How to Approach Speaking and Listening through Drama
1.TIR (Teacher in Role)
Many teachers see TiR as a difficult activity, particularly with older children in the primary school. However, it is our experience that when a teacher takes a role he or she becomes ‘interesting’ to the children, so that there are less con- trol problems because they become engaged. 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, put- ting 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 who she should marry. The trainee was not doing anything different apart from using role and committing to it very strongly. She looked far more comfortable.
The trainee was using the simplest form of TiR, hot-seating the role, where the class meets the role sitting in front of them and can ask questions. TiR cre- ates a particular context and can raise the level of commitment and the meaning-making. It can ‘feel real’ even though it is not. You are not effective as a teacher if you do not at some point engage fully with the drama yourself by using TiR. Remaining as teacher, intervening as teacher, side-coaching, structuring the drama from the outside, and/or sending the class off in groups to create their own drama must at best restrict and at worst negate any opportunity for the teacher to teach effectively.
2. Teacher as storyteller
The teacher as a storyteller is something all primary school teachers will recog- nise. Good teachers slip easily into it and use it frequently. In its most observable guise it occurs when teaching the whole class and engaging them with a piece of fiction. The pupil’s role will be dominated by listening and this will be interlaced with questioning, responding and interpreting the meaning and sense of the fiction. In making judgements about the quality of this method of teaching, the critical questions will be around whether the content of the story interests the class and holds their attention, whether the delivery of the teacher, i.e. voice, intonation and interpretive skills, are good and, where relevant, whether accompanying illustrations have impact and resonance. The relationship between story and drama in education is a complex and dynamic one. It means a known narrative can still be used, the knowledge of the narrative is not a barrier to its usage.
3. Preparation for the role
- In preparing to be this kind of storyteller the teacher must have made particu- lar decisions about this child. Begin by asking the class out of role what they want to ask the child and the order of those questions.
- Before the drama session, decide what attitude you are going to take when questioned by the clas
- Then run the hot-seating
- Stop and come out of role and discuss what they have found out.
4. Teaching from within Moving in and out of role – managing the drama and reflecting on it. OoR is very important as a way of negotiating the intent and meaning of the role and is the way the teacher can best control and manage learning. For the class are both an audience and observers of their own activities. When the drama is stopped they can describe, recap, interpret, think through, consider next moves and understand what is the significance of their work. It is very important to get the participants to look at and interpret what is going on, frequently by stepping out of the drama. Depth in drama depends on the very clear and regular use of OoR negotiation so that the awareness of the co-existence of two worlds is effective at all times. In effective drama, children can actually feel the ‘as if’ world as real at cer- tain points. The teacher must make sure that if the drama does engage in that way, the pupils know it is a fiction at all times, especially by stopping and coming out of role frequently. That is also a protection.
5. The requirements of working in role
The teacher, working in this way, is an important stimulus for the learning. It is not necessary to use role throughout the piece of work. It can be used judi- ciously 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’, an audience who in this instance are participants at the same time. This will help us shape up the TiR elements particularly according to how the audience is seeing things. Here are two responses to considering the ‘audience’ position.
How should a teacher using role relate to his or her class/audience?
A. Disturbing the class productively
- Discovery/uncovering – challenge and focus
B. Responding to your class
- The art of authentic dialogue – needing to listen – two-way
- The teacher–taught relationship
- The authority role
- The opposer role
- The intermediate role
- The needing help role
- The ordinary person responses
1.TIR (Teacher in Role)
Many teachers see TiR as a difficult activity, particularly with older children in the primary school. However, it is our experience that when a teacher takes a role he or she becomes ‘interesting’ to the children, so that there are less con- trol problems because they become engaged. 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, put- ting 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 who she should marry. The trainee was not doing anything different apart from using role and committing to it very strongly. She looked far more comfortable.
The trainee was using the simplest form of TiR, hot-seating the role, where the class meets the role sitting in front of them and can ask questions. TiR cre- ates a particular context and can raise the level of commitment and the meaning-making. It can ‘feel real’ even though it is not. You are not effective as a teacher if you do not at some point engage fully with the drama yourself by using TiR. Remaining as teacher, intervening as teacher, side-coaching, structuring the drama from the outside, and/or sending the class off in groups to create their own drama must at best restrict and at worst negate any opportunity for the teacher to teach effectively.
2. Teacher as storyteller
The teacher as a storyteller is something all primary school teachers will recog- nise. Good teachers slip easily into it and use it frequently. In its most observable guise it occurs when teaching the whole class and engaging them with a piece of fiction. The pupil’s role will be dominated by listening and this will be interlaced with questioning, responding and interpreting the meaning and sense of the fiction. In making judgements about the quality of this method of teaching, the critical questions will be around whether the content of the story interests the class and holds their attention, whether the delivery of the teacher, i.e. voice, intonation and interpretive skills, are good and, where relevant, whether accompanying illustrations have impact and resonance. The relationship between story and drama in education is a complex and dynamic one. It means a known narrative can still be used, the knowledge of the narrative is not a barrier to its usage.
3. Preparation for the role
- In preparing to be this kind of storyteller the teacher must have made particu- lar decisions about this child. Begin by asking the class out of role what they want to ask the child and the order of those questions.
- Before the drama session, decide what attitude you are going to take when questioned by the clas
- Then run the hot-seating
- Stop and come out of role and discuss what they have found out.
4. Teaching from within Moving in and out of role – managing the drama and reflecting on it. OoR is very important as a way of negotiating the intent and meaning of the role and is the way the teacher can best control and manage learning. For the class are both an audience and observers of their own activities. When the drama is stopped they can describe, recap, interpret, think through, consider next moves and understand what is the significance of their work. It is very important to get the participants to look at and interpret what is going on, frequently by stepping out of the drama. Depth in drama depends on the very clear and regular use of OoR negotiation so that the awareness of the co-existence of two worlds is effective at all times. In effective drama, children can actually feel the ‘as if’ world as real at cer- tain points. The teacher must make sure that if the drama does engage in that way, the pupils know it is a fiction at all times, especially by stopping and coming out of role frequently. That is also a protection.
5. The requirements of working in role
The teacher, working in this way, is an important stimulus for the learning. It is not necessary to use role throughout the piece of work. It can be used judi- ciously 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’, an audience who in this instance are participants at the same time. This will help us shape up the TiR elements particularly according to how the audience is seeing things. Here are two responses to considering the ‘audience’ position.
How should a teacher using role relate to his or her class/audience?
A. Disturbing the class productively
- Discovery/uncovering – challenge and focus
B. Responding to your class
- The art of authentic dialogue – needing to listen – two-way
- The teacher–taught relationship
- The authority role
- The opposer role
- The intermediate role
- The needing help role
- The ordinary person responses
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