Sunday, April 12, 2015

Teaching Made Fun With Short Plays For The Classroom

By Joanna Walsh


Educators all around the world have one thing in common. They want their students to learn and to enjoy doing so. With short plays for the classroom they can achieve this goal. This is why these literary learning aids are so sought after by educators and curriculum designers around the world.

With a short play, a teacher is able to keep students occupied. The students may be placed in groups to work on their own interpretation and presentation of the piece. It may take fifteen to twenty minutes for the groups to adequately plan for a five minute presentation. In addition, each group will require roughly five minutes for their performance.

Sometimes these in class preparations can blossom into whole school plays. This does wonders to the self esteems and performance skills of the participants. Those who are shy may also lose some of their shyness through this activity.

Working together on a play helps to groom students for their adult lives. In order to prepare adequately they must work with others in discussing and planning their performances. This type of cooperation is also required when they are onstage. This helps to build their interpersonal skills and these are skills that are crucial to social and professional relationships.

A teacher may use a play as a springboard for the teaching of one or more lessons. The principles explored through the storyline serve as re-enforcers of behavioral goals. These principles include, loyalty, trust, determination and justice. These principles are brought to the fore when discussions on characters and their traits are facilitated. The teacher, in discouraging the emulation of negative characters can highlight the consequences that characters with negative traits face. For characters that demonstrate positive traits the rewards or resulting triumph can be highlighted.

Drama scripts are also useful for fulfilling the requirements of the academic curriculum. Literary and language skills are also developed through drama. Students who are good at practical skills such as decorating and lighting get to develop showcase their skills as well. Those students who are interested in making things can be tasked with the set building project.

Finding the right drama script is easy for many teachers. They are able to browse one of the many teacher support websites and find a script that suits their students age group and interests as well as the lesson. Some teachers craft their own scrips to make them unique to their situation. Sometimes the script is created as a special project with students and teacher contributing to the finished play. This is very important as, in some circumstances, the perfect script is simply not out there as yet.

Inspired teachers inspire their students using creative teaching aids such as drama. Those students who are inspired go on to change the world for the better. There is therefore no denying the value of drama in the classroom.




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