Inquiry in Practice I: Drama and Movement in the Classroom
I launched into my practicum by doing a lesson where my 4/5/6 intermediate students were required to sequence and act out the Montessori Great Stories. Half of the class worked with the Story of the Universe and half the class worked with the Story of Life. I tried my best to make the groups as balanced as I could personality wise. One group definitely got off to a rockier start than the other. In these moments I was really doubting my lesson. It was feeling very chaotic and I was unsure of the direction I had given; was it enough, too much to ask, not enough prior knowledge, groups were too big…? There was a real buzz in the room! The students were excited and energized. The flow really picked up as they had more time to work with their stories and the group to come up with actions to present. My heart really started to sing when I realized how into it they became. They were passionate and really delivered in their final product. This lesson was a great start to my long practicum. I was able to engage learners that are often difficult to engage and even had a comment from a student pleading me to do more lessons like this because, “it was so much fun and it’s actually how we learn”.
From this first lesson I tried to incorporate as much movement and drama as possible into our science learning. During our microbiology unit, students participated in a ‘disease-off’ competition where they researched a disease and showcased it in front of the class individually or in pairs. The students were expected to ‘perform’ a skit or song. As a class we voted for the student who best showcased their disease.
Students also used drama, movement and storytelling to represent complex scientific concepts such as symbiotic relationships and animal partnerships. In groups of three, students were given a slip of paper that had either parasitism, commensualism, or mutualism. The students had to think of examples of their symbiotic relationship and act it out for the class. The class was expected to guess the symbiotic relationship.
Main take away learnings from incorporating storytelling, drama and movement:
- the energy in the room is incredible in terms of promoting excitement and curiosity
- the sequencing drama activity allowed for the students to see the big picture and gain perspective on the grandeur of studying science and more specifically biology
- the feedback from students was very positive – they loved this activity and claimed that they learn best through movement
- students are able to release any fidgety energy that is keeping them from being able to concentrate and focus
- students embody what they are learning and are able to be silly and express themselves, resulting in concrete understanding of abstract concepts