How to Approach Speaking and Listening through Drama
1. How to Begin with Teacher in Role
• Why use teacher in role?
The most important resource you have as a teacher when using drama is yourself. Learning demands intervention from the teacher to structure, direct and influence the learning of the pupils. One of the best ways to do that in drama work is to be inside the drama. The key teaching technique that is used, namely teacher in role (TiR). Many teachers see TiR as a difficult activity. However, when a teacher takes a role he or she becomes ‘interesting’ to the children, so that there are less control problems because they become engaged. Many times teachers struggling to get attention when giving instructions. Yet, as soon as they move into role, they obtain that attention more effectively. For example, a trainee was talking out of role to a class to explain that they
were about to meet a girl who was having trouble with her father and needed their help (see ‘The Dream’ drama based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream). The class were calling out and not listening properly. She was talking over them and
trying to teach without getting their full attention. Then she explained that they could ask questions of one of the roles from the story and that she was going to become that role when she sat down. She picked up a ribbon with a ring threaded on it and put it round her neck as the role signifier. When she sat down as Hermia, they were focused entirely on her and were listening very closely, putting hands up to ask questions and taking turns in a very orderly way. They were interested in her problem, which was her father’s insistence on deciding whom she should marry. The trainee was not doing anything different apart from using role and committing to it very strongly. The trainee was using the simplest form of TiR. TiR creates a particular context and can raise the level of commitment and the meaning-making. It can ‘feel real’ even though it is not.
• Teacher as storyteller
The teacher as a storyteller is something all primary school teachers will recognise. Good teachers slip easily into it and use it frequently when teaching the whole class and engaging them with a piece of fiction. The pupil’s role will be dominated by listening and thiswill be interlaced with questioning, responding and interpreting the meaning and sense of the fiction. The teacher’s role will be to communicate the text in a lively and interesting manner, holding their attention and engaging their imagination. For many pupils the times spent listening to their teacher as storyteller will remain as significant moments in their education. The connection between the teacher as storyteller and the teacher using drama, lies in the fact that they both use the generation of imagined realities in order to teach.
• Teacher as storyteller
The teacher as a storyteller is something all primary school teachers will recognise. Good teachers slip easily into it and use it frequently when teaching the whole class and engaging them with a piece of fiction. The pupil’s role will be dominated by listening and thiswill be interlaced with questioning, responding and interpreting the meaning and sense of the fiction. The teacher’s role will be to communicate the text in a lively and interesting manner, holding their attention and engaging their imagination. For many pupils the times spent listening to their teacher as storyteller will remain as significant moments in their education. The connection between the teacher as storyteller and the teacher using drama, lies in the fact that they both use the generation of imagined realities in order to teach.
The relationship between story and drama in education is a complex and dynamic one. It means a known narrative can still be used. It is the negotiable and dynamic elements of the relationship between drama and narrative that liberate the pupils and the teacher from merely retelling the known story. As long as some fundamental planning strategies are observed, knowledge of the story is not a barrier to participation. Broadly these pre-requisites are:
1. An awareness of those elements of the story that will not be changed – and agreements about these must be made with the class at the beginning or during the drama.
2. A willingness to move away from the fixed narrative to an exploration of the narrative and their conseuences.
3. If narrative consists of roles, fictional contexts, the use of symbols and events then the teacher needs to hold some of those elements true and consistent with the story.
• Preparation for the role
In preparing to be this kind of storyteller the teacher must have made particular decisions:
In preparing to be this kind of storyteller the teacher must have made particular decisions:
1. Begin by asking the class out of role what they want to ask the child and the order of those questions.
2. Before the drama session, decide what attitude you are going to take when questioned by the class.
3. All these things are possible from the text of a book; however, the pupils will be defining what is important, which are the most important questions to be asked and how to handle the mood of the storyteller, whose views on the events may be very different from those of the audience whom he addresses. Be clear about his attitude towards being left behind, what has happened and how he feels about it.
• Teaching from within
We are describing using role as ‘teaching from within’ because the teacher enters the drama world, but it is very important to step out of the fiction often and not let it run away with itself. When using TiR, the teacher is operating as a manager as well as participant and must spend as much time stopping the drama and moving out of role (OoR) to reflect on what is happening and give the pupils a chance to think through what they know and what they want to do. This OoR working is as important as the role itself. It manages the role and therefore the drama; it manages the risk, establishes where the class is and helps pupils believe in the drama. It provides time and space for the teacher to assess and re-assess the learning possibilities.
• The requirements of working in role
The teacher, working in this way, is an important stimulus for the learning. It can be used judiciously to focus work at strategic points or to challenge particular aspects of the children’s perceptions whilst other techniques and conventions are used to support the work and develop it. In order to make the TiR most effective, we need to look at educational drama from the point of view of the ‘audience’ and to considering the ‘audience’ position.
• Disturbing the class productively
Discovery/uncovering – challenge and focus
The teacher’s function is to provide challenge and stimulus, to give problems and issues for the class to have to deal with. The drama is developed through a set of activities that build the class role. We have to help them into the drama, making them comfortable, and then disturb that comfort productively. The key is how children are given information. They can be handed it on a plate or they can be given opportunities to uncover/discover/be surprised by information. In this last case there is much more involvement and ownership, especially if they have to work to get the information from someone who is reluctant to give it.
• The teacher–taught relationship
In all teaching situations there exists a power relationship between the learners and the teacher. In the classroom, the pupils enter into an agreement with you the teacher that you are in charge. This may be a tacit agreement, it may depend upon many factors but in it the teacher is in charge and there are certain rights and privileges attached to your role. in drama we have the possibility of shifting the power when we are inside the fiction because we may choose a role that has low status and has little power.This shift in status and power is very engaging for pupils. It can result in a different kind of dialogue from the usual teacher/pupils.
We are describing using role as ‘teaching from within’ because the teacher enters the drama world, but it is very important to step out of the fiction often and not let it run away with itself. When using TiR, the teacher is operating as a manager as well as participant and must spend as much time stopping the drama and moving out of role (OoR) to reflect on what is happening and give the pupils a chance to think through what they know and what they want to do. This OoR working is as important as the role itself. It manages the role and therefore the drama; it manages the risk, establishes where the class is and helps pupils believe in the drama. It provides time and space for the teacher to assess and re-assess the learning possibilities.
• The requirements of working in role
The teacher, working in this way, is an important stimulus for the learning. It can be used judiciously to focus work at strategic points or to challenge particular aspects of the children’s perceptions whilst other techniques and conventions are used to support the work and develop it. In order to make the TiR most effective, we need to look at educational drama from the point of view of the ‘audience’ and to considering the ‘audience’ position.
• Disturbing the class productively
Discovery/uncovering – challenge and focus
The teacher’s function is to provide challenge and stimulus, to give problems and issues for the class to have to deal with. The drama is developed through a set of activities that build the class role. We have to help them into the drama, making them comfortable, and then disturb that comfort productively. The key is how children are given information. They can be handed it on a plate or they can be given opportunities to uncover/discover/be surprised by information. In this last case there is much more involvement and ownership, especially if they have to work to get the information from someone who is reluctant to give it.
• The teacher–taught relationship
In all teaching situations there exists a power relationship between the learners and the teacher. In the classroom, the pupils enter into an agreement with you the teacher that you are in charge. This may be a tacit agreement, it may depend upon many factors but in it the teacher is in charge and there are certain rights and privileges attached to your role. in drama we have the possibility of shifting the power when we are inside the fiction because we may choose a role that has low status and has little power.This shift in status and power is very engaging for pupils. It can result in a different kind of dialogue from the usual teacher/pupils.
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