 |
 |
Through a series of accessible and enjoyable drama activities, students can work together to informally dramatize a cultural folktale, recreating the story with their own words and actions. These activities can be done with students at all levels: elementary, middle, and high school.
The objectives of these activities are:
- To explore a cultural story through a series of drama activities
- To introduce how a story can be "written" without paper and pencil
- To inspire students to imagine and develop detailed stories
- To enhance oral communication skills
- To make participants feel comfortable creating and sharing presentations
Click here for more about the storytelling and story-building process.
The strategies below illustrate the steps to guide students through when creating and dramatizing a story. The strategies scaffold on one another as part of the play-building process. Each strategy is described in brief below and is accompanied by a detailed explanation on using the strategy with students. There are also sample movies you can download which show examples of how the drama strategies were used with a group of Kealakehe Elementary School English as a second language (ESL) students. The students, a mixed group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, participated in 50-minute sessions over a 10-day period.
describes the students' responses to the drama activities.
| Sample projects are in QuickTime format. They will play automatically on Macs with Quicktime Player 5.0 and above. Windows PC users can download the free Quicktime Player. |
Warm-Up Activities
Warm-up activities
are used to prepare students for the day’s class or dramatic session.
These activities focus student attention on the day’s content or
dramatic strategy.
Warm-Up:
Pantomime
File Size: 5M
Duration: 2'30
Storytelling
The instructor, the students, or a guest orally share a story originating from one of the students' own cultures.
Auto-Image
Auto-images
are frozen statue-like images of ideas, objects, or creatures or they
capture an action or reaction of a character. Auto-images are generally
spontaneous creations by individuals.
Auto-Image:
Making a Frozen Picture
File Size: 3.2M
Duration: 1'35
Tableau
Tableaux are group-created frozen pictures based on an idea, theme, or key moment in a story.
Tableau:
Frozen Pictures in Groups
File Size: 3.8M
Duration: 1'53
Tableau:
Telling the
Story with Frozen Pictures
File Size: 4.7M
Duration: 2'25
Narration
Narration consists of descriptive passages that accompany moving or frozen images. These passages are intended to accompany the images, not merely describe them, much like a picture book where the images and passages compliment each other.
Students
create Narration
File Size: 5.0M
Duration: 2'26
Play-Building
In play-building, student groups develop a scene focused on the interaction of the characters through dialogue and action. Participants create the scene without a script, instead building it through trial, error, and practice.
Students
put action and dialogue together
File Size: 3.3M
Duration: 1'38
Reflection and Evaluation
Each time a group
shares a developing scene, the whole class reflects on the choices made
and how the sharing group might further develop their ideas.
Click
here for detailed description of Reflection and Evaluation.
Sample
of students reflecting on their activities.
File Size: 2.1M
Duration: 1'07
Amy
Iverson, ESL teacher at Kealakehe School, discusses how the students respond
to Drama activities.
File Size: 2.9M
Duration: 1'28
Download
detailed descriptions of all seven strategies
The workshop depicted in these videos was conducted by Daniel A. Kelin, II, of the Honolulu Theatre for Youth (HTY). The HTY conducts many such projects throughout the state. For more information on these workshops or to schedule one in your classroom, please contact him at (808) 839-9885 ext. 12 or education@htyweb.org. Or visit the HTY [www.htyweb.org] website.
Main Page | Drama | Multimedia | Other Resources | Acknowledgements
©2005 PREL
Accessibility | Privacy | Usage
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning
900 Fort Street Mall, Suite 1300
Honolulu, HI 96813-3718
Phone: (808) 441-1300 • U.S. Toll-free
Phone: (800) 377-4773
Fax: (808) 441-1385 • U.S. Toll-free Fax: (888) 512-7599
AskPREL for more information
Website: www.prel.org