This book is a practical guide to teaching drama and provides a clear and coherent framework together with a theoretical underpinning which will allow teachers to create their own drama lessons from an informed standpoint.
This text blends theory and practice to present a broad introduction to the practice of teaching English in secondary school classrooms. Taking as its starting point the nature of English as a subject, the book explores how students and practising teachers can monitor and develop their own practice through a range of approaches. Chapters cover the key skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, and there are also sections on drama, poetry, teaching grammar, approaching Shakespeare, and using information technology in the English classroom.
Drama and Improvisation (Resource Books for Teachers)
Why was this book written? Drama and Improvisation is a series of activities designed to enliven your English classes and activate your students’ imagination and creativity. I devised and collected them over many years working as a language trainer and actor/director with the English Teaching Theatre (ETT). Many of them emerged from improvisation activities with students in class or with teachers at workshops and on courses all over the world. Some of them were inspired by working with ETT actors and some are adaptations of material used by a London-based group of improvisation actors and comedians called the Comedy Store Players.
Children, perhaps more than any other category of learners, delight in make-believe. They are immediately at home in imaginary worlds, where they can act out a role, engage in ‘pretend’ activities, dress up, and for a short while become another person. Language teachers at this level commonly have to face two difficulties however. On the one hand, they need to channel the naturally exuberant imaginative energy of the children into activity which is not merely enjoyable but which also has a language pay-off. On the other, they need to develop a repertoire of concrete activities which appeal to the children: failure to do so will result in chaos or boredom.
