1st Edition
The Really Useful Drama Book Using Picturebooks to Inspire Imaginative Learning
The Really Useful Drama Book offers busy primary school teachers a collection of step-by-step drama sessions, inspired by high-quality picturebooks, that will engage children and promote enjoyable learning across the curriculum.
Lively and thoughtful, the interactive drama sessions are structured around a wide range of texts, including wordless picturebooks, postmodern picturebooks, short stories, well-known texts by recognisable authors and some you may not have come across before, all chosen for their power to foster curiosity. The step-by-step sessions can also be adapted to incorporate your own ideas and passions, allowing you to structure them for the topics you’re exploring with your class.
Each session is structured around two texts and offers a guide to the drama strategies used, teaching objectives, ideas for writing opportunities, problems, emotions and challenges to explore, and a clear guide to exploring each text. Ten key themes are explored:
- Suspense
- Prejudice
- Friendship
- Rhyme and rhythm
- War and conflict
- Nature
- Overcoming fear
- Possessions and obsessions
- Dreams
- Short stories
With a focus on the crucial role of imagination in the classroom, The Really Useful Drama Book helps reclaim a purposeful, passionate pedagogy and shows teachers how drama can place children right at the heart of a story, encouraging their desire to ask questions, solve problems and search out new information.
Introduction How to use this book 1. The changing educational landscape 2. Reclaiming the purpose and passion 3. Teaching with texts at the heart 4. Drama conventions: Creative strategies to use in the classroom 5. Creative ideas with texts: Suspense 6. Creative ideas with texts: Prejudice 7. Creative ideas with texts: Friendship 8. Creative ideas with texts: Rhyme and Rhythm 9. Creative ideas with texts: War and conflict 10. Creative ideas with texts: Nature 11. Creative ideas with texts: Overcoming fear 12. Creative ideas with texts: Possessions and obsessions 13. Creative ideas with texts: Dreams 14. Creative ideas with texts: Short stories.
Biography
Roger McDonald is Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at the University of Greenwich, UK.
"I love the theme of this book. There are so many wonderful picture books available, both old and new, and it's great to see their value recognised and to see them take their rightful place in learning. The book includes step-by-step drama sessions (which can be easily adapted to suit local needs), inspired by picture books, which offer cross-curricular learning. The selection of books may well contain unfamiliar titles to many teachers, and this is a good way to widen experience. The selection includes wordless picture books, postmodern picture books, short stories and well-known texts by recognisable authors, including Roald Dahl and Michael Morpurgo. and some you may not have come across before, all chosen for their power to foster curiosity. Each session uses two texts and offers a guide to the drama strategies used, teaching objectives, ideas for writing opportunities, problems, emotions and challenges to explore, and a clear guide to exploring each text. Ten key themes are explored: Suspense; Prejudice; Friendship; Rhyme and rhythm; War and conflict; Nature; Overcoming fear; Possessions and obsessions; Dreams and Short stories. This unusual book takes a new approach to drama and shows how it can place children right at the heart of a story, encouraging their desire to ask questions, solve problems and search out new information."
Sarah Brew, Parents in Touch Review
