NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS PROFESSIONS
PROGRAM IN EDUCATIONAL THEATRE
Fall 2012
Dramatic Activities in the Elementary Classroom
MPAET UE.1029/GE.2030 Section 001
2 points
Thursdays 6:45 – 8:25
Education Building Room 303
Instructor: James Miles
Office Hours: By appointment-call 917.582.5438
If an appointment is made I can meet with you before or after class in an agreed location. If those
times do not work for you we can meet during a time that will work. You can also reach me at
jm485@nyu.edu.
Course Description: This course provides methods and materials for drama structures and activities as
applied to the elementary classroom. Participants will explore how to use drama as a tool for transfer
across the curriculum, as well as a way to motivate students, build classroom community and manage the
classroom. Participants will investigate through the lens of a teaching artist, classroom teacher and/or
drama teacher how to adapt the work to suit their needs, and collaboratively present lessons.
Course Objectives
· To identify individual goals and questions about using dramatic activities in the elementary classroom
that will be explored through the coursework.
· To explore lesson planning based on the New York State learning standards and New
York City learning strands.
· To develop confidence with facilitating lessons using dramatic strategies used in both a drama and
general elementary classroom.
· To collaboratively develop and present part of a lesson to the class.
· To hone skills as teachers and reflective practitioners through an exploration of individual learning
styles.
· To generate a processfolio of strategies, techniques, experiences, and responses from the course that
can be used as a resource in later teaching experiences.
Required Texts
Neelands, J. & Goode, T. Structuring Drama Work. Cambridge: Cambridge United Press, 2000.
Required readings are posted on Blackboard under course documents.
Course Work and Assessment
The work in this course demands personal motivation, commitment to exploration, collaboration with the
instructor and colleagues, and an openness to new ideas and techniques. It also requires attendance and
participation in every session. Because the course only meets once a week over the course of the
semester, attendance at all class sessions and promptness are mandatory.
Lateness and leaving early are not an option. The attendance policy for this course allows for one
unexcused absence. More than one unexcused absence will adversely affect the participant’s final grade
in the course. Official university excused absences must be documented. If you know you will be missing
class, advance written notification would be appreciated.
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Requirements:
In addition to attending and participating in class each week and doing the assigned readings, you will
complete various assignments and projects. Completion of all assignments is required. The assignments
are tools to facilitate learning and reflection so that each participant’s thinking may be challenged and
stretched. These assignments will assist participants in evaluating their learning as they consider the ways
in which their thinking has been altered, affirmed, or deepened as a result of this course.
Team Warm-ups
Warm-ups get us ready to dive into the drama world. It ideally should prepare us to use our actor's
toolbox - voice, body, imagination, concentration and collaboration. Together in your team of two or
three, devise and present a warm-up to the class. You have ten minutes to warm the class up - you can
choose to address all areas of the actor's toolbox, a combination, or just one area. Every member of the
team must lead or co-lead a part of the warm-up. The warm-up is a way to share different strategies to
“grab” a class. A student doesn’t need to prepare to do drama, so the warm-up should be a way into the
work and is not separate from the work we do.
Warm-up presentations begin at 6:45 and end at 6:55. A class debrief about the experience of the warmup will follow.
Content Questions: Come up with an individual question per reading and one overarching question per
unit. Turn in your list of questions on the due dates below. This is your half of the conversation with the
work.
· Try to think of open-ended questions that invite a discussion or a research study rather than a quick
factual response.
· Remember, a real question is one to which you do not have an answer.
· The questions to individual readings should be clearly connected to those readings. When framing
particular questions, be sure that you have a focused response to a core premise, idea, or circumstance
form the individual reading and articulate that stimulus in your question. For instance, you might start
off with a quote from the reading and ask a question about the quote, or you might start with a
statement: “Howard Gardner’s views on intelligence seem to indicate that he equates talent with
intelligence. To what extent is talent innate or learned?”
· READINGS WILL BE POSTED ON BLACKBOARD WEEKLY
Unit 1 Content Questions Due: October 4
Unit 2 Content Questions Due: November 1
Lesson plan: (using template to be given out in class). DUE October 10
Choice 1: A lesson plan infusing drama into a curriculum area (core, arts, or ‘ignored’) for elementary
school students.
OR
Choice 2: A pre or post-production lesson plan for a children’s show appropriate for K-6. Please make
sure to include it when you submit (if it’s short), or if it’s longer, please let me know the play in advance.
This might be a great opportunity to create a pre- or post-show lesson plan for an NYU production that
we will all be able to see.
Final Presentation.
Group Lesson (15 minutes): A Unit plan will be developed and presented to colleagues in class. These
units may consist of between 2-4 lessons and must utilize dramatic activity. Your group will have 15
minutes to share a lesson and give a general overview of the unit. Participants will be required to work in
groups of two or three, and plan and partly implement a lesson utilizing the dramatic structures explored
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in class for elementary school students. Each group must present copies of their complete lesson structure
to the whole group.
Criteria for Assessment:
Ability to demonstrate effective teaching and communication skills
Ability to structure and sequence appropriate strategies for the elementary classroom
Ability to manage the time, space and resources well
Ability to demonstrate group cohesiveness and team work
Ability to justify planning for the chosen context.
Reflection:
Reflection is essential to a person’s development and growth. Throughout the semester you will be asked
to reflect on your work, work that you are experiencing and connections made in class. For the final
reflection please reflect on your learning this semester and assign yourself a grade for the course. Make
sure you give enough evidence as demonstrated in your active participation and learning in class and on
blackboard, your assignments, and your processfolio. Attending every session, fully participating and
doing the work is expected and I would consider that average work: C. If you want to aim for a B or an A,
I am more interested in your own learning growth and how you feel you have gone above and beyond.
Observation Time Sheets and Charts: Participants in the BS and MA teacher certification programs are
also required to complete 15-20 hours of field observations in a setting approved by the professor. You
will be required to complete observation positives/delta sheets that outline what you are experiencing in
your observation sites. Time sheets will be distributed and should be signed by the mentor in the
placement. These time sheets and observation sheets should be turned in to the instructor as part of the
processfolio. These time sheets can be found on blackboard.
Process folio:
Like a portfolio, the processfolio is a collection of work (here, the work in UE.1029/GE.2030).
However, while portfolios are most often collections of best works or products, processfolios are
collections of learning over time, which document process. Consider the folio as a document of your own
learning. Each participant will create an individualized processfolio that outlines strategies and techniques
that can be used in teaching drama in an elementary classroom or with an elementary student population.
This processfolio will need to illustrate your growth as an arts educator during this semester. The process
folio should present a “picture” of what you have learned as an artist and educator in the course. A wellorganized and well-presented processfolio will help you to be more effective in providing evidence for
your final grade and could be a nice piece to share with potential employers.
Your processfolio must include the following sections:
· Table of contents
· Reflections (this should include your initial goals and questions and whether or not you have achieved
these over the course of this semester, and a grade you assign for yourself for the course)
· A collection of activities and drama structures. This section can be further divided according to
warm-up activities, classroom management activities, content activities, drama structures and so
forth. You may also include hand-outs from class and collect outside resources.
· Lesson plans, with a collection of other colleagues’ plans you find useful. It can also include
materials that you used to plan, and the standards.
· Bibliography of important resources that illustrates that you have researched the field of drama in
elementary education
· Observation responses/time sheets (if applicable)
· Other sections can be included at your own discretion based on your individual interests and
discoveries in the course.
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Processfolios are due by December 11 by 12:30pm. Please email them to me at jm485@nyu.edu. If
the processfolio is unable to emailed, please post on Blackboard, or as a last resort, drop them off in
the designated area in the Ed Theatre office (2nd floor of Pless: 82 Washington Square East by
Washington Place).
Please note that I will be keeping my own notes for each participant in the course, based on what
I observe during our class sessions. These notes and observations will help me to guide each participant’s
progress in the course. I will also be available for individual consultations to discuss your work in more
detail.
Academic Honesty
You are responsible for knowing the University’s issued standards of academic honesty outlined in the
student handbook. While the nature of this course demands that you discuss ideas and opinions with
fellow participants, your writing and other individual work must be something that you do on your own.
If this is unclear now or later in the semester, please make it a point to meet with me.
The standard penalty for academic dishonesty consists of an automatic “F” for the course and
notification of campus authorities.
Email and Blackboard
Each participant must have an active NYU email account that they check on a regular basis. This is the
easiest way for me to communicate with you regarding last minute changes and for you to contact me
regarding questions and concerns about the coursework. There is a Blackboard account for the course,
and I will use this for communication and to post important documents related to the course.
Note: Any student attending NYU who needs an accommodation due to a chronic, psychological, visual,
mobility and/or learning disability, or is Deaf or Hard of Hearing should register with the Moses Center
for Students with Disabilities at 212 998-4980, 240 Greene Street, www.nyu.edu/csd
Course outline
September 6:
Opening Class- Hello, Name dance, review course outline, Reflection cards
HMWK – 1) Please look at the Lesson Plan Format to begin to become familiar with
it. 2) Answer these questions, what kind of teacher do you want to be? How have the
arts affected you? Why theatre in the elementary classroom? What are your initial
goals and questions for this course? Write these down on an index card and bring to
the next class.
September 13: Warmup Group 1
How can we
Classroom for
Reflection
use Drama in the
Literacy?
cards
September 20: Warmup
How can we
Classroom for
Review
Group 2
use Drama in the
Conflict Resolution?
Lesson Plan Format
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Reflection cards
HMWK – Look at blueprint online at:
http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/arts/images/theaterbp.pdf
Think about how the work that we do is defined by the blueprint and provide at
least one example from each of the previous three lessons we have done in class.
Post to Blackboard.
September 27: Warmup Group 3
How can we Use Puppetry/ Storytelling to teach Color/Emotion?
Reflection cards
HMWK- Find websites that you think may be helpful and share on blackboard.
October 4:
Warmup Group 4
How can we use Drama for a Pre-performance workshop of Shakespeare?
Reflection cards
DUE: Unit 1: Drama and Building Community Content Questions
HMWK- 1) Lesson plans are due next week.
October 11:
Warmup Group 5
How can we use Drama for a Post-performance workshop of Shakespeare?
Reflection cards
DUE: Lesson Plan
HMWK – 1) Please think of questions you still have about the work we are doing.
Think about those questions posed on the first day. Has anything changed? Write
your responses on an index card and bring to class.
October 18:
Warmup Group 6
How can we use Drama in a Social Studies classroom?
Reflection cards
October 25:
Warmup Group 7
How Can we Shape Young Actors
in a Drama Classroom?
Reflection cards
November 1:
Warmup Group 8
How can we use Drama in a Math
classroom
DUE: Unit 2: Drama and the
Curriculum Questions
Reflection Cards
November 8:
TEACHER RESOURCE DAY
Planning/Preparation
November 15:
Warmup Group 9
Final Presentations
Reflection cards
November 22: Warmup Group 10
Final Presentations
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Reflection cards
December 1:
Warmup Group 11
Final Presentations
Reflection cards
December 8:
Warmup Group 12
Final Presentations
Wrap-up/Evaluations
***syllabus is subject to change.
LESSON PLAN
Name:
Title:
Focus Question(s) (Aka Guiding or overarching questions. Ideally you can post these questions for
students to explore throughout the lesson. Ex: Where do I belong? Or How can drama help me
understand?)
Learning Goals: (Can be broken down by drama goals, content area goals, and classroom community
goals)
Students will…
Assessment:
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Teacher will…
· Formal (A piece of evidence that makes the learning visible – can be placed into a child’s
portfolio. Ex: Essays, journals, rubrics, standardized tests, pictures with analysis, video with
analysis, self-assessments, reflection cards, post-it notes with analysis, etc)
· Informal (A piece of evidence which can be seen but may require more formal evidence. Ex:
Observation, Discussion, Q & A, etc)
o How will you use these pieces of evidence to demonstrate learning?
NYS Learning Standards/NYCDOE Learning Strands: (Drama and Content Area(s))
Audience/Developmental Considerations: (Grade level, school context, learning needs/abilities, ratio of
boys/girls, etc)
Previous Knowledge: (What do the students already know in terms of drama, content area, and
community goals?)
Spatial Organization: (How is the space set up? Will you change the space depending upon the
activity/structure you use?)
Materials: (For students and for you to prepare)
Classroom Management Strategies: (Signals, Directions, Transitions, etc)
Procedures: (Structures/Activities broken down into time frames. Reflection/Debrief should be weaved in
throughout)
Modifications/Plans for Re-teaching: (What if the students don’t ‘get it’? What other entry points might
you use? How might you adapt your lesson?)
Hamburger Lesson Plan inspired by Krasnow/Salvatore/Smithner/Montgomery Lesson Plans
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