One thing I came to understand as I moved into the role of EAL/D teaching is that drama can be a very powerful tool when it comes to understanding a text and as a motivator for reluctant writers (who often are writing a response to a text they haven't actually understood - hence the reluctance).
I thought I would outline a few of my favourite drama activities. There are so many wonderful activities that can be used but here are a few I enjoy.
Reader's Theatre: I like to initially create the scripts from the text that the students have written and have them read through it on their own first, then listen to me read it and use their imagination to imagine the characters and then have them read their parts. I always let them use actions, although not all reader's theatre calls for actions and I encourage them to use different voices.
As they get used to this activity then I allow them to create their own scripts. A very successful 'student written' script I have seen was from my mixed ESL/LA year 5 writing group two years ago. We had read a very dry and boring text on the Eureka Stockade and I couldn't get the students to fully understand what had happened during the stockade, so I began to have them act little pieces out. Then I had the idea that we should write a script. I broke the group up into three and each part took a different event from the text and wrote parts.
We practiced it and then made a few basic props and then we went outside and acted it out - we then filmed it on the Ipad and showed the rest of their classs. The students then went on to write a letter as a miner from the stockade and they each demonstrated a greater understanding of the event than I could have hoped for.
Character in Role: This activity is especially useful if you are looking at biographies, narratives and recounts. After reading about a person or a character assign one student to be a character or the person from the narrative. They come out the front and sit in the chair and then they are introduced to the class as though they are that character. They can talk to the class about themselves and then the class gets to ask questions of the character. This is a great way to gauge understanding of the main themes, events or thoughts and feelings related to an event.
Living Scultpures: Students are put in pairs and they assume different roles. One person becomse the sculpter and the other person becomes the clay. The students get a character or a scene - or a character and a scene and the sculpter's job is to silently move the person's body to portray the way that character is feeling, an event from the text or the scene. Students who are sculpters then move around the room and check out the sculptures and guess what character or scene they are portraying. Another way to do this is to take photos of the statues and then later on the students write a blurb to go with the photo explaining who the character in the sculpture is and why they are modelled that way.
Still life pictures: The students are in small groups for this activity. Students are given a chapter or scene from a novel, or from a part of a biography or from a film. Students have to come up with three still pictures (with no sounds) that portray what happens before, during and after the scene. Once students have worked out their parts and where they will position themselves each group is called up to present their still life picture. The class are asked to close their eyes while the group get in their first still life. They open their eyes and look but do not talk. Then they close their eyes while the group move into their second picture and then open them again to look and do the same for the third picture. Each group's actions are then discussed by the class.
Tapping In: This activity is similar to the still life pictures activity. It can be used as an add-on to extend the use of vocabulary. In this activity when the students are frozen in their spots the teacher will randomly tap a child on the shoulder and that child gets to speak as the character. The teacher might ask "What is going on?" or "What are you doing?" or "How are you feeling right now?" and the student will respond as the character, using what is going on in the scene. For example if the still life is of a bully taking a ball from a small child and the teacher taps the small child the teacher might ask "How are you feeling?" and the student playing the small child might say something like "I'm feeling scared. I don't want him to take my ball!" and then the teacher might tap the bully and ask "What's going on?" and the bully will reply.
I hope you find these activities useful. I don't want to overwhelm people with too much reading at once so I thought just a few activities to start with. Each of the above activities helps to bring the text to life, giving it a physical appearance which will help with a clearer understanding of events, thoughts or feelings of characters and can also be used as a basis for future writing. I hope you find them useful.