Creative Drama
Justification for use of Creative Drama in the Classroom Communicating ideas and opinions stands tantamount as the one skill that all human beings must do well to succeed in their lives. We must talk openly and honestly to convey whom we are, and what we want. And we must listen to understand who others are and what they want as well. For real learning is joyful. Learning, and more importantly, collaborating in the learning experience, is an invitation to pure excitement and exhilaration. Schooling should be a coming together for creative worthwhile purposes that can extend human experiences. Part of the richness of children's lives is their play, including language play. If we make room for it in our classrooms by implementing Creative Drama we can help students use this skill to recognize, think about, and comment on their world. The teaching job is compounded, though, when life's inconsistencies plague us. Kids refuse to do assignments. Parents badmouth programs. Administrators overlook successes. In understanding those frustrations teachers must be their strongest advocates. We should celebrate our triumphs, and promote our needs. We must meet and greet the public and wrestle openly and honestly about our accomplish
Creative Drama is a useful way to begin a piece of literature or to generate ideas for writing. Drama can encourage students to explore, clarify, and elaborate feelings, attitudes, and ideas. Because drama requires students to organize, synthesize, and articulate their ideas, it provides an excellent opportunity for reflection and evaluation at the conclusion of a unit of study. Improvisation takes many useful forms besides role-playing. And it is always useful when applying it to the subjects at hand. While pantomime forces the student to concentrate on the subject and results in a quiet (?) or more controlled environment. Creative dramatics spells communal experience. It means that students must leave their seats, get together with other students, and discuss ideas, share thoughts, and display emotions, all in the arena of taking an idea and improvising a moment. As in writing, participants in creative dramatics must extend their knowledge base by using their own intuitive understandings. The purpose of applying Creative Drama is to get children to think independently, logically, and ethically. This concept of teaching children to think critically and to use philosophy has been applied in various schools. Where as there are few studies done for the Creative Drama proceeds in the classroom there have been several studies done for applying philosophy in the classroom. Students who were tested after their teachers taught such a program were shown to benefit from the exposure to philosophy. This was shown in terms of boosting test scores in a year long study on the application of philosophy in the classroom conducted by the Princeton New Jersey based Educational Testing Service that student improved overall. An experimental group of 200 fifth through eight graders in the Newark and Pompton Lakes New Jersey school districts made significant gains in reading, math, and creativity, compared to a control group. These students participated in the program for two hours and a quarter hours per week and their progress was measured by school administered Metropolitan Achievement tests. "The overall impact of philosophy for children on reading and math performance levels of students in the experimental group was statistically at the highest level of significance (.0001). Meaning that there is only one chance in 10,000 that the gains occurred by accident" (Alvino). The gain was interpreted over the control group as "36 percent greater in math and 66 percent greater in reading" (Brandt). Since testing can only be applied in a controlled setting these facts are significant. Now suppose these concepts were brought into the home, and imagine the effects they would have on not only children but their on parents and all the interaction in-between. Philosophy is the best call to parenting in a critical fashion. In Creative Drama activities, students use and examine their present knowledge in order to induce new knowledge. While much school learning is an accruing of facts, drama can help students reframe their knowledge into new perspectives. These Creative Dramatic activities are a way of exploring subject matter and the relationships of self and society, a way of making meaning and sense of abstract, social, moral, and ethical concepts through the experience of the drama. Ø This is the academic, cognitive, and social learning, that will be used later in other subjects.
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Approximate Word count = 3460
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)
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