Raising the Bar: Adding Drama Into Your Curriculum

Today it seems like there is a great amount of emphasis about self-esteem. Schools try to build up their students' self-esteem, books are written about how to help us adults increase our self-esteem, therapists are paid a great deal to improve depressed patients' self-esteem, and doctors can even prescribe pills to boost self-esteem! What if I could tell you about a few sure-fire things that you could add into your curriculum that have been proven to raise children's self-esteem, boost their confidence levels and improve their speaking and listening skills at the same time?

Add some drama education into your weekly schedule.

Oh, I can hear the groans already. I can't do that! I'm not an actress! My kids wouldn't want to do that! I'm not that outgoing of a person to try that!

Well, that's okay. Yes, you can do this. No, you don't have to be an actress. Yes, your kids are going to love this once they try it, and you don't have to be all that outgoing -- just willing to be silly for a while! And willing to use your imagination to help your children discover theirs.

While it helps sometimes to do these activities with a lot of kids at once, there are times too when it is best to spend one-on-one time with just one child. Theatre games are easily adaptable, and they're lots of fun.

Yes, games. Creative dramatics and theatre games are integral components to introduce your child to all types of performance, drama and public speaking. And I don't care if your child will ever set foot on a stage in his entire life -- these games will help give him the confidence to speak in front of a group of people and present himself in such a way as to ellicit their confidence in him as well. And that's something that everyone can use!

Don't think of it as a "class." Don't suddenly announce one day that you're going to start to teach them "drama" (unless you really are, which is a good thing, but not what I'm talking about yet!) No. At the beginning, especially with younger children, just start to "play" and "pretend", similar to the way you've always played and pretended with them.

There are many, many activities and ways of doing this, and I want to keep this thread active for other future posts, but let's start with a few simple suggestions this week.

1) Act out the story. After you read to your children this week, instead of their usual narration, suggest instead that they act out the story (of course this works best for simpler stories). Ask them where the story takes place, and the list of characters. Briefly have them tell you the basic plot. Ask them what is the first thing that happens in this story? And THEN what happens? What happens after THAT? Boom - you have the basic plot from them! Next, get them up on their feet and let them come up with their own dialogue. Improvise along the lines of what you've just discussed. Get up and play-act with them! Even if you collapse in a heap of giggles, you know that they've just analyzed the story and know what it's about!

2) Create a soundtrack. Read a story to them that uses a lot of pictures, more images than plot. Tell them that you're all going to make a soundtrack of all the sounds that you see in the book. What are all the sounds in a depicted scene? Look closely. Tell them to use their imagination to fill in noises not depicted in the picture. For instance, a pond might have many other sounds besides that of the duck in the center: birds twittering, the wind in the trees, frogs croaking, airplanes flying overhead, etc.

3) Pantomime. Have them act out the story while you read it (works well for stories with a great deal of action).

4) The Mirror Exercise. Mirroring is an excellent way of developing concentration and observation skills. Sit or stand face to face with your child, and explain that he will be the "mirror image" of you. Keeping your eyes fastened on each other, use smooth, continual movements that your child can follow. Switch leaders. Don't try to trick each other! Ask Dad or another sibling to guess who is the leader. (Remember the old Patty Duke Show intro?) Variation: make a mirror circle using four or five people (or more!). Again, have someone enter the room and guess who the leader is. This can be a great classroom exercise too.

5) An imaginary ball. I've used this game many times with my 3-4 year olds when we're out somewhere and they're getting antsy. Ask your child if he wants to play ball. When he answers yes, show him the "ball" (since it's invisible describe it to him). Show him how heavy it is, how large it is by the way you hold it, bounce it, catch it. Is it a basketball, tennis ball, bouncy ball, super ball? Have a great game of catch --- remember to put the ball away when you're finished! The more real you make it, the more fun your child will have! (Remember the scene in Air Bud with the basketball?) This is called "sense memory", and is an important technique used by many actors.

6) The Four Seasons. Using Vivaldi's music, ask your children to move to what they hear. Have them act out activities that the sounds suggest, or simply pantomime actions that they relate each season with (sitting on the beach during the summer, ice skating during the winter).

Remember, have fun and participate with your kids. Act silly! They're only young once, and who knows, your own self-esteem might go up! ;)