Speaking and Listening Session

Speaking and Listening Session


1. Five things that I will try to remember when in the classroom from these sessions:

• Listening to Alice in Wonderland I found it more difficult to concentrate on the story once my task was complete. It is therefore important for children to have something to focus their thoughts on while listening to the story. Drawing the story while listening was an effective method and could lead on to an activity looking at storyboards.

• It is important to build up to the use of drama in the classroom. The group must be comfortable with each other and feel safe to act, as children may feel exposed and self-conscious. It is also important to use warm up activities, like the feather activity. This involves some acting but is not threatening.

• Using a member of the group that enjoys acting to demonstrate the activity can build group confidence. It demonstrates the activity, clarifying instructions and helps to create a comfortable and safe working environment.

• Drama helps to engage children with story telling. Acting out the story of the couple that went to the beach improved my memory of the events and the characters in the story. This is because I was actively involved in the telling of the story. This activity would be especially powerful for children that ‘switch off’ during story time.

• Taking on different roles in the World War 1 activity encouraged me to consider the range of opinions and emotions of family members in Britain during the war. This could be applied to different scenarios and used to teach conflict resolution.


2. As was evident I love drama! I felt at home as soon as we got into the space in the middle of the classroom. My favourite activity was High Tide, Low Tide, the activity was high in energy and exciting.


3. Speaking and listening activities involve negotiating roles in groups and working together. The Auction gave members of the group clear roles; each person had a job in each team. I was relieved that my job as recorder was to make a note of the spending of other teams. I do not enjoy word games, like scrabble and I was happy that I was not bidding for letters. An awareness of strengths and weaknesses could be built into an activity that involves assigning roles. On SSE the class was working on a Christmas card, which is part of a whole school project. The members of the class were divided into market researchers, designers, sales, marketing, human resources and managers. The children chose their roles based on their strengths.


4.

b) The activities in class hit the following objectives:

• Experiment with and use new stores of words – WW1 Activity, example, propaganda.
• Listen with sustained concentration - Alice in Wonderland Activity.
• Listen to and follow instructions accurately – High Tide, Low Tide Activity.
• Make notes when listening for a sustained period of time – Alice in Wonderland Activity.
• Take turns to speak, listen to each other’s suggestions – WW1 Activity.
• Ask and answer questions – WW1 Activity.
• Explore familiar themes and characters – WW1 Activity.
• Improvise using a range of drama strategies - WW1 Activity.

c) The activities did not involve reviewing the work of other groups. This is important because it enables students to identify successful attempts and it helps students to give and receive feedback.

To develop the students’ ability to comment critically on drama, as a class they could visit a live performance and write a review on the performance. To help the students to use appropriate language they could read professional reviews. As the students become more confident about what they need to comment on when reviewing drama they can take on roles, like a television broadcaster and film the reviews. Once able to comment on professional productions they can then apply those skills to commenting on the work of other students in the group.

Jo I´m still amazed at how good you were at answering questions while reading... even with both Immalee and I badgering you! What a skill!