PTCCC1: Creativity- Rebecca Webb Drama Session 4: Learning about Drama and Learning through Drama:

The Olympic Session

Warm up games: All change! A physical game: Everyone stands in a circle. Change places with someone else in the circle if (for example) you have any songs by Adele on your iPod/iPhone/MP3 player; if you have a Kindle; if you have ever read anything by Michael Morpurgo; if you support Man Utd etc.. The teacher can decide these, or it can be child led. It is helpful to do something that is easy to start; e.g. Change places if you are wearing blue or ... if you have an a in your name. Huggy: Another physical game. Be wary of the numbers in your class and move on quickly from one huggy to the next. Teacher calls out Huggy 3 and pupils form a group hug of three, Huggy 6 pupils form a group hug of six etc. Wizard and Maze: (also called Cat and Mouse, but you could do this with any good/bad characters) Another physical, but also brain, game. Pupils create four neat lines, standing at arms length with right arm on the persons shoulder next to them. You are now walls! The wizard stands at one corner of the maze and will chase the escaped wizards apprentice (bad elf/naughty witch etc) through the maze and try to catch them! Walls are able to change from being lengthways and breadthways by simply moving that right arm to touch the shoulder of the person in front of them. (Far simpler and less worry about knocking each other than moving your whole body!!) To change the walls, the teacher (or a specified child) calls change at any time, but especially when the pursuer and pursued are near each other!! They cannot run through walls but can only follow the direction of the maze! Through the magic forest: This is a calmer version of stuck in the mud! You have travellers and trees (start with maybe a third of the class as trees). Trees rooted to ground but can move their arms. Travellers must move through magic forest and avoid the trees... If they are touched by the trees they become trees too! It is useful to set a boundary so that pupils do not go too far away, and also ensure that they continue to move and dont simply stand still far away from trees! Learning about Drama: Dramatic techniques to explore character Hot seating: A character is questioned by the group about his or her background, behaviour and motivation. It works well when you are exploring a character from a particular text or story you are studying, and is useful to gain a further insight in to this person. It can also work well to begin to piece together information about a created character that you are working on for a Dramatic piece. Hot seating in a large group may take some lead-in work and modelling by the teacher; so, it can be useful to start off doing this in small groups (8ish?). Here are a few suggestions for a made up character to hot seat: 1) Someone taking part in the Olympic ceremony (non athlete); 2) someone cooking for the athletes in the Olympic village; 3) someone who coaches/trains the athletes; 4) someone who lives near to the Olympic village. All these characters will have differing opinions and/or have a specific role to play in the Olympic preparations. The questions that the group ask are

also a good indicator (and development for!) the childrens questioning skills. Notes could be taken at this point or brought together later (see next technique as one idea!) Role on the wall: Get a willing volunteer to agree to lie down on a large piece of paper then draw an outline round their body (a roll of cheap wallpaper/lining paper/brown parcel paper works well). This is later stuck onto the wall. (It started off as an overhead projector being beamed on to the wall for people to draw round, but technology has advanced since then!! I have also done this outside with chalk; the only issue with this is that you cannot keep it.) Words or phrases describing the character are then written directly onto the drawing or stuck on with post-its. This drama technique can be carried out as a group activity or by individuals writing about their own character. You can include known facts such as physical appearance, age, gender, location and occupation, as well as subjective ideas such as likes/dislikes, friends/enemies, attitudes, motivations, secrets and dreams. The beauty of this technique is that you can leave this and come back to it, adding more information as you find it out. Firstly, have a go at this as a whole group using one of the hot seat characters that everyone explored before. (Teacher model and scaffold) Then, in groups, take one British Olympic hopeful interview (taken from Guardian online, below) and have a go at Role on the Wall. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/19/london-olympic-hopefuls-lizzie-armitstead or http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/26/london-olympic-hopefuls-jamie-cooke)

A Day in the Life of: An Olympic athlete (these will differ according to the sport- e.g. swimmer, track and field athlete, equestrian) This is a simple technique which, again, considers what we know about a character and asks us to think beyond the obvious. A simple set of freeze frames, or short dialogues or monologues, will suffice, but the idea is to present what might happen to the character at various intervals during a typical day. Consider, for example, getting out of bed/getting dressed;

eating a meal; morning activity; afternoon activity; bedtime routines. Children love the idea that other people have a daily grind (but they do also love anything to do with toilets so beware!!!), and can depict some very thoughtful ideas using this technique.

Learning through Drama: Dramatic techniques to explore issues within a text or ideas/concepts Conscience alley: Also known as Decision Alley or Thought Tunnel. Form two lines, facing each other (creating a tunnel) and have one person out at the end of the tunnel. It is vital that you choose carefully who will do this; it is a powerful technique and could feel quite threatening. It is not usually advised in KS1, but seating children on the floor is one strategy I have used to avoid the feeling of being trapped! Your scenario: The tickets have all sold out for the 100m final and everyone is after one. It starts in 45 minutes!!! You find a wallet dropped outside the Olympic village; inside it, amongst receipts and a 5 note, is one of those elusive tickets. What do you do? The person walks down the conscience alley, and will hear differing points, as if their conscience (or thoughts) are having a battle/debate about what to do! One side of your alley takes the good side of conscience, so would chant/whisper/repeat things like Take it back, its not yours! The other side (bad?) would say Just take it and go; no-one will ever know! At the end of the alley, the person should make a decision. It is important that this is not a right or wrong answer, and that you accept their decision. Others could have a go but may reach a different conclusion. (This brings us on to the next technique!) Line of allegiance: Following on from conscience alley; you need to decide whether you agree with the decision made or not. Form a line with the character if you agree; if you disagree stand on the opposite side. This can also be done as a standalone strategy whereby children simply have to stand by the window if they think that a statement is right, or by the door if they think it is wrong. (Great for anything PSHE/Citizenship related!!) Mantle of the Expert: Read about this amazing technique here: http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/aboutmoe/introduction/what-is-moe/ The video on this page: http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/about-moe/introduction/ is really inspiring too! You can also find more out about this technique here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfFf88oUyLg&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL1AC72 CC9C766F583 and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oauKAWPzpE Your MoE experience is to bid to host the Olympics- will need to consider the following; climate, infrastructure, finance, legacy, human rights, access for the Paralympics. Will your city win??! You spend time working as an expert in role.[ You could also do MoE to create the opening ceremony for the Olympics!]

It is essential to consider the impact of working in this way; the children are fully engaged with the learning and love the idea of being an expert.

SOME OTHER OLYMPIC IDEAS: Could you visit the first Olympics (or consider Olympics through the ages)? What about dramatic exploration of the issues in the Olympics (e.g. Jesse Owens, 1936)? Could you freeze frame and use music over the top (or part stimulus) to show emotions/key moments in Olympic events? (E.g. warming up/focusing, photo finish , winning/losing, medal giving ceremonies: Chariots of Fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9myoXFk-O4U&feature=related) What about taking the Olympic motto of Faster, Higher, Stronger and demonstrating what this looks like in practice for the thousands of athletes taking part? Have a listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAjR4_CbPpQ (Daft Punk: Harder Better Faster Stronger) It is so mechanical, but a great stimulus for thinking about the human bdy as a machine!

Useful reading: http://www.artsonthemove.co.uk/education/primary/primary.php Rebecca Webb. May 2012.