September 2018 – Drama in ELT

[Anne Hendler]

This is a place to share thoughts and resources about using drama in ELT.

[Anne Hendler]

This video was shared to #iTDi’s Twitter account as something that might be of interest to Teacher’s Room participants this month.

“Susan Hillyard talks about her book ‘English through drama’.”

I watched the video and I really like what she has to say.
I also took her iTDi course and was so impressed that I bought a copy of her book right afterward.

Check it out if you have a chance. 🙂

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

That’s great, Anne! Thank you for sharing. There is also a 2016 interview with Susan Hillyard

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

The article I introduced and summarised today was Overcoming the Fear of Using Drama in ELT (The Internet TESL Journal)

[Anne Hendler]

Oh, that is fantastic and full of gems. My favorite part:

“HRB: What skills can be improved through these drama teaching strategies? What’s the secret power of drama?

Susan: All skills can be improved by using Drama strategies. In fact, Drama acts as a bridge to literacy, develops life skills such as confidence, communication, cultural understanding, cooperation, cognition, collaboration and crap-detecting and develops the locus of control in all students helping them to become more disciplined, more persistent and more autonomous leading to lifelong learning. It also develops a sense of beauty and appreciation so lacking in many education systems today. The secret power of Drama works on the humanness of us all and our intrinsic nature to want to communicate and be understood through doing, taking risks and exploring our worlds.”

The reading recommendations at the end include some of the books we talked about on Friday, too.

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

That, indeed, is a gem of a quote! Might have to re-use that somewhere 😉

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

More useful links:

Teach English Through Drama: Pantomine (EFL Magazine)

Drama with Children 1 (Teaching English, British Council)

Dramatic Readings (Kevin Stein, iTDi Blog)

[Anne Hendler]

Thanks, Phil! That’s great.

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Had mostly different people each week for the past few weeks so reviewed and shared similar things but I did introduce and summarise a different article each week (see “More useful links” in this thread above).

I don’t think there have been any new posts so the filters seem fine but we can follow up with Gareth and/or Steve, too. Thanks!

[Anne Hendler]

I see. Thanks for the update!
I’ll be MIA again tomorrow for another work event. Hope you have a great session!
anne

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Thanks, Ann! Enjoy the work event and look forward to seeing you back next week!

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Thanks, Anne! Enjoy the work event and look forward to seeing you next week!

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Here’s another useful article from the British Council on Teaching English through Drama.

It considers a structured approach and includes several lesson plans, beginning easily with one to introduce “A Structured Drama Class”

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

4 Simple Drama Techniques for Teaching English also offers an easy starting point.

[Author]

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