Hello one more time! We are arriving on our lasts posts and they are a little bit more difficult because we have to try to show what we are learning during these weeks.
In this post I want to talk about the last seminar, trying not to reveal a lot of information because there are some mates that hadn’t the seminar yet. We were working on theatre, and as we were children, we were reading in groups some parts of different levels, starting by the easier and ending with some more difficult ones. Once again we have learnt a value lesson; we have discovered that we can teach what we want using something unusual like the theatre. In this case the ecosystem of some animals.
Using scripts with children have a lot of benefits like:
- Developing the verbal expression, letting them express themselves more fluency
- Improving their corporal expression letting them being imaginative and work with their body
- Improving their creativity and imagination, because we can let them that they create their own scripts.
- Work in groups
They can make different activities with scripts like reading it all together, by dialogs and using gestures and mimic. It will be more motivating and catchy for them and as Luis Montiel, a teacher of a school said (sorry for using Spanish):
“El teatro para los niños es un complemento necesario para su formación ya que les ayuda a descubrir muchas habilidades que no saben que tienen o a veces lo saben pero les da miedo demostrarlas. Esta actividad les aporta seguridad y motivación personal”.
“La confianza que los niños van adquiriendo es lo primordial para mí, no me interesa solo que hagan una obra al final de curso, valoro que se formen como personas, que poco a poco sean capaces de valorarse a sí mismos, que pierdan el miedo a lo que digan los demás”.
What do you thing about using theatre and scripts in the schools? It is necessary or is only an entertainment? Could be a complement?
I remember when I was a child and in my school I had a teacher who was really involve on a project that she created that was related with her subject: music. But also with history, dancing and theatre! We worked during all year and at the end of the curse we went to the Paco de Lucia’s auditorium and show to the rest what we were working on! We were dressed up and acted. Maybe it is no necessary that, but I’m sure that working with scripts and theatre we can achieve great things. These years with this teacher were ones of the best of my school because we were motivated all the year and we wanted to impress the rest of the school and parents that could come with use.
Hello Sara and congrats for your new post!
You showed us really important reflections and thoughts thanks to this writing. I totally agree with you, in the fact that lessons of this subject are so useful for us, especially this one that you have described.
The benefits that this kind of activities provide to children are countless. I would add to the ones that you distinguished, the possibility that students have to acquire new contents of any subject while they are practicing a funny task.
I love the contribution that the teacher Luis Montiel did in relation with this topic. Concretely, I consider totally significant the idea of doing this kind of activities (in this case theatre) not for the final result, but for students train themselves, and to increase their self-esteem. From my point of view, this is what really matters in education.
In relation with your ending questions, activities such as scripts, like everything in life, are fantastic if they are well proportioned, they help us to make learning varied and meaningful. The bigger our set of activities is, the more successful learning can be.
It is amazing the way you remember your childhood, in the school, this can be a sample of the importance that motivating activities have for children.
Good post, Sara. As you see I’m not the only crazy teacher using drama in her lessons
I know that performing a role in a theatre play may be stressful for children, that’s why using readers theatre gives us the chance to do it little by little.