Emotional Intelligence through Drama: ideas

We talked last semester about the importance of providing our students with opportunities to build their emotional and social intelligence, because that is likely going to be more important to them in their adulthood than academics will ever be.  However, the problem we discussed was how difficult it can be to teach, authentically.  I think that drama is the perfect solution to the problem!  Improvisation is especially valuable, because it teaches people to think on their feet and to accelerate problem solving.  I enjoy going to the university drama club's improv. night, because I know that is one of my weaknesses and it really does help me grow in that area.

The next problem, I suppose, would be how to integrate improv and drama in general into your regular curriculum.  Thankfully, that problem too, has a solution!  Yay for drama!!  The last year I was teaching, I started to integrate drama into my lessons, and they usually loved it.  I found it useful in helping my students grasp difficult subjects (at the time, I didn’t really realize they were also building emotional intelligence).  Drama is also useful for teaching humour, because students are able to explore what is funny, what is not, and why.

 Here are a few ideas (stay tuned for more!):

 ·         The BEST option ;) Puuuuppet show!!!

o   acting out a scene
o   performing in different scenarios as the characters in a story--- how those characters would likely respond—for teaching characterization

·         Moral Dilemmas (Creating Meaning 243, see reference at bottom)
o     Assign a biography or historical fiction text
o   Instruct students to stop at a point where the character has to make a decision where there are multiple options and no clear answer.
o   Small groups discuss the decision from the first person POV (the character’s)

·         Point of View --- Allow groups to choose a scene to perform for the class.  After the group performs the scene, the audience gets to change the point of view and the group has to re-perform the scene from the new point of view. This could also be a prepared skit (and maybe should be until students are comfortable with the concept.)  I used it in an LA 8/9 class, and they loved it.

·         There are countless drama review games (upcoming post!), many inspired by Whose Line is it Anyway

·         I watched a biology 12 class perform a music video (not filmed) about DNA to the “Barbie Girl” song, by Aqua.  I’m betting they are always going to remember how that works!  They weren’t singing, just acting out the story and making it apply to DNA.  It was quite witty.

·         Some of my grade 6/7 students chose to create a music video (using lego) to a moving song about a soldier coming home from war.  That was pretty neat.

·         Some more of my 6/7 students created a video summary of the novel we were studying as a class.  They filmed it in several locations and put it all together entirely on their own.

·         I have had students take an instrumental version of a popular song and adapt the words to teach about a social studies concept.

·         My English 12 students filmed a western (as in cowboys) interpretation of Hamlet, where they explored what would happen if specific elements were changed.  We played the video for the high school.

Claudia Cornett. Creating Meaning through Literature and the Arts: Arts Integration for Classroom Teachers.