AMAZING LEARNING EVENTS
For over 60 years, drama-in-education has been used as a valuable tool in primary and secondary classrooms for motivating learners.
We build on this achievement by designing workshops as both student-centred and teacher-nurturing. Our one-hour school incursions are high-impact events that assist teachers to introduce, extend and consolidate key concepts and skills in their teaching programs.
The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.
– Elliot Eisner, Arts And The Creation Of Mind
Supporting Resilience & Responsibility
Drama Learning incursions
- support the development of cognitive abilities of 21st-century skills.
- reflect the assessment principles of the Australian Curriculum.
- work with the principles of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
- represent ten years of research into new applications of drama education, including six years of observation of inventive programs by London Fringe Theatres on the working with schools and local communities.
Founding director of Drama Learning. Josey has over 30 years of experience in drama education.
Presenters carry VIT registration and are experienced teacher-artists.
Workshops are designed for students’ total involvement.
Students are presented with certificates to place in their portfolios, showing self-assessment criteria.
Worksheets can be reused in a variety of contexts after the conclusion of the workshop.
DRAMA LEARNING IN-CLASS WORKSHOPS
WORDPLAY WORKSHOPS
We use John Hattie’s advice in Visible Learning (2009) on the importance of developing a student’s vocabulary as an effective foundation for all learning. We use drama techniques to build students’ spelling and vocabulary skills
A PRACTICAL APPROACH
The presence of large swatches of coloured cloth and other stage properties are used in highly symbolic ways. At the same time, the ‘special effects’ technique is absolutely practical and immersive for students.
CERTIFICATION
We present students with a certificate of completion which is simultaneously a tool by which students reflect on and evaluate their participation in working with General Capabilities and Learning Area content in the workshop.
21st CENTURY LEARNING
We focus on combining specific organising elements of the General Capabilities, for instance, ‘posing questions’ from the Critical and Creative Learning Capability, and Learning Area content, for instance, ‘Word Knowledge’ from the English Learning Area.
GIVE US YOUR WORD LIST
The precise use of General Capabilities or Learning Area Content is based on our initial consultation with you: based on what phase in F-10; the specialisation of Learning Area vocabulary and the emphasis within the General Capabilities you would like us to consider in the workshop.
WORKING FOR TEACHERS
We leave the teacher exercises and activities to continue the influence of the workshop after it is over. We also ‘train’ students so they can teach others exciting ways of building their vocabularies.
DRAMA LEARNING IN PRACTICE
“I’m a Year 5 teacher…”
I’m worried about my students’ NAPLAN spelling scores. They don’t seem to be building a wide vocabulary through reading and conversation.
Drama Learning WordPlay Certificate
The one-hour session shows how students can grow their vocabulary every day. Use the Certificate and invite parents to participate in the fun activities at home with their child.
Interactive Word-Building
Students use highly original word-building techniques for working in pairs and in small groups that can be applied long after the session is over!
Students’ Needs
“I’m a middle school teacher…”
A significant number of students in my classroom have English as an additional language. I want to build trust between English-speaking and EALD students so that students collaborate in their literacy learning.
A Motivating Event
Self-Assessment Certificate
The one-hour session shows how students’ have assessed their own improvement of word-building techniques presented in the workshop.
The Benefits
Totally Immersive Techniques
We create comic situations that hold interesting and repeatable techniques for students that build collaborative ways of learning new vocabulary in pairs and in small groups.
Curriculum Content
I’m a Year 10 English/ Literature/ Drama teacher.
I’m continually impressing on my students the importance of embedding key terms into the study of texts. I’m looking for a way of consolidating key terms from the previous unit and launching into the next.
Vocabulary Workshop
For Head of Faculty
Show the WordPlay Certificate techniques as part of their school-based portfolio assessment.
The Benefits
Word-Building Experts
Revise key terms and build a bridge to new terms for the next text to be studied. Build self-responsibility and collaborative methods for meaningful ways of understanding and using essential terms