Drama in the ENL Classes

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Drama in the ENL
Classes

• ENL Academy
• Goshen Middle School
• Goshen Community Schools, 2009

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Dramas Role in the ENL Class

• Drama is an exciting language learning
  experience.
• Drama is a powerful tool in teaching fluency and
  oral communication skills to the ENL students.

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Dramas Role in the ENL Class

• Drama according to Motley and Duff (1978)
  releases imagination and energy and can be
  considered as a educational objective.
• Drama fosters the social, intellectual, and the
  linguistic development of a child.

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What Can Drama Do?

• Drama can help solve emotional and behavioral
  problems
• Troublesome kids can expend their energy.
• Shy students can be encouraged to participate.
• Drama increases motivation and provides the
  incentive to work hard.

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How my Drama Experience began

• Two years ago we were reading a story in our
  textbook about a creative idea to perform a
  musical based on a famous and popular movie Lion
  King.
• The students were inspired by the story and
  wanted to do something creative and make a play
  by themselves.

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The ABC of Problem Solving

• I used the ABC of Problem solving to work on the
  play. There were five steps that we had to go
  through
• 1. Ask (what the students wanted to show)
• 2. Brainstorm (ideas for the play)
• 3. Choose (roles and costumes)
• 4. Demonstrate (perform for the audience)
• 5. Evaluate (reflect on the play and to a scrap
  book)

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1. Ask

• The students were encouraged to ask questions
  about the play.
• They wrote their questions, shared with the
  class, and together we tried to find some answers.

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2. Brainstorm

• Students brainstormed trying to find different
  ideas for the play to work on.
• They brought up interesting ideas and thoughts.
• They wanted to perform something exciting and
  interesting for the audience to watch and enjoy.

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3. Choose

• After brainstorming, the students chose what they
  wanted to write a script for a new version of a
  popular fairy tale Cinderella.
• The Wring Workshop frame helped us write the
  script going through
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing
• Prewriting
• Publishing
• When the script was written, we typed it, printed
  it out, and each student had a copy of it.

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Work on the Play

• I had my students read the play aloud many times
  until they remembered their parts. When they
  began to feel comfortable with their roles, we
  began to practice with actions as well.
• Students learned to listen to others and
  corrected their own mistakes. They remembered not
  only their own parts in the play, but their
  partners as well.

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Demonstrate

• When my students were ready to perform for the
  audience, they made invitations for the school
  principals, ENL teachers, and for each student in
  the ENL academy.
• We set up a day and a time for the performance,
  prepared costumes and decorations, and wanted to
  see if the play could impress the public.

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Performing

• The play was a great success. It was far beyond
  our expectations. The students didnt play but
  lived on the stage making the performance
  absolutely fantastic.

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• Click here for movie

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The Audience

• The audience was very friendly and welcoming as
  well. Children laughed and applauded a lot
  showing their admiration and support.
• They were great
• listeners!

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To Perform for Another Audience

• The next step was to show our play to the
  elementary school students.
• They showed eight performances in two elementary
  buildings in one day!
• What a great experience it was!
• One class gave them a big poster with the kids
  signatures and nice words about the performance.
• It was great feedback about the students
  excellent work. They were very proud and excited
  as well.

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Evaluation

• Coming back to the class after the performances,
  my students had a follow-up activity to reflect
  on the play.
• Students spoke about their success and focused on
  what should be improved next time.
• They made a scrap book with a lot of pictures
  taken during the plays.

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Drama in the Reach Class

• Each trimester I work with a group of students
  making a play and performing it for the audience.
  
• We choose a plot for the story. If it is a
  well-known tale or legend, I have them watch the
  movie before we start writing our version of the
  play.
• Then, the students recreate the play with their
  own words and bring it alive.

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Thoughts about Drama

• Drama helps students practice their oral skills.
• Drama helps students discover their talents.
• Drama helps students get involved into meaningful
  and interesting activity.

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What can be Done in the ENL Classes?

• GMS has a reach class (30 minutes for enrichment
  and academic improvement). Drama class is every
  day.
• Drama class can be in the Language Arts classes
  once a week.
• Drama as a strategy can be used in the ENL
  classes after reading a story. Students can act
  out what they have learned from the text.