USING DRAMA IN TEACHING SOME BASICS ASPECTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR TO
PRIMARY SCHOOL STS.
Session for primary school teachers 16.03.2010, 15:30
 Possessive forms – ‘s, possessive pronouns
 photocopy sts’ hands, spread them on the table/floor and ask the sts Whose hand is
it?
 Ask individual sts to carefully draw around their hands on a large sheet of paper.
Spread the sheet on the floor. Continue as above
 Improvise a little stage with a screen. Ask a few sts to show their hands from behind
the screen and the other sts guess whose hands is this.
 Improvise a short scene – conversation between hands, various possibilities.





Imperatives
Give sts various instructions
Introduce a few elements (vocabulary) of the army drill
Ask various sts to take over the role of a commander.
Explain that giving commands is short and brisk (Attention! Stand at ease, freeze,
quick march)
 Present Simple,
- Let them think of the various parts of the structure as persons, eg. main verb – sister,
auxiliary do – older brother, not – younger brother
- Use the sts (possibly carrying cardboard tags with words) to illustrate the structure.
Notes: the older brother goes first, thy younger brother does not appear without his
older brother, the older brother takes over the –s in 3rd pers. sing. questions.
 The 3rd person singular
 help sts act out a declaration of love to illustrate the concept of grammatical
persons. Use a boy (wooer), girl (beauty), other boys (Wooers, count off!) and girls.
 use the concept of parties to a contract to illustrate the idea of 3rd persons, act
out a scene of signing a contract.
 point to or mention various persons and objects to make sure the sts can identify
3rd person singular, use things, flashcards, free imaginative ideas
 Use CCQ (Concept checking questions) a lot
1

 Past Simple,
As above, ask sts to take roles of the parts of the structure, eg. main verb – sister,
auxiliary did – older brother, not – younger brother
Use the students to illustrate the grammar structure (if sister alone – she carries the
backpack –ed, in questions older brother takes over the backpack and goes first; not
– the capricious and shy little brother, doesn’t appear without his older brother
For irregular past, introduce the idea of the burden of the past. Show them how the
verb changes form under the burden of the past and how it straightens up when
“released” by the auxiliary did
Point out how not always sticks with did and how it sometimes clings to did (didn’t)




Present Progressive, (group work, discussion)
Use picture flashcards to practice the form
Use revelation envelopes to practice the form
Ask sts to act out various activities to explain the concept of actual present



 Going to (for intentions)
 Show sts pictures of people who apparently plan/intend to do something
 Ask students to act out scenes where they are planning to do something sneaky
(podstępny)
 a/the
 Explain the concept of the indefinite (any cat at all) This is a cat, this is a cat and this
is a cat. It looks like a cat, it sounds like a cat, it smells like a cat. It must be a cat. Use
pictures on the board.
 Tell sts that they are missing sth valuable and they are looking for the perpetrator
(sprawca). Where is the cat?
 There is/ there are
 Show sts 2 kinds of sentences in Polish. Na stole jest książka. Książka jest na stole.
Make them see the difference in meaning by eliciting the corresponding questions.
 Explain that the first type of sentence requires the structure there is
Disclaimer:
There’s no guarantee they will remember the right things. You may have parents gossiping that you teach
some strange subjects at school, because the children will have no idea why you were doing this drama
thing. These techniques are immensely popular. That’s why hopefully they will prove effective for you.
However, inevitably, some sts will remember the only the stories but the test results will remain the same.
For further development
Inversion – karate guarding technique
Superlatives – the tallest is only one
Andrew Wright – three visual techniques (flashcards, revelation envelopes, concertina books)
2
For further development
Inversion – karate guarding technique
Superlatives – the tallest is only one
Andrew Wright – three visual techniques (flashcards, revelation envelopes, concertina
books)





Countable / uncountable nouns (Jak to ugryźć?)
Can (Inversion), A karate practitioner – question – cross, answer – open.)
czasy gramatyczne:
Tell them a story to begin with, which would contain these grammatical structures.
Ask them, do you like this story? The story about brother, sister and the little brother.
Continue with the story in the past simple and then in the present perfect.
Now the table - count off. One (from the mobile)
I need interesting sounds for that. From the mobile or from the internet
Tables count off. We can stumble over a table.
Dog / bear – I stumble over a bear.
Car – from a little bag , plane – and other toys from Julek – things we can’t name – they are
all 3rd person, peg top / humming top, spin a top
Mountain, sea, sky, moon (I need flashcards for that) from the Welcome sets I’ll choose
some flashcards.
I LIKED the story. They take a trip into the past. They need backbacks (How will they
manage without mobile phones, mp3 players, and computer games, iPhones, they would
day in a matter of one day. )
D – represents backpack.
In a question, we have a manly verb DID, which apparently carries 2 back backs for itself
and for the lady. The lady doesn’t need the backback.
NOT – not is small and shy and attached to the father. It will not go on its own.
It always goes with the father (DID Dad)
Not is small, capricious and shy
And close to the father so they often hold hands. Sometimes the Did takes not around and
they go like that and we have didn’t.
For further development
Inversion – karate guarding technique
Superlatives – the tallest is only one
Andrew Wright – three visual techniques (flashcards, revelation envelopes, concertina books)
3
Picture and scene
Use picture flashcards. Flash the cards to them (my favourite technique)
Present continuous
How to show that it is happening right now?
Needs all the elements
Brother and sister, mother and brother, always
If there is a question, they change places,
If it’s a negation, the younger brother seeing the brother there comes along and stands,
where – just next to the older brother.
Material na dyskusje, I samodzielna probe.
I AM DANCING
DANCE-ING wstążka
DANCING – tańczący
I dancing – ja tańczący
I AM dancing – ja jestem tańczący
Nie mam dobrego pomysłu.
(ja jestem tańczący), 2 osoby tancza, ciagnik z naczepa
I AM dancing - 3 elements, 3 persons one of them is holding a ribbon.
Question , the persons change places,
Negation, not comes along and joins the second elements
Ja JESTEM TAŃCZĄCY
Jest to udziwnienie, udziwnienia zwykle lepiej zapadaja w pamiec.
Pomysl dla grup, niech cos opracuja (5 minut) i zaprezentuja.



You are watching TV.
Are you watching TV?
You are not watching TV.
 Present Perfect,
Don’t know – mam zrobione, mam przeczytane, mom podojone, pozamiatane, pomyte, etc.
 Tell them your way. About word order. The same sentence or not? a/the, there is /
are
For further development
Inversion – karate guarding technique
Superlatives – the tallest is only one
Andrew Wright – three visual techniques (flashcards, revelation envelopes, concertina books)
4
Był tam taki gość I ten gość.
There was a Man and the Man had a … gun.
A cat – nalezy do grupy kotow – this is a cat, this is a cat and this is a cat – taki kot, wyglada
jak, kot, pachnie jak kot, wydaje takie dzwieki jako kot – to musi byc kot – a cat.
Ale kiedy mamy na mysli jednego jedynego kota, i jedno jedyna autko, i jedna rybke
(wyciagnij z worka) to wtedy the.
Zgubilo się Wam plasterk szynki, parmeńskiej, kupiony na niedziele z nauczycielskiej
wypłaty. Where is the cat? (ten jeden).
To nie znaczy, ze przestana robic te bledy. Jest ktos z Was kto nie robi bledow?
Ja tlumacze i angielski kolega mi to poprawia. On mowi, ze on nigdy się nie zastanawia?
Osluchanie. Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski had it check for him.
It will give them an idea.
 Superlatives
This cat is the fastest. The – we mean only one cat, we can’t have many fastest cats.
For further development
Inversion – karate guarding technique
Superlatives – the tallest is only one
Andrew Wright – three visual techniques (flashcards, revelation envelopes, concertina books)
5