To dramatise or not to dramatise? That is the question

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21 November, 2023 —
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To dramatise or not to dramatise? That is the question

How drama can be used as an effective tool in the classroom to further develop reading comprehension skills of children.

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by Lancashire Research School
on the 21st November 2023

Gillian Fearns

Research School Director

In my Year Six class, the children are eager to start their next English unit of study: Older Literature. For this unit, it is my plan to use William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as the focus of our study. Two concerns are raised:- Will the children understand the complex themes and plot of the play?- Will they comprehend and engage with the text due to the complexity of language?I decide that the children will need to have a basic grasp of the plot before we even look at the text and so I turn to my trusty array of drama techniques to develop this background knowledge. The children are put into pairs and each allocated a key character card detailing the name of the character and their role in the play. They are to come up with a way of saying the characters’ name and an action that will reflect the character well. There is an instant buzz in the room and the children consider how to change their voice, expression, posture and what gesture they can utilise to reflect the characteristics of the allocated role. When each group performs and introduces their character from the play, the children are transfixed and slowly they start to develop interest and understanding of the plot. The children are split into the two families- the rivals – Montagues v Capulets and we perform a ‘whoosh’ of the whole play with the relevant characters acting during their part as I read a basic plot of the play aloud. In less than 30 minutes, the whole class of children have a solid understanding of the play’s plot and an instant love of the work of Shakespeare. This background knowledge we have developed via drama has massively developed our comprehension. Now, we are ready to tackle the text …

What does drama look like in a primary classroom reading session?

The word drama comes from the Greek word “dran” meaning “to do or to act”. Drama strategies used well in the classroom allow the children to experience what characters think and feel; it allows them to experience empathy for the characters, comprehend complex situations and consider varying viewpoints and opinions.

In both the EEF KS1 and KS2 Guidance reports for Improving Primary Literacy there are recommendations around the teaching and modelling of strategies that will support reading comprehension. A reading comprehension strategy is a specific way that readers engage with text in order to deepen their understanding of it. As the image below indicates, these strategies do not work in isolation – they are simultaneous processes that occur before, during and following reading.

It is considered good practice for teachers to enable children to make mental models of the text as they read. Drama strategies such as ‘a whoosh’ and ‘performance carousel’ are brilliant ways of doing this.

The importance of children developing their skills of clarifying and questioning is highlighted in both reports. ‘empty Chair’, ‘collective voice’ and ‘magic mirror’ are highly effective strategies that encourage deep thinking and questioning and allow both the children and teacher opportunities to clarify thinking.

Favourite Five ‘Drama Strategies’ to improve reading comprehension:

- ‘Whoosh’ – The aim is to introduce participants quickly to the whole plot of a text and is an interactive storytelling technique that enables any kind of plot, regardless of complexity, to come alive, even without participants having any prior knowledge. Students physically tell the story in response to small, narrated sections of plot, thereby generating a high degree of engagement & ownership. The teacher facilitates the shared storytelling, bringing individuals, groups and sometimes the whole class, in and out of the action. Children are given clear instruction as to how to use physical theatre – their bodies and voices- to portray the given moment in the plot. If at any time the teacher says “Whoosh!, children should quickly return to their places outside of the performance space the teacher has created.

- Collective voice- Arrange the children in a circle and the teacher takes on the role of one speaker in a conversation, often adopting the role of a key character from a text. The whole class takes on the role of a single, second speaker. The teacher begins the conversation, talking to the ‘other person’ (the class) and any child can speak to continue the dialogue. A common purpose is for the children to find out some information from the first speaker or for them to give advice; this is really powerful if it is at a pivotal point in the text and the character is facing a dilemma.

- Empty chair- To use this strategy, place empty chairs around the classroom/large space and on each chair place a scenario that the character from the text being studied finds themselves in. In a different vein to hot-seating, the children who approach the chair are to consider the scenario and then ‘speak’ to the chair as if the key character is sat there. They can use this to clarify their thinking around a situation and also offer advice to the character allowing them to practise and develop the skills of summarising and prediction.

- Performance carousel- Each group creates a short performance piece to reflect a key moment from the plot of a text. The groups are numbered to allow each performance to flow into the next seamlessly. Group 1 will perform first, Group 2 second, and so on. Group 1 will move first and in slow motion will move artistically into a still image that they will hold still for 5 seconds. They will then bring the scene to life and perform. The scenes should last no more than a minute each. The group will have decided the exact moment that they will freeze to signal the end of their scene. They will then hold the “freeze frame” still for 5 seconds before melting back down to the ground in slow motion. When Group 1 is seated completely still this will be the signal for Group 2 to get up in slow motion and so on until all groups have performed. Atmospheric music fitting the theme of the performance will help create one seamless class performance made up of several scenes.

- Magic mirror- based on Disney’s Snow White all-knowing mirror, the children use their comprehension skills to devise questions and ‘I wonder why’ statements about a key character or point in the plot. They approach the mirror to ask their questions/share their statements. A teacher/teaching assistant or another child from the class can adopt the role of the ‘mirror’ and answer or respond to the question or statement utilising their knowledge of the text.