1. Drama & Social Studies

One curriculum area I often think about when having to incorporate drama in the classroom is Social Studies. Since Social Studies deals with issues that involve human relations and interactions to other things (e.g., other people, the environment, animals, etc.), building empathy is an important concept.

In particular, the Ontario Social Studies curriculum states that the Citizen Education Framework promotes character traits that students should have and they are, "self-respect, as well as respect and empathy for others" (Ontario Social Studies Curriculum, (2018), p.10).

Brainstorm Productions state that, "drama is an opportunity for children to explore and mirror difficult and challenging emotions. A person can safely watch an actor bully another actor, and can learn how both parties experience and respond to this situation. They can learn about the consequences" (Brainstorm Productions, 2016).

Grade 6 Activity - Building Empathy towards Canada's Indigenous Issues
An activity that we did in class used these principles. We chose to touch on Indigenous issues using a short-story picture book titled, When We Were Alone by David Robertson.



The aim of the presentation was to discuss the implications of residential schools in Canada and the points of view of the characters. We wanted our students to ultimately build character empathy using drama to re-enact important parts of the picture book. This lesson could be done with Grade 6 students, although could be modified to other grades as well.









Guiding Theory

We used the guiding theory of Bloom's Taxonomy. As students work through the pyramid, they reach the highest level which is "create". That means that they have mastered all of the other levels and by creating, they are able to learn in a more sophisticated and deeper way.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Theory (2019). Image. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.

By going through the creative process (i.e., challenging and inspiring, imagining and generating, planning and focusing, exploring and experimenting, producing preliminary work, revising and refining, presenting, performing, and sharing, reflecting and evaluating (The Ontario Curriculum; Grades 1-8: The Arts, 2009, p. 20), students creating drama strategies to represent this social studies issues will facilitate a deeper understanding of the overall paradigms and concepts.

Drama Strategies From Our Lesson

Tableau: usually describes an action scene.

“A group of silent, motionless figures used to represent a scene, theme, or abstract idea (e.g., peace, joy), or an important moment in a narrative. Tableau may be presented as stand-alone images to communicate one specific message or may be used to achieve particular effects in a longer drama work. Important features of a tableau include character, space, gesture, facial expressions, and levels.” (The Ontario Curriculum; Grades 1-8: The Arts, 2009, p. 172)

Voice-Over Narration: a narrator speaking either in the scene or outside of the scene

“A convention in which a speaker describes the action that is occurring in a drama.” (The Ontario Curriculum; Grades 1-8: The Arts, 2009, p. 170)

Voices in the Head: a character's inner feelings, motivations and/or thoughts are voiced by other characters in a scene. *I will go into further detail about this engaging strategy in my third post!

“A convention used to deepen students’ understanding of a conflict or a difficult choice facing a character in the drama. The student representing the character remains silent while others standing behind speak out to express the thoughts and feelings the character might be experiencing at this point. See also corridor of voice.” (The Ontario Curriculum; Grades 1-8: The Arts, 2009, p. 174)

Flash Forward: a scene from the future - looking ahead to what could happen with a scene if future events were to occur.

“A convention used to provide different perspectives on the action in a drama by showing events from a later time. A flash forward might be used to show an action in the light of its imagined or actual outcome.” (The Ontario Curriculum; Grades 1-8: The Arts, 2009, p. 168)