Drama and Social Studies

In this week's session, we participated in a lot of great activities and strategies that incorporate both drama and social studies. The following strategies are the ones that stood out the most to me as effective and enjoyable.

Hot Seat: 

Kari-Lynn Winters (2012). Gift Days (Picture Book).

While reading the story Gift Days by Kari-Lynn Winters, we used the strategy "Hot seat", where at certain parts of the story, someone would sit in the middle of circle acting in the role of one of the characters. The rest of the class asks the student questions as they try to answer the questions in role. This activity can really help students to learn perspective taking, especially because it goes beyond just thinking about what the character did in the story, but it requires them to consider other scenarios and think critically to answer them as they think the character would. My only hesitation regarding this activity is how it puts students on the spot. This is definitely an activity where the right to pass needs to be available because there are definitely some students who may be uncomfortable with such an activity. Another option would be to do this activity in smaller groups, so that the activity is less risky and overwhelming for students.

Overheard Conversations

Can you hear me (clipart). Retrieved from
http://laoblogger.com/heard-clipart.html

This was a strategy presented by my peers in class. For this strategy, groups were given different situations and two people were required to discuss the topic, where the other two people have to "overhear" and react to that conversation. This was a very interesting strategy and it was really effective at making us think critically about things and to consider other perspectives. I think that an activity like this could really benefit from allowing students the chance to research their topic in order to inform their presentation.