METHODS OF TEACHING

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS

COLANSKI project

No way. The hundred is there.

The child is made of one hundred.
The child has

a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking of playing, of speaking.

A hundred always

a hundred ways of listening of marveling of loving
a hundred joys for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds to discover
a hundred worlds to invent
a hundred worlds to dream.

The child has a hundred languages (and a hundred hundred hundred more) but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:

to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel only at Easter and Christmas.

They tell the child:
to discover the world already there and of the hundred they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child: that work and play reality and fantasy science and imagination sky and earth reason and dream are things that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child  that the hundred is not there.
The child says: No way. The hundred is there.

LORIS MALAGUZZI
Translated by Lella Gandini

THE USE OF DRAMA IN SCHOOLS

These short notes attempt to lay out the ethos underlying the use of Drama in an educational context. Although the focus of the project is to look at ways of teaching English through Drama, these notes are broad enough to cover all subject areas.
The biggest problem for teachers using Drama in a classroom is to overcome the fear of using unfamiliar educational structures. By this we mean that Drama is a field of cultural exploration and it should not and indeed cannot, be used to dictate absolute truths to students. The teacher does not have expert knowledge to pass down to her class, but rather starts with a theme, situation or problem that she wishes to explore with the students. Drama cannot, therefore, be taught by handing out worksheets or books and asking the students to read from them. (It cannot be taught by sitting the class in front of a video or tape machine, and it certainly cannot be taught by a teacher lecturing or writing notes on a board for students to copy.)
Drama does rely on the teacher being able to invest something of their own personality and physicality into the work. It requires moral and intellectual honesty. It requires a trust in the students’ right to question, to challenge, to sometimes make mistakes and eventually to use that understanding to take an active decision in the way they wish to use drama in their own lives. Teachers must be prepared to involve themselves in the work for the duration of the lesson. They need to explore with the children. It is an incredibly rewarding way of working. I have learned more as a teacher than I ever did as a student.
Drama involves the whole person physically, emotionally, and intellectually in the educational process and does not prioritise the acquisition of knowledge over physical sensation and emotional empathy. The strategies outlined here help students open the “doors of knowledge”. Learning how to open these doors is as important as finding what’s on the other side.
One of the great joys of being able to use Drama techniques within teaching contexts is that it is tremendous fun for the students. It asks them to develop further imaginative skills, with which they have had confidence since early childhood. It also values the students’ experience in and understanding of the world around them, by placing it at the centre of their learning. Students play, dream, imagine and in so doing move away from the self-conscious pressure of growing up according to rules and conventions. Drama allows students to develop as socially responsible adults by giving them space and time to imaginatively explore other lifestyles, beliefs and cultures different from their own. Many students find that school is a difficult environment for learning. It is often the case that traditional learning methods fail many students who do not respond to the belief that an older, wiser generation should simply regurgitate standards and truths into the empty vessels of youth. This process of working offers students little in the way of short term rewards and seems to ask students to take an enormous leap of faith that their hard work will lead to long term benefits of higher education, a secure employment or intellectual fulfilment.
As teachers, many of us are convinced that this is true but it has always seemed both unreasonable and dare I say uneducational, to assume our students will believe it, simply because we say so.
To use a literary reference, teachers of Drama do not make this Faustian deal.
Obviously, as in all disciplines, Drama teaching is a specialised field, but the techniques used are not complicated or difficult to learn or to apply.
Applying Drama to the teaching of literature specifically should provide teachers with a whole range of strategies that will push the student’s confidence in areas further than perhaps could be achieved otherwise. Drama can animate text directly, but it can also be a derivative tool taking students on sprawling journeys deep into the heart of the writer’s words and images.
Students may take on roles of characters from novels and poems. They may explore themes and situations by imagining and enacting parallel situations closer to home They may test a writer’s imagination or believability by playing with alternative beginnings or endings. They imagine what it would be like to live in the world of the novel or to be friends with the subject in the poem.
The key to teaching Drama is that students should physically and emotionally explore these contexts in order to find new contexts and in order to find new truths generated by discussion and cool analysis. One of my favourite sayings is, “You cannot judge a person until you have walked two weeks in his moccasins.”
Drama teachers believe this to be true.
Finally, there is no right way to teach. Each specific text or situation offers creative opportunities for the teacher. She may apply, develop and invent her own range of techniques to illuminate and inspire their students to further learning. The more Drama techniques used, the more confident and competent the user becomes.

Mark Griffin

From a letter from Robin Griffin, head of the Colanski Project in the UK:

“Another thought instant we could have a Teacher’s session at the end of one of the days, in which Mark could just explain his ideas to teachers. There is a specific difference between Education Drama and Theatre performance. Colanski is interested in Educational drama and improving Communicative skills.
For the past year I have been trying to improve Children’s writing skills. Everyday a pupil writes to me and I reply I want them to write freely and happily and with some style. I am battling against enormous problems with the continual tests given in some schools. Many have overcome the writing blockage provoked by these tests. I really want children to be happy in schools.”

Warm wishes,
Robin Griffin
Appleford. England

 

Robin Griffin, in his long life, has been an Assistant Stage Manager to Peter Brook, an actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford on Avon, director of three productions in Albert Hall, London; later a tutor and a teacher, first – at Culham College of Education and then – at the European School Culham, Oxfordshire. He taught sociology, moral education, drama and film making. He wrote and devised over 30 shows and performances.
Robin Griffin is the founder and coordinator of the Colanski Project that started in 1997 as a joint project between the European school and the European Commission. It is now an established project seeking to further the promotion of Communicative Language Skills Through Teaching of Drama. Workshops have been held across Europe and also in Moscow, Russia. Two Festivals of Drama have been held in Moscow in 1998 and 2000.

Biographies of Mark Griffin and the students to conduct the workshops

VICKY BRENNAN: Vicky left Stratford upon Avon College last summer having successfully completed her studies in Theatre Practice, Drama, English Literature and Law. Since then she has been working as a theatre technician in some of England’s most prestigious theatres including The Warwick Arts Centre and The Royal Shakespeare Theatre. She is a member of “Bare and Ragged Theatre Company,” specialising in developing theatre for children. Last year she stage managed “Wilde Tales,” a version of Oscar Wilde’s fairy stories which played to sell out audiences at the prestigious Edinburgh festival. This year she is returning to Edinburgh as the adapter and assistant director on “The Little Prince,” by Antoine De Saint Exupйry. In September 2001, Vicky will take up a place on the technical theatre course at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

LARA FATHA: Lara is currently in the second year of a National Diploma in Performing Arts course at Stratford College, where she is training to be an actor. She is a versatile performer being able to sing and dance, as well as act and write. Performing credits include “Woyzcek,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Three Doors,” “Warwickshire Scandals,” and “The Mysteries,” as well as a number of devised pieces. Last year as a member of “Bare and Ragged,” she toured to the Edinburgh playing in a children’s show “Wilde Tales,” and “Spring Awakening,” by Frank Wedekind. She is returning to Edinburgh this summer as a performer in “The Little Prince.” Away from College, Lara has led children’s workshops at Warwick’s Playbox children’s theatre. Next year Lara will continue her training at the Drama School.

CLAIRE McGRATH: Claire is currently in the second year of a National Diploma in Performing Arts course at Stratford College, where she is training to be an actor. She is an accomplished musician, fine singer, and a strongly imaginative director. Performing credits include: “Woyzcek,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Warwickshire Scandals,” and “The Mysteries,” as well as a range of devised pieces. As a member of “Bare and Ragged Theatre Company,” she toured to the Edinburgh festival last year performing in the children’s show “Wilde Tales,” and “Spring Awakening” by Frank Wedekind. She returns to Edinburgh this summer as a performer in “The Little Prince,” Claire is still deciding whether to go to the University in September or whether to delay her studies for a year and travel over the world.

IAN MARSHALL: Ian is currently in the second year of a National Diploma in Performing Arts course at Stratford College, where he is training to be an actor and dancer. He is a versatile performer and a gifted visual artist and designer. Performance credits include “Woyzcek,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Warwickshire Scandals,” and “The Mysteries,” as well as a range of devised pieces. As a member of “Bare and Ragged Theatre Company,” he has toured to the Edinburgh festival playing in “Wilde Tales,” and this year he will take the title role in “The Little Prince”. Ian is also a member of Dance Exchange in Birmingham and will be continuing his training at the Drama School in the Autumn.

MARK GRIFFIN: Mark has been a drama educator for the last eight years, teaching people of all age groups. He has a particular interest in developing theatre for children, producing two shows at the Edinburgh festival “Wilde Tales,” and “The Little Prince,” He currently runs the Higher National Diploma Course in Theatre Practice for Coventry University and Stratford College and constantly seeks to develop exciting work for his students in a range of different venues and for a range of different audiences. He has helped create over twenty original performance texts working alongside students to help them realise their ideas, words and thoughts into performance. Mark is an associate member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and is an advisor on the Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s education committee.