GUIDING CREATIVE DRAMA

The leader's role
The most important thing to remember when facilitating a creative drama lesson, is that you are providing an opportunity for children to explore. They will learn through acting-out and improvisation. It is difficult to watch students freelance, but this is an essential creative process. This is, after all, a process oriented experience. Whether you choose to facilitate as yourself, or in a role, you must monitor while letting them explore and learn. This doesn't mean you can't steer them in a particular direction. It primarily means that students should not hesitate to explore, learn, and fail.

The role of the children
It may be difficult to gain the trust of your students when you introduce creative drama. It is best to start out with ensemble activities, and solo work. When they become comfortable with that, move on toward small groups and individual roles. Once children learn that they can explore and fail without reproach, they will participate.

Shy children
What happens when a student is reluctant to participate? Let them sit out until they are comfortable to join. When they trust the class they will join in. We should never force a child to participate. After all, in most cases we have no idea what their home life is like, or their relationship to the material. They may be sitting out for a very good reason.

Outgoing children
What happens when you have a child destined for Hollywood? Let them go! By watching outgoing students, others will feel comfortable participating. It is very important to rotate roles so everyone gets a chance to try. If the outgoing student is old enough, ask them to encourage others to join in.

Space
Space is often limited. Some drama activities can be done in desks. Others can be done by pushing the desks aside, or even going outside. This varies from case to case. Ultimately, you know what your options are. One idea is to create an entirely different class setup for drama time.

Material selection
In terms of material selection, the sky's the limit! This is the gem of creative drama. Activating materials include social studies histories, newspaper articles, current events, story books, poems, and folk tales. Instead of reading a book relative to what you're studying, act it out!

Data
It is only beneficial to students if they are presented with small bits of information at a time. Five bits of information is the norm. This can be done by telling or reading sections of the story, then acting out bits as you go (in-depth playing), or by summarizing the story into a beginning, middle, and end (run-through playing). Writing data on the board is valuable too.