEECH COMMUNICATION IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL. By William D. Brooks and Gustav W. Friedrich. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973; pp. x+355. $9.50. TEACHING SPEECH COMMUNICATION: METHODS AND MATERIALS. By P. Judson Newcombe and Karl F. Robinson. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1975; pp. viii+ 534. $9.95. THE MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM: A PRACTITIONER'S HANDBOOK. By Leslie W. Kindred, Rita J. Wolokiewicz, John M. Mickelson, Leonard E. Coplein, Ernest Dyson. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1976; pp. ix+230. $10.95. MASTERING CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION: WHAT INTERACTION ANALYSIS TELLS THE TEACHER. By Dorothy Grant Hennings. Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear Publishing Co. 1975; pp. xiii+193. $5.95. SPEAKING: BACK TO FUNDAMENTALS. By Cal M. Logue, Dwight L. Freshley, Charles R. . Gruner and Richard Huseman. .Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1976; pp. ix+230. Paper, $4.95. DIMENSIONS OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION. By John F. Wilson and Carroll C. Arnold. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1976; pp. xii+253. Paper. $5.95. THE THEATER EXPERIENCE. By Edwin Wilson. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Co. 1976; pp. xi+371. Paper. $6.95. INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN COMMUNICATION. By James C. McCroskey and Lawrence R. Wheeless. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1976; pp. 427. $9.95. COMMUNICATION AND AWARENESS. By Gary Cronkhite. Menlo Park: Cummings Publishing Co., 1976; pp. xi+404. $8.59. FOUNDATIONS OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION. By K. S. Sitaram and Roy T. Cogdell. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co. 1976; pp. x+245. $10.95. Non‐print resources NORTHEASTERN WISCONSIN IN‐SCHOOL TELECOMMUNICATIONS (NEWIST) AGENCY: CREATIVE DRAMATICS: DRAMA AS AN IMPORTANT CLASSROOM TOOL. series of ten video cassettes, three completed in 1975, 4 more scheduled for completion in 1976. Approximate length of each: 18 minutes. Cost: purchase, $150.00 each; rental for open circuit btoadcast, $40.50 plus an enrollment rate (for further, detailed information on these and other access options, contact: Agency for Instructional Television, Box A, Bloomington, Indiana, 47401).

Programs, materials and techniques

Much of my effort in this year's columns has been to consider areas where special attention is needed in order to improve the state of programs, materials, and techniques. This month's column focuses on the controversial topic of teacher evaluation. Carole Urbansok, an educational psychologist, briefly describes several of the checklists used at the University of Toledo College of Education to develop and evaluate certain competencies generally useful in learning disabilities. Editorial comment then describes some of the major political and practical blocks to serious efforts at the evaluation of teacher competence, and further makes several modest recommendations to the field. Hopefully, we will be hearing more about the content and methodology of teacher evaluation in the coming year. Two reviews are also presented for teachers, parents, and for teacher-educators. The first, Dorothy Hennings' Smiles, Nods, and Pauses, stresses the role of nonvocal communication in human affairs. The second, Charles Duke's Creative Dramatics and English Teaching, is an excellent text-resource book that provides a practical introduction to the various drama activities and drama-related techniques that can be used in the learning process. Both books suggest a wealth of additional resources for further study.

Helping emotionally disturbed children through creative dramatics

Helping emotionally disturbed children through creative dramatics

Involving Students in the Drama Process, K-12

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

Creative Dramatics and Modern Technology

Creative Dramatics and Modern Technology

Creative Dramatics and Creativity: An Experimental Study

Creative Dramatics and Creativity: An Experimental Study

Does Creative Dramatics Really Square with Research Evidence?

Does Creative Dramatics Really Square with Research Evidence?

Creative Dramatics for LD Children

Creative Dramatics for LD Children

Book Review: Creative Dramatics in the Classroom, 2nd edition

Book Review: Creative Dramatics in the Classroom, 2nd edition

The Effectiveness of Creative Dramatics and Storytelling in a Library Setting

AbstractThis 2-year study involving 298 grade school pupils, investigates the comparative effectiveness of creative dramatics and storytelling. An experimental-control group design was used, with analysis of covariance and t-tests used in the analysis. The results showed that neither storytelling nor creative dramatics appeared to have an effect on children’s interest and reading achievement. There appears to be some evidence that storytelling may have more influence than creative dramatics on self-image and empathy. There is also evidence that storytelling has a greater positive effect than creative dramatics on creativity.