Using Drama to Teach Literacy

Using Drama to inculcate LiteracyAbstr turn of eventsThe term oracy gistthe world power to speak fluently and articulately and to understand and respond to what early(a) people say.was starting time used by Wilkinson in 1965 (Definition, Microsoft Encarta World side of meat Dictionary).Since that time the fact that it is r eachy to all aspects of the learn form and activities in which children maneuver in school has been increasingly recognised. The diement of palavering and listen skills is central to the reading process and to embark onicipation in all curricular areas.This term my focus was statement oracy and literacy to year 4 children in an interactive and communicative environs created through the use of maneuver.By the end of the series of slightons I wanted children in year 4 to be able to identify social, moral and cultural issues in stories. Drama was employed as a tool to create graphic symbols showing how behaviour could be interpreted from different points of view.I shall present a discussion of the rationale behind the activities I get to chosen, the ship wadal in which the children engaged with them and the success of this approach to the teaching of oracy. I shall support my work with enquiry evidence in the areas of talking and listening, the wider area of literacy, and research pertaining to effective teaching and learning generally.I will discuss what I found when I assessed the promote make by the children and the implication this has for my future role as a teacher by linking my work with the Professional Standards for Qualified Teacher Status and Requirements for sign Teacher Training.IntroductionThe acquisition of language, a complex process, is inherent for effective parley throughout spirit. Creating opportunities for the climbment of oracy in the classroom is essential if children are to develop the ability to communicate. With research showing that children are increasingly spending time in solitary activ ities related to computers (MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.12), thereby reducing opportunities for talking in the home, it is essential for schools to act as facilitators in the development of talking and listening.The National Literacy Strategy defines literacy thusLiteracy unites the important skills of reading and writing. It also involves sermon and listening which, although they are non separately identified in the framework, are an essential part of it. Good oral work enhances pupils understanding of language in both oral and scripted forms and of the way language can be used to communicate. It is also an important part of the process through which pupils read and compose texts.(National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching, p.3).The insufficiency of reference to talking and listening as a separate area has been addressed in later recommendations with an acknowledgement that language is an integral part of around learning and oral language in particular has a key role in classroom teaching and learning (DfES, 2003, p.3). The document is highly normative in the means through which contexts for talk should be established.This paper will present work carried out with a year 4 class in respect of oracy taught through drama. I will evaluate the opportunities given to children for developing oracy and the ways in which children responded to the tasks.The role of talking and listeningFor the past fifty days researchers have been making a clear case for the importance of talk in the learning process. The psychologists Vygotsky and Bruner have demonstrated the fundamental importance to cognitive processes and learning of speaking and listening (Lambirth, 2006, p.59).Talk is both a medium for teaching and learning and one of the materials from which a child constructs meaning (Edwards Mercer, 1987, p.20). I wanted the talking and listening activities to act as a medium for teaching and learning through the childrens interaction. My aim was that they would be teaching and learning from each separate through their discussion radical work. Their construction of meaning would come about as a result of their understanding of the text and the dilemmas faced by David (see vermiform process 2).Opportunities for developing talking and listeningDeveloping talking and listening skills is a complex process which must be carefully managed in the classroom. In all curricular areas oral skills should be constantly being developed through a range of activities and, like other areas of the curriculum, should be differentiated to allow for a range of abilities within the class (see accompaniment 2). Different subjects offer opportunities for different kinds of talk (DfES, 2003, p.4). It is therefore a very important feature of effective teaching to give children as many opportunities as possible to engage in a variety of types of talk. Children make sense of the world as they learn the communication skills to interact with others in their culture (Lambirth, 2006, p.62).Light and Glachan have shown that children on the job(p) together and sharing their moods orally can develop solutions to problems that they could not manage to solve respectively (Light Glachan, 1985). Carnell and Lodge suggest that more school learning should be based on talk and dialogue between pupils as it has the power to engage learners in learning conversations, keeps them open to new ideas and requires both honesty and trust (Carnell Lodge, 2002, p.15).Planning the activitiesWhen formulation the activities I sought to involve the following aspectsModelling appropriate speaking and listeningEncouraging sensitive interactionEnsuring goals are set with clear criteria for successPlanning opportunities for children to investigate, apply and reflect on language in use.(DfES, 2003, p.19) (see proviso appendices 1 2).I chose to provide opportunities for talk in the context of drama, giving the children opportunities to engage with one another. Researc h has shown that children learn more effectively when given opportunities to percentage ideas. Grugeon points out that this is a skill, like others, and must be taught. Children who are expected to work together in groups requisite to be taught how to talk to one another. They need talk skills which enable them to get the best out of their own thinking and that of all other members of the group (Grugeon et al., 2001, p.95). For this reason I modelled the activities for the children so that they would have a clear understanding of what they were required to do and how best to go about the tasks in hand (see appendix 2). Some of the children were tentative in respect of their interlocking at the beginning of the exercise but the group work gave them opportunities to develop their confidence and self esteem.Developing appropriate talking and listeningIt is important to be aware of the difference between incidental talk, in which children engage in the course of an activity, but is n ot directly related to the learning intentions, and talk which is a main focus of the activity. In my drama activities, I wanted children to be focused on their talk through appropriate activities which would engage them and hold their interest. When planning the activities I was aware of the need to engage pupils on the basis of their prior knowledge To prompt learning , youve got to begin with the process of going from inside to outside. The outset influence on new learning is not what teachers do pedagogically but the learning that is already inside their heads (Gagnon, 2001, p.51). It was with this in mind that I inflexible on Davids dilemma. I felt that the children would have sufficient previous knowledge of the ideas presented to be able to identify with the characters and the dilemmas faced by them (see appendix 2).Establishing RulesIn all conversations there are rules, for example, only one person talking at a time. Cordon suggests that children receive little help in un derstanding and appreciating the dry land rules for group discussion (Cordon, 2000, p.86) an issue that I felt it was important to address through the establishment of guidance for the children. This is vital to the process so that all children have equal opportunities to participate in the talking and listening activities.AimsMy aims in the drama activities wereTo encourage purposeful talk, the skills associated with which the children could later transfer to other areas of their learning.To develop childrens ability to work in a group.To enable children to develop the confidence and competence to present their work to a group of their allys.To develop childrens skills in forming opinions, responding to other childrens opinions and oral presentation skills.Drama as a tool for developing talking and listeningI chose to approach the teaching of speaking and listening through drama as it affords many opportunities for children to develop their speaking and listening skills. Drama he lps children to understand their world more deeply and allows them an opportunity to find ways to explore and share that understanding (Wyse, 2001, p.213).Research about learning has shown that children learn most effectively when learning is meaningful to them. Learning happens in the process of overture to new understandings in relation to existing knowledge (MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.52). For this reason I gave children the opportunity to create their own scenarios in acting out Davids dilemma. In the group activities I wanted the talk to be open-ended so that the children could question, disagree with, extend and qualify each others utterances (DfES, 2003, p.7).After their group activities children had the opportunity to share their ideas with the class, giving them important experiences in presenting their opinions and listening to the views of others. Children were actively engaged in tasks which gave validity to all of their ideas and opinions. When given opportunities, c hildren are keen to engage with issues on text and challenge the conventions of the story (Baumfield Mroz, 2004, p.55). I wanted children to have experience of challenging the ideas they were faced with by developing their own responses to scenarios and the behaviour of characters.golf links with readingThe development of effective talking and listening skills is vital to the reading process. Before their oral work, children were finding main ideas in the text to support their viewpoints (see appendix 1). Only after the children had established the supporting information they wished to use, were they in a position to verbalise their ideas. Reading and talking were also linked through the necessary that the children orally summarise the salient points in a written argument. Through a discussion of the ways in which authors are able to develop their ideas children can develop ways in which to present their own ideas to an audience. Effective questioning was essential to this part of the process to provide a framework for the development of the childrens ideas in the correct context. As children have more experience and gain more confidence in this type of activity they are able to act as effective peer questioners, a very useful aspect of pupil self-assessment. Through this process children can measure the success of their own learning. Baumfield and Mroz uphold the development of a community of inquiry to develop pupils full of life analysis of text (Baumfield Mroz, 2004, p.58).Developing opportunities for talkIn the classroom a variety of types of talk occur throughout the day. The ways in which children interact with each other is very different to the way in which they interact with the teacher who does 70% of the talking in the course of a day(Baumfield Mroz, 2004, p.49). This clearly means that children are not being given sufficient opportunities to develop talking and listening skills critical to success in all other areas. To enhance the role of t alk in shaping and developing learning requires a reduction in the teachers role as classroom controller and a shift towards an enabler of talk for thinking (Myhill, 2006, p.19). After the initial modelling and discussion, it was important for me to let the groups work, as far as possible, along the problem path independently.It was my intention to give children a variety of opportunities to engage in different types of talk. They had opportunities to talk in small groups when working on their scenarios and afterwards had opportunities to present their work to the whole class.Talking in groupsWorking in groups has been shown to develop a sense of belonging in children, roughthing which I debate as very important in the classroom. Osterman has pointed out that, There is substantial evidence showing or suggesting that the sense of belonging influences achievement through its personal effects on engagement (Osterman, 2000, p.341). She goes on to say that children with a vigorous dev eloped sense of belonging in school tend to have more demonstrable attitudes to school and each other. As shown in appendix 3 some of the children were lacking in confidence in the initial stages of the activities, something which I would seek to develop in children through more exposure to this type of activity.Resnick has pointed out that while the majority of learning in schools is individualistic in its nature, this is contrary to other aspects of life such as work and leisure activities which are much more social in the nature (Resnick, 1987). It is essential, therefore, that children develop the skills needed for group work so that they have ability to engage in participatory aspects of education. When planning the group activities for the children I was conscious of making sure that each child had a part to play in the development and presentation of each activity. Francis has pointed out that the majority of talking and listening activities involve the teacher doing most of that talking with the children interjecting at equal gaps in the teacher discourse (Francis, 2002, p.29), something which I wanted to avoid by giving the children ownership of the activities. This would ensure that all children were engaged in the process and less likely to be passive. At the same time children had to be able to quietly listen to the views of others, thereby developing strategies for turn-taking. All the children engaged in the process very well.AssessmentAssessment for learning is a very important aspect of the teaching and learning process and from the point of view of my own skipper development the ability to effectively assess pupil learning is a very important competence to have. As Dann has pointed out, if assessment genuinely seeks to give some indication of pupils level of learning, pupils will need to understand and contribute to the process (Dann, 2002, p.2). In assessing the effectiveness of the activities it is important to assess the appropriateness of the childrens talk for the task. The children participated in the assessment process through their involvement in the plenary sessions. This was coupled with my observations of childrens success on the task (see appendix 3). All of the children achieved the objectives and reported that they enjoyed the activities. Childrens talk is a very good indicator of their understanding of a task. The fact that all the children experienced success with the tasks and were able to carry them out utilise appropriate language was demonstrative of their understanding of the characters and dilemmas with which they were faced. Talking and listening is very valuable to assess understanding particularly with children who have special educational take and may have difficulty with written tasks.Myers has presented research carried out in primary schools which suggests that children who participate in group work enjoy the experience of working with others and find it very helpful in the learning proc ess (Myers, 2001, cited in MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.159). My evaluation of the drama activities leads me to agree with this, particularly in light of the comment made by one of the children I wish we could always do drama with English(see appendix 3).Childrens language, like most of their learning, responds to encouragement (Fontana, 1994, p.78). This is an important idea to bear in mind when giving the children feedback and it is important to praise their efforts at contributing. I would hope that this would encourage the children who were initially reluctant participants in their efforts in the future.What I have LearntI have developed a greater degree of understanding of the role of talking and listening in the curriculum as well as an understanding of how children progress in this area and what they should be expected to achieve. I hope to build on this in my future development and emotional state that I have made progress in terms of the standards laid out by the Training and Development Agency. appendix 1Literacy planningAppendix 2 Lesson Observation SheetsAppendix 3EvaluationEvaluation Week 2All groups were very engaged and enjoyed the task. They said that they wished they could always do drama with English.Possible action to be taken more use of drama when teaching English.AssessmentsChilds NameObjective achieved?CommentsActionAndreiMore ableVery animated leader of groupSpeaking ad listening skillsLeoMiddle GroupCo-operativeRobertMiddle GroupTentative at first more engaged with scriptConfidence buildingOonaMiddle groupGood directional skillsUse of props (desk)Good team playerDanielleMore ableWorks well in her team.AlexandraSENTentative very aware of being stared at.Confidence buildingReferencesBaumfield, V. Mroz, M. (2004) Investigating Pupils questions in the primary classroom in E.C. Wragg (Ed.)(2004) The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Teaching and Learning. capital of the United KingdomRoutledgeFalmer.Burns, C. Myhill, D. (2004) Interactive or inactive? A consideration of the nature of interaction in whole class teaching. Cambridge journal of cultivation, 34, 1, 35-49.Carnell, E. Lodge, C. 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