Lalit Gandhi Foundation

Diploma in Pre-Primary
Teachers Training
2019-2020

PROJECT FILE

Title – Drama In The Classroom

By - Archana Avhad

Roll No - 01

Institution - Blossom Play School

Sr.No. Index
1 Introduction
2 Why Introduce Drama
3 Discipline in Drama
4 Methods & Exercise
5 Results of Drama in the school
6 Benefits of the Drama & Play
7 Conclusion

Introduction
Communities are most important factor in the existence of a country, therefore type of
persons forming a community and their quality and characteristics are important as well.
 We are not born equipped with all the essential knowledge and skills, so, environments
providing new learning opportunities and chances during childhood years are very
important for the future success of a child. According to many researchers, early years in
the development of a child is considered to be vitally important in the formation of a
child's intelligence, personality and social behaviours (meb.gov.tr). Research proves that
education during early years of development has long time lasting impacts on the
formation of children and researchers specially emphasize the importance of the quality
of education during this period. The main purpose of pre-school education is to
maximize the potential a child brings by birth, thus, kindergarten (nursery school) is the
institution providing the best organized playing atmosphere for children. In this
atmosphere children find an opportunity for physical, mental, emotional and social
development. During pre-school period children learns rules for collective living and
develops an attitude for assistance and cooperation as well. Meanwhile, while learning
to protect his or her own rights, a child also learns sharing and not violating other
persons' freedom. Pre-school education being the first step of contemporary education
system, provides a program of education aiming to provide self confidence to children,
thus, pre-school education occupies an important place in the education system and
during this education, children's development properties, personal differences and
capabilities are taken into account so that children find a chance for physical, emotional,
lingual, social and mental development in a healthy way. Pre-school education also
intends to lay the foundations for a positive personality and aims to reveal creative
aspects of children. Creative drama; are action status, improvisations and animations
formed by students according to their own original ideas, creative discoveries and
knowledge about the subject without having to refer to a written text (San, 1991).
According to this definition about creative drama, it can be said that drama takes the
student to centre and makes the student active during the process of learning and
provides the teacher to play the role of a guide during the process and enables students
to make presentations by doing and experiencing and provides a permanency by using
all the audiovisual, tactual and affective learning fields of products created during the
process. In this manner learning quality gets stronger and healthier in terms of learning
principles. Drama studies or practices gives attendants the opportunity to examine
various social roles and social problems. Animation of different social problems enables
individuals to better understand the society and relationships in the society. During
these interactions solutions for problems are also examined and attendants gain
experience from studies towards problem solving (Önder 1999). Here at this point
contribution of drama to education is not only towards teaching how to learn but also
towards educating. In this context, why drama is important in pre-school education
constitutes the problem of this research.

Why did you want to introduce drama in your school?

Drama is a useful teaching tool as it offers ways of practicing reading, writing,
speaking and listening in authentic contexts and provides students with the need to
communicate. Since I had used drama effectively when teaching in Australia, I felt
sure that drama would also be an effective teaching tool in my school in Hong Kong.
How did you go about introducing drama to the school?
The support of the Principal and the English Panel was very important. We all
agreed that drama would benefit the students. We looked at where drama would fit
into the curriculum and found that it complemented the Oral English programme.
To begin, I tried to use drama in regular English lessons, but the teachers quickly
realised that this was almost impossible due to space constraints. The students now
have their drama sessions in a spacious dance and drama room, which makes it
much easier to organise drama activities.

How do you maintain discipline in

drama classes?
By keeping the students busy. There must be many fast-paced, constantly changing
activities in each lesson to keep students engaged. It is also important to create an
environment with as few distractions as possible. For example, the students take off
their shoes before entering the Drama Room so that they can move about quietly.
They bring only a pen and notebook with them to the lesson to take notes and to do
the writing tasks. Consequently, the students are not burdened with a lot of pieces of
paper or materials which would distract them from the lesson. With classes typically
consisting of 40 to 42 students, it is important to be well-prepared for the lesson.
Since there is no textbook to follow, I need to have the lesson plan well fixed in my
mind. I know exactly what is going to happen
next. It is so important to be clear about the sequence of the lesson plan, especially
when you have to move the students around the room which I often do in drama
classes. Maintaining good classroom discipline is crucial to the success of a drama
lesson. You have to be clear about what you want the students to do, and you have
to be clear when giving instructions. Also, drama lessons can become noisy at
times. This is good as you want the students to communicate, but the teacher
has to be able to control the class. I take a whistle to class with me. When I need to
call the students to order, I blow the whistle sharply to let the students know they
need to stop what they are doing and pay attention. It is a zero noise signal that
is useful in a noisy drama classroom. Finally, I re-arrange the groups that students
work in during the term so students don’t see the class as an opportunity to socialise
with their friends.
 What about assessment?
Drama activities must be assessed in order for students to take them seriously.
In Form 2, students are asked to present a short scene of my choice in a group of
three as part of their oral examination. Before the assessment, the students will be
trained in body language, voice projection and movement and doing group work.
These are areas that will be assessed. Students are allowed to approach me for help
with difficult words or ideas for the presentation. (The simple rubric for assessment
is shown on p. 5.) Besides using the rubric to assess their performance and to
identify areas for improvement, the students will also receive oral feedback from me
immediately afterward, so they get a general idea of how they performed.

How do other teachers know how the students are progressing?

Members of the English Panel and I regularly discuss student progress on a formal
and informal basis. This discussion helps inform our teaching. At the end of each
semester, teachers receive a copy of the drama assessment marks. The marks will
contribute to the oral English and overall English grades.

Methods and exercises

In this study the importance of drama and learning based on drama in pre-school
education is emphasized. Most important gains for using drama in education are;
achieving expression of feelings in a healthy way, developing creative imagination in
children, giving a chance to children to think and express themselves independently and
 developing children's social awareness and cooperative consciousness. Here at this point
drama in pre-school education plays an important role. This is a descriptive study using
scan modelling. Scan model is a research approach aiming to describe a situation which
existed in the past or which exists now in the manner it exists now or which existed in
the past (Karasar, 2003). Here the important thing is observing the situation properly and
revealing the results. Project researcher can directly investigate an object or individual
but can also refer to pre-kept various records (written documents and statistics, images,
audiovisual records) and can interpret sparse data by unifying them in a system by
means of his or her own observations (Karasar 2003). The study is 3 dimentional. Pre-
school education, learning based on drama and relationship between drama and
preschool education is examined and settled in a holistic manner

Result of Drama in the School

Consequently, it can be seen that drama in pre-school education; - Increases the creativity
and imagination, the skill of taking decisions, thinking independently and the motivation to
discover, - During the process of drama, it develops communication skills by talking to their
friends and bringing out their inner voices, - It contributes to self-perception of the children
and to the development of positive self-concept, - It develops the feeling of cooperating with
a group because there is a group work, develops social sensitivity, feeling of responsibility,
and social living skills and social skills, - While increasing psycho-motor skills, it creates
coordination and balance in organs, flexibility in movements, and agility, - Should have a
place in pre-school education since it contributes to all the fields of development of
preschool

THE BENEFITS OF DRAMA AND PLAY

Every day our teachers witness first-hand the benefits of drama for young children - and
you could join them by running your own Pyjama Drama children's franchise. If you're
passionate about the benefits of drama and play for children in their early years, why
not find out how joining Pyjama Drama could work for you? 

1. Drama builds confidence 

Even the shyest of children take just a few weeks to gently build up their self-esteem and
before long they are confident to take a full and active part in sessions. A few weeks is all it
takes.

2. Drama helps concentration

In every session, children are encouraged to listen to each other's ideas and thoughts and to
take turns. These activities allow children to recognise the value of concentration; a skill that
is vital in the world outside their home.

3. Drama helps develop language and communication skills

Learning new songs, playing new games and participating in pretend play (when children
must take on the language of the role they are playing), all contribute to a child's developing
vocabulary. They are encouraged to express themselves both verbally and through facial
expression and body language; the key to making them better communicators.

4. Drama encourages children to cooperate

Every activity in Pyjama Drama, from playing drama games to improvisation to singing
together, requires cooperation. Children quickly realise that to get the best out of sessions,
cooperation is a much-needed skill!

5. Drama supports numeracy skills

In Pyjama Drama children don't ever guess they are learning. Counting the number of beats
in a song, counting the number of stars on a camping trip or working out how many eggs to
put in a cake are just a few examples of how being involved in a drama can help to develop
essential numeracy skills.

6. Drama helps children to understand the world around them

We explore a range of different themes and introduce children to a variety of real and
imaginary situations each week, sparking their interest in the world in which they live and
making them more inquisitive (and therefore more interesting!) little people.

7. Drama develops emotional intelligence

By encouraging children to 'act out' a range of emotions in the safe and supportive
environment of a Pyjama Drama class, children are better able to understand their feelings
and develop empathy for others.

8. Drama assists physical development

In each session, we play simple percussion instruments, create simple movement sequences
and play drama games - all designed to help children gain mastery over their growing
bodies.
9. Drama develops creativity
Creative people can view things in new ways and from different perspectives. They can
think on their feet and generate new ideas. Our child-led approach to improvisation and
pretend play encourages the development of creativity as children lead the direction of the
drama themselves, come up with solutions to problems in role, and respond imaginatively
to a range of pretend situations.

10. Drama nurtures friendships

By its very nature drama can create strong bonds between children as they laugh, learn and
grow together week after week after week!

CONCLUSION
Providing children with high-quality, thoughtful experiences and resources that genuinely
and creatively support their learning in the Performing Arts (creative dance, dramatic play,
music and media) are essential in EC settings. It is important for children to develop their
performing arts practices through active engagement, either individually or collaboratively,
and be provided with opportunities to experiment with different performing arts
techniques, skills and elements. This allows children to work creatively and imaginatively,
and be able to relate the performing arts to experiences of their own (QSA, 2010).

Therefore, as a pre-service teacher I need to develop my philosophy and pedagogy to

engage children in the performing arts. During the up-coming field experience I hope I have
the opportunity to closely engage in the performing arts with the children at the centre.