So I have been looking around for some websites and all that bingo bango because we need to find some for the assignment which will be handed in. So I have been looking and not came up with too much. The other day I was thinking about the lesson plan assignment and was looking through the library and found and older edition of MASK which is a publication put out by Drama Victoria which had a drama lesson about De Bono’s thinking hats.

So this is an old draft that I haven’t touched in weeks but been searching on the internet looking at creative drama, drama for learning across the curriculum and drama in education and been finding enough stuff just shifting though it is the main dilemma. Not finding much through those searches but relatively basic lesson plans and material I have typed in process drama lesson plan and come up with a few sites that seem promising.

This site has heaps of different stuff on a whole range of topics. I think it would be useful on its own using there ideas to teach what it is they are talking about but also adapting their ideas and stealing there exercises and putting them in a different context. There’s the same scenario we did in class about changing states of matter, an exercise about the discovery of fire, an Oregon trail propaganda piece (this could be adapted to an Australian situation very easily) and so much more. Some of the exercises are very limited and probably designed just to slot into lessons/units about that topic, where as I would probably pinch the inspiration and adapt the ideas to better suit a whole lesson or unit on that topic using drama. Of course I could quite easily just use it as they have intended. Here the page it’s called Creative Drama Lesson Plans http://www.childdrama.com/lessons.html

I have found an even better site then the previous which contains a whole range of lesson plans that cover an extensive range of topics and subjects. They range from year 7 to 12 and scanning through and opening some of them up there is great material which could be used itself or adapted to better suite a different frame work. I had a look at a lesson designed around violence which uses tableau images and discussion to deal with this issue, a lesson on a poem called hostage which uses tableau images, movement and both to explore the theme of being a hostage, the list goes on with smoking, drugs and different literature. I think this is a very valuable website to draw ideas from and use directly. Some of the lessons are sort and i think they would have to be extended or changed to accommodate myself but overall its got a lot of really good stuff in there. For my own teaching I would probably look there to see if that is what I was focusing on and draw ideas from that or just adapt the ideas to suite what I’m teaching. The page is called Drama in Education, heres the site http://www.kentaylor.co.uk/die/materials/lesson.html

I was searching around and stumbled on a unit of work published by the Queensland Government about using process drama to look at the issues young people face in today’s society in which they explore issues of representation and identity. It uses drama to place students in a community where they must deal with issues from all angles parents, community member, young people etc in which they reflect and document how young people are perceived with the community. It could be used specifically to tackle an issue in ones own community. The Queensland curriculum structure is a bit hard to get my head around at first but it could easily be adapted to VELS considering the hard work is pretty much done for it. It’s designed for non-drama teachers to use and from what i can tell as an English perspective looking at issues in communities and how young people are perceived. It uses a whole range of dramatic activities and has teaching points beside them. I defiantly would like to print this off and see what I can do with it, I think it would be great to use in a unit on youth, perceptions of youth or even a study of issues (if just slightly adapted). It’s called Race around the Block it can either be found by punching that into Google or here is the URL www.qsa.qld.edu.au/yrs1to10/kla/arts/docs/modules/dr_5_ratb.pdf -  

I found this list of picture story books that are suggested to be used with process drama, it has a list of the themes of the books so it would be handy if looking at something have a look for a book and sue that as a start for the process drama.

Book Title Author Approx. Themes

Age Level

1. The Pigeon finds a hot dog Mo Williams K-2 Sharing, Social situations, anger, response to situations

2. The Goodbye Joanne Ryder K-2 Saying a goodbye (closure) to things you love

3. Toestomper and the caterpillars Sharlene Collicott K-4 Bullying (all grades)

4. Don’t Laugh at me Steve Seskin All grades Respect, diversity, friendship

Allen Shamblin

5. A Fine Fine School Sharon Creetch Love of school

6. The Stranger Christian Allsburg K-4 Seasons, inference clues

7. Water Dance Thomas Locker Water

8. Dear Wally Rudd Libba Moore Gray K-2 Closure

9. The Goodbye Walk Joanne Ryder K-2 Closure

10.Rosa N. Giovanni 3^rd gd. Civil Rights – this version needs a lot of background knowledge

11. All the Places to Love Patricia MacLachlan 3-6 Places to belong, nature, simple things, beauty

12. Alexander and the Terrible, Judith Viorst 2-3 Feelings – having a bad day

Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day

Book Title Author Approx. Themes

Age Level

13. The Patchwork Path Bettye Stroud 2-3 Underground Railroad

14. Stellaluna Janell Cannon 2-3 Acceptance/friendship

15. The Story of Ruby Bridges Robert Coles 2-6 Civil Rights, integration

16. The Whales’ Song Dyan Sheldon 2-6 Different opinions about endangered whales

17. Fly Away Home Eve Banting K-6 Homelessness

18. Perfect Pigs: An Introduction to Marc Brown K-6 Courtesy, Respect, Manners Manners Stephen Krensky

19. Mr. Peabody’s Apples Madonna K-adult Rumors, gossip, responsibility

20. Finklehopper Frog Irene Livingstone 2^nd gd. Celebrating individuality

21. The Quiltmaker’s Gift Jeff Brombeau All Service/greed

22. Wind Flyers Angela Johnson All Strength, unity

23. Follow the Drinking Gourd Jeanette Winter 3-6 Slaves/freedom

24. Tar Beach Faith Ringold 2^nd gd. How you feel about the place

25. Magical Garden of Claude Monet Laurence Anholt 1-6 Art History

26. A Story for Bear Dennis Haseley 3-4 Joy of Reading

Jim La Marche

I better reference this. Arts: drama lessons webpage, Brigham Young University, viewed from http://education.byu.edu/arts/lessonplans/drama.html, viewed on 06/06/07, last updated 2007

Ok even though I was here and posted the reflection for the class I never got around to doing the activities because assignment snow under bogey. I was also going to cheat and write up my planning notes for the lesson plan assignment but I would rather get some stuff together separate. I also forgot my book and both copies are out of the library and just looked up the book so I’ll be back to this post later.

So I’m in the library with the book and will go for the topic of the Australian government (VELS civic and citizenship):

Brain storm (no lines): House of representatives, Senate, constitution, prime minister, governor general, queen (sovereign), referendum, republic debate, government officials, two party preferred system and . I think I’ll go with the referendum debate because this has an overall theme and allows all these other things to be discussed and incorporated.

The brotherhoods: Republican ‘yes’ voters are all of those who hate the royal family, who feel Australia would be better off without a sovereign and think that Australia is troubled and needs a change.

Republicans ‘no’ voters are all those who love the royal family, who feel Australia will be better off as a sovereign nation and think that all is going well so why change it. There are certainly more examples which could be thought up for the brotherhoods example.

The reverse: The republic debate is as much about staying the same as it is about changing, is as much about a referendum as it is about government officials discussing, is as much about the royal perspective as it is of the people of Australia and is as much about Australia as it is Britain. Again I’m sure there are heaps more that could be added to the list.

The unanswered question: Why did people vote no on the republic referendum, was the queen and governor general surprised by the result, who wanted a republic who did not, why didn’t the government just make Australia a republic? Again there are so many more that could be thought up and probably better then this as well.

Time before, after and within:

The time before the referendum: government officials deciding to take the decision to a referendum, pressure groups leaning on government to change to a republic and the Queen visiting Australia.

Time within: people standing in cues waiting to vote, people filling out ballots, people reading the question and preamble, people handing out material before entering the polls, families discussing the result before they are released, watching the results on the television.

Time after: disappointed republicans and happy royalists, people continuing they lives (nothing has changed) and the queen pleased with the result.

Visual Imaging: a. Where am I: standing in line waiting for my turn to fill out the ballot, b. what do I see from below: shoes, What do I see from inside: confused faces trying to decipher the question, what do i see from the outside: a building with people lining outside of it and walking out of it.

So we will go with what do I see from the inside. What am I doing: standing at the exist next to the ballot box, What is in my mind: My feet are killing me I can’t wait for this day to be over, What am I about to say: Thank you, have a good day, To whom am I speaking: citizens who are placing their ballot in the slot and leaving, How can I take this into drama: I have no idea I’m starting to think that this subject is even too dry for

I’m not sure I have done this right; I think I’ve used multiple models to come up with similar ideas. Anyway this topic is so very dry and boring I’m really stretched for ideas on how it could be made accessible and engaging for students. The topic focus is going to be the republic referendum and as I have put together there is a few ideas that can be used here. I guess my ultimate plan would be to have the students go through a simulation/role play where they all get the chance to fill out a ballot and submit it. A couple of teacher in roles one being a republican and the other royalist. A senate role play between various senators putting their case forward for the referendum or against or for a republic or against (these would have to be researched), their could be the honourable member who has to control everything and then they would all vote like in the senate. Tableau images of the queen visiting Australia. Whole group improvisation/ gossip circles of families standing in line together waiting to vote. A small group scene about a divided family at home watching the referendum results being counted on the television.

There’s a few idea’s there and I’m sure enough it could be sued to pull together a couple of classes on the republic referendum, as dull as it more then likely would be. I’m a little confused about this model of creating process drama because I’m really unsure is it a step by step approach or si it just use whatever you can and see what you come up with altering and changing it as you go. I guess I’ll have to read their book.

Well I have defiantly left this way too long but assignment due dates always due that to me. Anyway in the last two weeks of class we had the presentations of our units of work or lessons for drama for learning across the curriculum. In week 12 we had fewer people presenting and got to go home early although week thirteen had quite a lot of people to get through and Zoe and I ended up having to rush through ours.

In week 12 there was some lessons on Caroline Chisim which was really interesting considering my knowledge on her was very limited but it is defiantly something I would like to get my hands on and have a look at to see what I could do with it. There were two different lessons planned around the stolen generation, one was based around the play ‘Stolen’ and designed for ESL students which sounded really interesting and even though I have never taught ESL I think it would be great to adapt for a regular English/Drama class looking at that play. The other persons were a more loosely based series of lessons around the stolen generation and the exercise we did used flash cards and tableau image. I think by looking at both of these together a great deal of work could be developed. I reckon I forgotten one but that is the ones I can remember.

In week 13 there was a whole range of great presentations, the two that clearly stick out in my mind is the lessons based around drug education and the sex education, I thought approaching those topics through drama would be good because I remember looking at those topics in Pd at high school and they were so dry, boring and pointless. So that’s a real good way to jazz them up. There was a group of lessons centred on the book ‘The lost thing’ which dealt with issues of self and other awareness, a great way to look at them. Although I haven’t read the book it seemed like such a good pathway to lead into this subject. Another set of the lessons was about something to do with religion and persecution which I found quite heavy going and hard to understand but i think it would have been easier if I could have looked at the lessons laid out. There was mine and I think Zoe’s was the only other one which I think was about bullying or acceptance but the thing we did involved making scenes and bringing them to life with a phrase (both on a flash card).
I thought my presentation went reasonably well, I think it’s really difficult to express and explain all you have put into the lessons in such a short time frame. I reckon I could have spoken about the intricate details of mien for ages but I guess that is the point of the exercise just to get us thinking beyond that so if we were discussing it with a group of teachers we would have to be to the point and exact with what we were saying. I’m pretty sure I covered all the material I needed to and all the main points. The rest of the class seemed to receive it well so I think it was generally a success.

Overall I think all the presentations were good, there of course was some waffling on but that was too be expected. It is really hard to take on board so much of what was talked about and so that’s why I’m hoping we can get a CD with all the lessons on them so I can have a look and use them in my own teaching.