#drama lessons

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Psst. Core. I think if you have classes with 🎼Christiiiiine🎼 you may have Drama with her. ;)

His eyes lit up at the thought. “Maybe I can show her how I act. I can pull off a convincing performance.“

[6/15 asks]

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How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

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Learn How to Teach Creative Dramatics in Your Lunch Hour!

Learn How to Teach Creative Dramatics in Your Lunch Hour!

Learn How to Teach Creative Dramatics in Your Lunch Hour! I’m worried about our teachers and you should be too. Recently, I read an article from http://www.nea.org that approximately fifty-five per cent of our teachers are seriously considering quitting teaching at the end of this year.  That’s up from thirty-seven per cent last year.  Yikes! You can imagine the reasons they are considering…

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So You Are Directing a Musical...Now What?

So You Are Directing a Musical…Now What?

So You Are Directing a Musical…Now What? Recently, I was interviewed by Jessica Peresta of the Elementry Musician podcast. Primarily, we spoke about drama integration. However we did speak about the process of directing a play or musical. Again, I forget not everyone knows the process.   What are the steps to producing a musical with youth? That’s a difficult question for me to answer because it…

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The Reasons I Offer Customized Theatre Lesson Bundles

The Reasons I Offer Customized Theatre Lesson Bundles

The Reasons I Offer Customized Theatre Lesson Bundles Recently, I’ve helped several theatre teachers organize their curriculum.  Some states have standards which they press upon their school systems and boy, can you feel it.  Not so for two wonderful teachers I worked with last week. There’s Amy One teacher, we will call her Amy,  emailed me frantic for help.  Amy was hired (yes, it’s November)…

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Frequently Asked Questions the DramaMommaSpeaks List

Frequently Asked Questions the DramaMommaspeaks List Recently, I had a wonderful opportunity to chat with a first year teacher as he planned the rest of his school year.  He began the year with the students all learning from home, then his school went to hybrid (which means half were at home and half were in the classroom) and soon he’d have them all in the classroom together. His questions were…

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Drama Games for the Introvertive Student

Drama Games for the Introvertive Student

Drama Games for the Introvertive Student Is that possible?  Drama students can be shy? For various reasons, the answer is a resounding “yes!” Recently, I read a post from a teacher lamenting about this on a Drama Teachers Group Facebook  post at https://www.facebook.com/groups/161102463965487.  Her shy students wouldn’t budge from their seats no matter what she tried–and these were fifth and…

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Creative Dramatics Lessons for Elementary Grades by an Award Winning Drama Teacher

Hello!

You may not know me or be familiar with my work.  I’m Deborah Baldwin (but my friends call me Deb.)  I am a recently retired award-winning drama teacher of thirty-eight years.  In that time, I directed over 250 plays and musicals with students and adults as well.  I taught every grade level, but the bulk of my time was spent with secondary students.

Here is my resume if you’d like to see it: DeborahBaldwin.net

My Teaching Style:

Drama is a hands-on class. To this end, I’m always on my feet, modeling for my students while teaching them a host of concepts. It is not unusual to hear my classroom in chortles of laughter because humor is an outstanding way to gain a student’s attention. I empower students at an early age. Although I am always mindful of my learning objectives, I think it’s vital for students to experiment within the confines of my instruction. I encourage students to be independent and creative thinkers. Many less confident or reluctant students benefit from my teaching methods as together we hit the challenges they encounter. I am creative, intense, driven and brave–these are qualities I nurture in all my students and generally receive outstanding results.

Strengthening Reading Comprehension Skills

When I was researching this blog post, I found a wonderful site,  http://www.understood.org.  They discussed the reasons for reading aloud (aka drama class!):

1. Decoding

Decoding is a vital step in the reading process. Kids use this skill to sound out words they’ve heard before but haven’t seen written out. The ability to do that is the foundation for other reading skills.

Decoding relies on an early language skill called phonemic awareness. (This skill is part of an even broader skill called phonological awareness.) Phonemic awareness lets kids hear individual sounds in words (known as phonemes). It also allows them to “play” with sounds at the word and syllable level.

2. Fluency

To read fluently, kids need to instantly recognize words, including ones they can’t sound out. Fluency speeds up the rate at which they can read and understand text. It’s also important when kids encounter irregular words, like of and the, which can’t be sounded out.

Sounding out or decoding every word can take a lot of effort. Word recognition is the ability to recognize whole words instantly by sight, without sounding them out.

3. Vocabulary

To understand what you’re reading, you need to understand most of the words in the text. Having a strong vocabulary is a key component of reading comprehension. Students can learn vocabulary through instruction. But they typically learn the meaning of words through everyday experience and also by reading.

What can help: The more words kids are exposed to, the richer their vocabulary becomes. You can help build your child’s vocabulary by having frequent conversations on a variety of topics. Try to include new words and ideas. Telling jokes and playing word games is a fun way to build this skill.

4. Sentence Construction and Cohesion

Understanding how sentences are built might seem like a writing skill. So might connecting ideas within and between sentences, which is called cohesion. But these skills are important for reading comprehension as well.

Knowing how ideas link up at the sentence level helps kids get meaning from passages and entire texts. It also leads to something called coherence, or the ability to connect ideas to other ideas in an overall piece of writing.

What can help: Explicit instruction can teach kids the basics of sentence construction. For example, teachers can work with students on connecting two or more thoughts, through both writing and reading.

5. Reasoning and Background Knowledge

Most readers relate what they’ve read to what they know. So it’s important for kids to have background or prior knowledge about the world when they read. They also need to be able to “read between the lines” and pull out meaning even when it’s not literally spelled out.

What can help: Your child can build knowledge through reading, conversations, movies and TV shows, and art. Life experience and hands-on activities also build knowledge.

6. Working Memory and Attention

These two skills are both part of a group of abilities known as executive function. They’re different but closely related.

When kids read, attention allows them to take in information from the text. Working memory allows them to hold on to that information and use it to gain meaning and build knowledge from what they’re reading.

What can help: There are many ways you can help improve your child’s working memory. Skill builders don’t have to feel like work, either. There are a number of games and everyday activities that can build working memory without kids even knowing it.

Maybe you are researching Back to School lessons. Or you are looking for drama units, lessons and plays for your elementary students. I can help you.  Here are a few of my lessons for elementary students:

Tableau, Grades 3 and 4

Chanting, Grades 3 to 5

Costume Design with Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Creative Movement

Costume Design with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Recently, I created fifteen minute radio theater plays for grades 3 to 5.  These are royalty free, too! 

Radio Theater Play of The Brave Little Tailor

Radio Theater Play of It Could Always Be Worse

Recently, I created fifteen minute radio theater plays for grades 3 to 5.  These are royalty free, too!

I hope you’ll check out my creative dramatics lessons.  My thirty-eight years of teaching drama education serve me well in creating these lessons and/or adapting some which I all ready used in the classroom.

Have you taught creative dramatics with your students?  I’d love to hear about it.  Contact me at [email protected] or DeborahBaldwin.net

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    Creative Dramatics Lessons for Elementary Grades by an Award Winning Drama Teacher Creative Dramatics Lessons for Elementary Grades by an Award Winning Drama Teacher Hello! You may not know me or be familiar with my work.