Teach Now! English

English and drama activities

Character sculpting

Most effective drama teaching strategies are wholly flexible to suit the needs of the learning. 'Character sculpting' is one such strategy. There are lots of variations. For any given moment of action or a dramatic scene, you can freeze the action and get the audience involved in interpreting the physical action. Students can offer their viewpoint of exactly how a character, or characters, may be positioned at any significant moment. This allows for a laser-precise analysis of character responses, from the nuances of body language, gesture and voice. Students can sculpt and arrange characters, considering their relationship and power dynamics etc. Different students can offer their own interpretations, creating a dynamic dialogue about the text.

How about trying it? Here are a couple of famous moments in drama and literature for you to sculpt the characters:

1. Hamlet: It is Act 5; Scene 1. Hamlet speaks to the ghost of his father. He is shocked as he realises it is the ghost of his father and cries out ‘O God!’. How would you sculpt the character of Hamlet at this very moment? Consider the confusion of love, fear and anxiety. How would he physically react in relation to the ghost of his father?
2. Private Peaceful: This Michael Morpurgo novel is rightly very popular at KS3. It has many poignant moments following the Peaceful family before and during the First World War. At its tragic conclusion, the younger brother, Tommo, listens to his courageous older brother, Charlie, being shot by a firing squad. Tommo sings along with his brother as he hears the volley of guns. How would you sculpt young Tommo at this incredibly poignant moment? How might he move after hearing the gunshots?

Choral voice

This drama strategy is another really effective way to engage students in the action with dramatic immediacy. It once more encourages forensic close analysis of a text, which is always useful to explore the meaning of a text. Of course, the role of the chorus is as old as drama. If students don't know about the origins of Sophocles etc. this is a great opportunity to make them aware of a great dramatic tradition.

There are different ways you came execute this strategy. You can have students work in small groups and get them to include a chorus as a dramatic device to comment on the action. Using the 'choral voice' method is best used as a great way to get the whole audience involved in watching a performance with intent, reflecting closely upon the action. Students can 'translate' the action so that it is clear to you that they understand action and ideas at hand.

You can try this strategy with any drama text, or indeed poem or narrative. Try the following:

1. You are studying and performing the opening witches scene of Macbeth with a GCSE group, followed by the bloodied captain speaking of 'brave Macbeth'. What would be your key points for introducing a 'choral voice'? What prompt questions would you use to introduce the witches scene? How would the 'choral voice' introduce the captain and reflect upon Shakespeare's dramatic intent?
2. Select a play you know well. Select an essential scene. Consider: what are the key points in the scene that you would select for the audience to make a 'choral voice' commentary? What question prompts would you use to get them exploring different aspects of the text in their 'choral voice'?

Forum theatre

This strategy is very similar to the 'choral voice'. Once more, it is a strategy that encourages a close focus upon the action and rich multiple interpretations of any given text. You can freeze a performance at any point and get different members of the audience to comment upon the action: the physical performance; the importance of props and setting; the emotions and themes being explored at that very moment.

By utilising his strategy you can ensure that students are engaged throughout the lesson. Too often, students are waiting to perform, or are basking in the glow of having performed, and they therefore switch off to the potential to immerse themselves deeply in analysing the performances of others.

To give this strategy a go you need only consider that are the best points to stop and to direct prompt questions to the audience. Consider the following activities:

1. Students often struggle to 'translate' the trickier language of classic poetry. If you are studying some Romantic poetry, a dramatic interpretation could be an apt strategy to aid understanding. Remind yourself of the Coleridge poem, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (you may need to give it a read!). What would be the points at which you would stop the action to receive 'forum' responses to the action? What specific language would you need to translate? Could the audience re-direct the action, or suggest improvements and changes?
2. Once more, select a text you know well. Pick a scene. Consider the points for 'forum' interpretation of the action. What questions would you ask as prompts? Such as 'how may the actor react differently here?' or 'How may the director use props here to enhance the dramatic tension?'

Hot seating

This strategy is quite possibly the most popular drama strategy utilised by English teachers. It is well used because it is very flexible and useful in a variety of circumstances. You need not work in a drama studio to enact this particular strategy.

The strategy focuses simply on getting students into role, considering an individual character deeply and responding to questions and prompts as that character. Once more, this strategy allows for a class to explore multiple interpretations of any given character or text. It does require some good preparation to make the strategy effective. Take a character – you could allot different students various characters from a text, or all focus upon a central character. Get them to profile the character in some detail: physicality, voice, personality, issues and questions you would ask them etc.

Once profiled, students can sit on the hot seat and 'perform' as the character. The other students in the group can fire questions at the character, exploring all kinds of hidden avenues of meaning.

1. Give it a go in preparation. Pick a character: Oliver Twist, Willy Loman, King Lear or Alice of Wonderland fame. The list goes on. What questions would be apt? What aspects of character should the students be prompted to consider? Would you dare perform a monologue yourself?

Useful Weblinks

• www.padlet.com: eminently useful for creating an online space for interactive discussion and collaborative research.
• www.tagxedo.com: can help you and students create word clouds that are the stimulus for close language analysis.
• www.chompchomp.com: provides a ready-made resource for student practice of important aspects of their grammar and written accuracy.
• www.knoword.org: offers lively ready-made games.
• www.wordsift.com: you can paste the text of a poem and it will organise the words alphabetically. This is a great way to break down just the vocabulary of a poem for close analysis.
• http://www.thunks.co.uk: great to initiate deeper thinking, with seemingly simple questions opening up a complex array of higher order thinking.