Trading Card #2: Drama

           For my second trading card, I decided to focus on both the Forum Theatre demonstration and the pencil exercise we did last class.  My trading card has the shape and appearance of a pencil to represent the activity we did in class.  I thought it was very useful to give students an object to work with, and to create a story from.  Since many students get stuck when they are given opportunities to be creative, I found that this serves as a helpful starting point.  I also really liked the follow-up of picking out key words and writing a simple poem from those words because this helps students think of their story in different ways.  Connecting a line of their poem to body movement is yet another way for students to tell their story. 

            Another reason why I decided to make my trading card into the shape of a pencil is because of the words “Forum Theatre” written on it.  During Forum Theatre, students are basically writing their own lines, so I thought it would be fitting to place the words “Forum Theatre” on the pencil because students are individually writing their own script on the spot.  Although this script does not appear in written format, their script is written in their mind with the words they choose to say.

            I am doing my practicum in a grade one class, so I decided to link Forum Theatre and improv games to grade one drama PLOs. 

A1 – Use exploration and imagination to create drama: Students must imagine themselves in the role of their character in order to successfully play their character when acting in an improv situation.

A2 – Demonstrate engagement in drama activities: During improv games, students will have to focus on the task, follow directions, and be paying attention to how the other students are acting in order to participate.

A3 – Demonstrate co-operation in drama activities: Students must be listening to their fellow students and showing interest in order to respond appropriate to the improv situation they are acting out.

C1 – Participate in drama in a variety of contexts: The grade one students in my class would experience being both a participant and an audience member during improv games. 

Evidently, I was able to find a number of PLOs that I could link to Forum Theatre and improv games that I could do with my grade ones.  I could give the class a basic scene with some simple characters that they could identify with.  Students could also first practice role playing in partners before acting in front of the entire class.  I would observe my students for their ability to act within their role, follow directions, participation, and being a respectful audience member.