Drama is rapidly becoming recognised as a key tool in helping children (and adults for that matter) to learn and understand a wide range of topics and subjects. It allows the individuals' own experience of play to be exploited and create fictions within a range of imagined contexts.

At Drama4Learning we concentrate on 2 approaches to utilise drama within an educational environment.

1) The Creative-Community Framework

This technique is perfect for exploring arts & humanities subjects. The student groups are encouraged to work together to create dramatic pieces to explore issues or explain situations. The creative process encourages the participants to examine the subject matter from different angles and to express their own opinions and understanding. It can be used to explore empathic responses and help promote greater cultural and personal understanding.

2) The Dramatic Exploration Framework

This technique is ideal for approaching factual subjects. The students are invited into a fictional world where they are no longer pupils, but rather investigators with responsibility and experience. Their own imaginations are utilised to encourage them to explore the facts and situations as presented to them and discover their own path through the information to reach a result. They could be detectives working on a murder enquiry, or archiologists trying to make sense of newly discovered artifacts- either way, their tasks can cover a whole range of subject matter- from simple scientific experiments identifying evidence to writing reports, memos, formal letter and newspaper articles. Each product is carefully tailored to cover as many cross-curricular elements as possible, demonstrating the links between what is learnt in school and how it can be applied in real-life situations.

 

By allowing the pupils to use dramatic tools to explore their subjects, it gives them a robust freedom to discover how they can personally relate to each individual element.

Drama-assisted learning is also an efficient way to cover many different subject elements within one session- for example: if the pupils are police officers hunting for a missing person then the sessions could include the following:

	English- (appropriate forms of writing: Official Letter, Memo, Report, Informal letter, Newspaper Report)
	Geography- (map reading, weather patterns, local soil types)
	Science- (Testing soil ph, identifying compounds & solutions, experiement evaluations & conclusion)

In addition to the specific elements above, the sessions also encourage the pupils to assess and examine bias and search and locate information from multiple sources. They must also work together in groups and present their findings in appropriate ways.

Drama Assisted Learning help to:

	Encourage team-building and cooperation
	Design & create unique sessions around any given element of the curriculum
	Include cross-curricular disciplines and techniques
	Demonstrate the usefulness of taught skills and knowledge
	Empower the pupils and create self-worth