Drama Strategies For Teachers In The Classroom

Drama strategies - also known as drama techniques or drama conventions - are the everyday tools of the drama teacher. They help to develop enquiry skills, to encourage negotiation, understanding and creativity. They can enhance performance skills such as character development and storytelling and be used across the curriculum to actively involve students in their own learning.

   Story-telling:
Storytelling is one of the simplest and perhaps most compelling forms of dramatic and imaginative activity. A good place to start is by telling stories to your pupils and encouraging them to share stories with one another. All of us can become engaging storytellers with a little practice. There may also be members of staff who are particularly skilled at telling stories, or you could invite a professional storyteller (such as Hugh Lupton in the video below) into the school. Listen to each other, watch videos of storytelling and encourage the children to identify techniques they could use in their own stories.Rather than learning stories by rote pupils should identify key images and important moments, and retell the story in their own words. Still images can be used to mark out those key moments, as can drawing storyboards and story maps or (for younger children) sorting pictures into the right order. It is well worth playing some games to develop oral skills and get the creative juices flowing. These can help to develop vocabulary, story- making and storytelling techniques.

Other Strategies:

Conscience Alley
Cross-Cutting
Flashbacks and Flash Forwards
Forum Theatre
Hot Seating
Image Theatre
Mantle of the Expert
Marking the Moment
Narration
Open and Close
Role on the Wall
Role Play
Soundscape
Spotlight
Still Images & Freeze Frames
Story telling
Tableaux
Teacher in Role
Thought Tracking