Drama in classrooms promotes kinesthetic learning; students are able to get out of their seats and be active participants in their learning. Combining drama while teaching Shakespeare literature is great because students are able to dress up in costumes and use props to make scenes more real and as students begin speaking Shakepearan language out loud, the more confident they will begin to feel while using it. An example:
At the Folger Library’s Teaching Shakespeare Institute in Washington in the early nineties, author and teacher Ginny Graham attended partook in a workshop that used drama to teach Shakespeare. A member who conducted the workshop stated that “research scholars are involved in explicating Shakespeare’s work, but suggested that our classrooms could be a place where students meet him in the play” (2002, pg 80). This is a very powerful statement, as it suggests that students should have more control than just explicating what Shakespeare is trying to saying in his literature; instead, they should (and need to, in my opinion), to act out scenes from Shakespeare plays so that they are directly involved with the play. Their imaginations can help them discover new aspects of the play that could not be done had they sat there and read the play while trying to interpret it while sitting down. Graham believes that “sound educational practices activate not only students’ minds, but their bodies, hearts, and spirits” (81), and I could not agree more. Drama is a dynamic way to get students involved in what they are learning.
Dos
- do allow for preliminary work before students are asked to complete a drama performance for a scene
- do have students memorize song lyrics, poems, etc. before introducing acting out scenes from Shakespeare scenes
- do make sure students have a good grasp of the play and have the ability to comprehend scenes of the play before they act them out
- do give students’ options
Don’ts
- don’t throw students into acting out scenes right away
- don’t have students memorize long chunks of text at a time
- don’t expect students to understand Shakespeare language without first teaching them the groundwork