drama activities for special education students

Special Education and Inclusive Learning

Inclusive Drama Activities For SEN

Inclusive drama activities are those that involve and engage students with special educational needs (SEN) in creative and collaborative ways. Some we have included 8 examples of inclusive drama activities for SEN pupils (UK) and a link to a free sample of 101 Drama Games Book which will give you 20 more.

Adapting a Drama Activity for SEN

Adapting a drama activity to different abilities can be done by following some general principles, such as:

• Identify the unique needs of each student : You can meet with your students or their families to discuss their goals, preferences, and challenges. You can also observe their strengths and areas of improvement during the drama sessions .
• Use proper language : You can use respectful and inclusive language when referring to your students and their special needs. You can also ask them what terms they prefer to use, and avoid negative or ableist words .
• Provide a variety of props and toys : You can collect and organise different items that can facilitate pretend play, such as objects with large grips, easy-to-wear costumes, or puppets. You can also let your students choose what they want to use or make their own props.
• Use activities that suit different levels : You can choose drama techniques that can be adapted to different abilities and interests, such as role play, soundscapes, tableaux, mime, hot seating, narration, or forum theatre. You can also provide prompts, scripts, or choices for your students.
• Use mixed-ability pairs or groups : You can pair or group your students in a way that allows them to help, support, and learn from each other. You can also assign roles that are equally valued but unevenly weighted, such as questioner and answerer, narrator and actor, or leader and follower.

These are some of the ways you can adapt a drama activity to different abilities. You can find more tips and examples on the websites of Theatrefolk , Innovate My School , How to Adult , and Arts On The Move .

8 Inclusive drama activities and adaptations for SEN pupils

• Mime : This is a technique where students use only their body movements and facial expressions to convey a message, action, or character. Mime can help students develop physical skills, creativity, and non-verbal communication. It can also be used to explore different situations, emotions, or themes. For example, students can mime different occupations, animals, or feelings.
• Hot seating : This is a technique where one student takes on the role of a character and answers questions from the rest of the group. Hot seating can help students deepen their understanding of a character, their motives, and their relationships. It can also be used to encourage empathy, curiosity, and critical thinking. For example, students can hot seat characters from a play, a historical figure, or a fictional character .
• Narration : This is a technique where one or more students provide a commentary or a story to accompany the actions of other students. Narration can help students develop their literacy, vocabulary, and storytelling skills. It can also be used to support students who find it difficult to speak or act in front of others. For example, students can narrate a fairy tale, a news report, or a personal experience . For non-verbal learners use a pre-recorded message or sound effect on a big mack.
• Puppets : This is a technique where students use puppets to represent characters, animals, or objects. Puppets can help students express their emotions, opinions, and ideas in a playful and safe way. They can also be used to stimulate imagination, creativity, and humour. For example, students can make their own puppets, use existing puppets, or improvise with everyday items.
• Forum theatre : This is a technique where students perform a scene that involves a problem or a conflict, and then invite the audience to suggest or demonstrate different solutions. Forum theatre can help students explore different perspectives, values, and choices. It can also be used to promote social awareness, dialogue, and action. For example, students can perform scenes about bullying, peer pressure, or discrimination.
• Role play : This is a technique where students act out different scenarios or characters, using props, costumes, or dialogue. Role play can help students develop social skills, empathy, and self-expression. It can also be adapted to different levels of ability and interest, by providing prompts, scripts, or choices for the students. For example, students can role play scenes from a story they are studying, or create their own scenarios based on a theme or topic.
• Soundscapes : This is a technique where students create sounds using their voices, bodies, or objects to represent a place, mood, or event. Soundscapes can help students explore their senses, imagination, and communication skills. They can also be used to enhance storytelling, drama, or poetry. For example, students can create soundscapes for different settings in a play, or for different emotions or feelings .
• Tableaux : This is a technique where students create still images or freeze frames with their bodies to show a moment, idea, or concept. Tableaux can help students express their thoughts, opinions, and emotions in a non-verbal way. They can also be used to analyse, summarise, or compare different texts, themes, or issues. For example, students can create tableaux for key events in a story, or for different perspectives on a topic.

Evaluating The Effectiveness of Inclusive Drama Lessons

Evaluating the effectiveness of an inclusive drama activity can be done by using various methods, such as:

Observation

You can observe how the students participate, interact, and respond during and after the drama activity. You can look for indicators of engagement, enjoyment, learning, and inclusion, such as:

• How often and how long do the students speak, act, or contribute to the drama?
• How do the students collaborate, communicate, and support each other in the drama?
• How do the students express their emotions, opinions, and ideas in the drama?
• How do the students reflect on their own and others’ experiences, perspectives, and values in the drama?
• How do the students demonstrate their understanding of the drama topic, theme, or issue?
• How do the students apply their drama skills and knowledge to other contexts or situations?

You can ask the students to give feedback on the drama activity, either verbally or in writing. You can use open-ended questions, surveys, or rubrics to elicit their feedback. You can ask them questions such as:

• What did you like or dislike about the drama activity?
• What did you learn or discover from the drama activity?
• How did the drama activity make you feel or think?
• How did the drama activity help you to connect with others or yourself?
• How did the drama activity challenge or change your views or actions?
• How could the drama activity be improved or changed?

You can collect evidence of the students’ learning and development from the drama activity, such as their work samples, performances, or reflections. You can use portfolios, journals, or videos to document their evidence. You can analyse their evidence by using criteria, standards, or outcomes to measure their achievement. You can look for evidence of:

• Their drama skills, such as voice, movement, expression, or improvisation
• Their drama knowledge, such as elements, techniques, or conventions
• Their drama understanding, such as concepts, themes, or issues
• Their drama application, such as creativity, critical thinking, or problem-solving

These are some of the ways you can evaluate the effectiveness of an inclusive drama activity. You can find more information and examples on the websites of Teacher Magazine , Heart-Mind Online , and Teacher Academy .

Recommend Books and Reding on Inclusive Drama Activities.

• 101 More Drama Games and Activities by David Farmer. This sequel to the best-selling 101 Drama Games and Activities contains inspirational and engaging games and exercises suitable for children, young people and adults. The activities can be used in drama lessons and workshops or during rehearsal and devising periods.
• Drama for the Inclusive Classroom: Activities to Support Curriculum and Social-Emotional Learning * by Sally Bailey. This book provides detailed and easy-to-implement chapters on using drama to develop critical listening and communication skills, conflict resolution abilities, behavior regulation, and more. It also features adaptable activities to include students at every ability level.
• Drama Games – A Resource for Teachers by Trinity College London . This site contains a collection of drama games and exercises suitable for children, young people, and adults. It also provides tips on how to use the games for different purposes, such as warm-ups, icebreakers, skill development, or assessment. It also highlights games that are more inclusive of students with movement issues or social distancing needs.

I hope you find these books helpful and interesting.

*Indicates an Amazon affiliate link which supports our hosting costs.

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Story Drama in the Special Needs Classroom: Step-by-Step Lesson Plans for Teaching through Dramatic Play

Introducing drama to the learning experience is guaranteed to enrich a child’s development, and is an especially effective approach for children with special educational needs, including those with autism spectrum disorders. This practical handbook offers teachers an array of simple and easy-to-implement theatrical techniques that will enhance students’ learning and encourage artistic expression. The author demonstrates how dramatic play doesn’t have to be restricted to drama lessons and can be applied to a diverse range of school subjects and recreational settings. ‘The Little Red Hen’, for example, covers themes that are relevant to literacy (rhyming and rhythm), maths (counting seeds), science (discussing farming), and art lessons (designing costumes). Step-by-step lesson plans take teachers through every aspect of running fun and engaging story dramas, including warm ups, movement, songs and props. Handy tips throughout suggest ideas for developing the plays further and ways to adapt them according to the needs of the group. A comprehensive guide for anyone interested in drama as an educational tool in inclusive or special needs settings.

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Drama in Education

• Drama at KS1
• Drama at KS2
• Drama at KS3
• Drama and Students with Special Needs
• Drama Code of Conduct
• Guidelines for Socially Distanced Drama
• Process Drama
• Assessing Drama
• Health and Safety in a Drama Setting
• Creating a Drama Studio

DRAMA AND STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Drama is often about collaboration and negotiation and when it is used in mixed-ability groups it can act as a bridge between children with special needs and others in their peer group. It can enable students with particular difficulties and provides an ideal environment to encourage students to work together and to develop trust and friendships.

There is, however, a danger of assuming that drama is 'the inclusion subject'. This can lead to:

• A devaluation of the contribution of theatre to academic work
• A devaluation of the achievements of all drama students
• The mis-teaching of drama as always accessible
• The perception of the arts as easy or not requiring basic skills
• The reduced perception of a subject at which some students with special needs can excel
• The alienation of special needs students who do not find drama lessons automatically accessible

None of these issues serve the student with special needs.

What if drama is difficult?

There are some students, and not only those with special needs, who will find some form of drama activities, or even the drama space itself, challenging. Non-classroom environments, group or pair work, performance, touch, open space, dialogues and self-expression can all present challenges. All of the well-known 'accessibility' techniques apply equally to drama: displays on the wall; a welcoming environment; a variety of activities and methods; art-based activities; writing together on large sheets of paper; employing costume, props and multimedia to support the work, and using both teacher- and student-led exercises.

Think about which activities will be challenging for students with special needs and aim to structure them tightly, in terms of classroom management and space, and also of transition into and out of them. It also helps not to present too many challenges at once, so try not to combine, for example, challenging group structures with work on a difficult issue. If an activity is difficult for some students, you can create safety nets or cushions, using drama techniques to help. These are discussed below.

Open space and the circle

Structure and careful classroom management can remedy some of the immediate shock of being in the open drama space. Working in a circle sets up a structure which can be constantly referred to and even maintained throughout the lesson. Or, in a traditional classroom, making a particular organised space by rearranging desks and chairs can help.

The use of the circle as a controlling device, although obviously much easier in a dedicated drama studio , is particularly good when members of a class have challenging behaviour or problems with social skills. It is also useful for students with a range of special needs. It occasionally presents a problem if one or two students are especially withdrawn, because everyone can be seen easily, so group trust needs to be developed at the same time as establishing the space, or the benefits of circle work will be stunted.

Some SEN students respond positively to the very open drama space and the possibilities it presents, so that the circle can be useful as a structured introduction to the opening out of space.

Developing the circle: a practical example

• Start the lesson in the circle and use games to establish both the circle space and turn-taking. If appropriate, talk about the use of the circle as a performance space and the history of the circle in theatre.
• Work on a whole group exercise, such as mime or rhythm, in which the idea of the circle and of turn-taking can be practised.
• Do some work in pairs or threes in the circle, seated or standing, re-establishing the circle at the end of each short activity.
• For demonstrations of work, go around the circle.

Once students have passed to less tightly structured work, the circle can still be useful:

• Use the circle to sit down in moments of confusion or noise.
• If you want to extend this and move into the rest of the drama space, establish the circle as a space to come back to and go away from for performance, discussion and demos.
• Introduce the use of other spaces gradually. Open up the space and make it available by starting with the circle.
• Experiment with other theatre spaces: traverse, end-on, open space, and so on.

'Now get into pairs!'

Another practical way in which some of these challenges can be met is through structured (rather than informal) group work. For example, use sustained pair work then join pairs together into groups, or play a game – such as Hotspot – which 'lands' students in pairs or groups. In a mixed-ability group, allow students to develop scenes which can be verbal or non-verbal and which can be developed to different levels by high-ability students and less able students.

Some group-work safety nets

• Regularly work in threes as well as in pairs, so that being in a group of three doesn't become stigmatised.
• Establish early on that the maths won't always work, so some people will be in a group of a larger or smaller number than that suggested, again to avoid stigma. (Depending on how the class is working together, it can be those who aren't as confident in the drama environment that end up in a group of three when the others are in pairs.)
• Use and value working individually as well as group work. Don't always end with group work.
• Allow observers, narrators, journalists, note-takers or cartoonists in some activities.
• Allow miming and gesture instead of dialogue in some activities.
• Use mixed-ability pairs, to allow the more able students to help their peers.
• Use activities where the roles in the group or pair are equally valued but unevenly weighted. For instance, in Hotseating activities, some students may find it easier to ask the questions especially if they have been prepared beforehand. If the more able student plays the character during Hotseating, it gives less able students an excellent demonstration of how the activity works.

Reading cushions

If basic skills are required in an activity, you can again use safety nets or cushions. Here are some reading cushions:

• Teach a line of dialogue using repetition and gesture before reading it.
• Read two lines of dialogue together as an introduction before going on to group work.
• Read a whole piece of text in mixed ability pairs or threes so that students can help each other.
• Create a wall display and an improvisation based on an aspect of the text before reading it. For instance, use a display of a street scene showing antagonism between two families, before learning two lines of the prologue to Romeo and Juliet using gestures and repetition, as an introduction to the play.
• Introduce other activities where students who find reading difficult will have their particular strengths championed and match these to reading activities.

The obvious benefit of drama is that it presents a chance for the student who struggles with literacy to flourish, though there shouldn't be a complete avoidance of reading and writing in favour of speaking and listening, especially as some students with special needs may be inclined to opt for the subject at GCSE, and from Key Stage 4, written work will be assessed. Care should be taken when introducing reading and writing activities if you have not experienced your students' level of literacy before.

Challenges that provide opportunities: self-expression and communication

Another important function of drama for students with special needs is in fostering the twin aims of self-expression and confidence-building; these are important tools in literacy-building, and a confident student is more likely to learn well and to enjoy learning in general. For students with challenging behaviour or problems interacting, drama provides an opportunity to let off energy within the boundaries of the lesson itself.

Drama also boosts the communication skills of students with special needs. Group negotiation and communication skills developed through drama can feed back into other subjects. It's worth bearing in mind that some students will find 'untaught' group work and communication skills hard, so don't make assumptions that certain things will come automatically. Drama makes an important contribution to the 'how to' of these skills.

Build the class up slowly in a structured way, gradually getting more complex, and practise communication techniques over several lessons. For instance, start with individual mime work, and move on to turn-taking games in pairs and in a whole group. Then try specific role-plays before using a freer kind of group improvisation. If these methods are repeated, the drama lesson will provide an opportunity to teach communication skills and group work rather than making certain students afraid of them.

Creating a group for students with special needs

A drama club or group especially for students with special needs will help you to concentrate on key activities and skills. It may prove better to have this club in the SENCO-run area rather than the drama studio, so that the environment is appropriate, classroom assistants are on hand to help and the SENCO can help set the agenda.

You may well have a specific aim in mind, but will probably also need to consider prioritising between group work, communication skills and confidence-building. An understanding of how to work on the basic drama skills should also be the focus, which can be taken away from the club and into the mixed-ability drama lesson. There are some key drama skills which need to be practised, for example: standing still ( freezes and tableaux); sitting still and listening; watching; turn-taking; entering dialogues with confidence; making shapes; negotiating pairs and groups and building trust.

Take a look at the drama games and drama methods listed on this site.

For additional ideas the resource pack Drama Methods and How to Use Them provides lots of great material.

For a simple but effective mime and sound performance, look at the KS1 Poetry Into Performance lesson plan.

For a more complex piece of drama work, that still allows students some autonomy with regards to personal response, look at the WW1 Poetry Into Performance lesson plan.

For a mini production in front of an audience the Matilda Mini Script works really well. This can be adapted for two or three strong readers, with the rest of your students miming the actions and reactions to the story.

For scripted pair work that can be explored as is, or developed further, try the Simple Script resource.

The Drama Games Compendium 1 contains 50 great drama games, many of which include variations providing loads of brilliant ideas.

• Special Talents, Special Needs: Drama for People with Learning Disabilities by Ian McCurrach and Barbara Darnley. Publ. Jessica Kingsley    ISBN 978-1853025617
• Story Drama in the Special Needs Classroom: Step-by-Step Lesson Plans for Teaching Through Dramatic Play by Jessica Perich Carleton. Publ.  Jessica Kingsley    ISBN 978-1849058599
• 101 Games and Activities for Children With Autism, Asperger’s and Sensory Processing Disorders by Tara Delaney. Publ.  McGraw-Hill Education    ISBN 978-0071623360
• Drama Games for Those Who Like to Say No by Chris Johnston. Publ. Nick Hern Books    ISBN 978-1848420496
• NASEN The National Association of Special Educational Needs – the UK’s leading organisation for education professionals working with children and young people with special and additional needs and disabilities
• Dyspraxia Foundation Youth – provides support to young people that have Dyspraxia/DCD across the UK
• Chickenshed – an inclusive theatre company that uses the stage to celebrate diversity
• Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) - Government web page
• SEN Magazine – features, news and articles covering all issues to do with SEN and disability

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Incorporate Drama and Acting Activities to Build Social Skills in Students with Special Needs

• Categories : Inclusion strategies for mainstreamed classrooms
• Tags : Special ed information for teachers & parents

Drama Activities for Special Needs Students

Strong social skills are one of the most important factors in leading a positive, successful life. Many young students are bombarded with violence on television and spend countless hour spent in front of a computer or on video games. It is becoming the norm for children to be raised in non-traditional family situations which can sometimes contribute to inadequate social learning.

Students with special needs are especially affected by the lack of social skills. One of the issues is that many disorders, namely autism, affects the portion of the brain that helps children learn and understand social cues. It may be extremely difficult for many students with special needs to learn and behave in a socially productive manner. Another issue for children who physically appear different, act different, or are placed in special classrooms within even an inclusive school are often isolated from typical education peers.

One technique to help students develop social skills in a fun, stimulating environment is through drama and acting. There are many programs put together by parents, dramatists, and special education professionals to encourage this to help students. Teachers and parents can look for available programs in the community and get their children involved.

Teachers can also incorporate drama into their lesson plans or as transitional activities to help foster social skills.

Here are a couple drama activities that can be used within a classroom setting to encourage social skills:

1 Sponge Bob Square Pants

Begin by asking students about different feelings (happy, sad, excited, sleepy, angry, bored). Then ask each student, one-by-one, to say, “Sponge Bob Square Pants” in whatever feeling they want is assigned to them. Have the other students guess what feeling they are expressing. The goal of this activity is to get students in touch with feelings and how they are expressed through body language, voice tone, and volume.

2 Zip Zap Zoom

Students stand in a circle. The first student makes eye contact with the peer of their choice and claps (*be sure to not allow students to clap directly in each other faces) in their direction and says, “ZIP!” That students turns to the peer of their choice, claps, and says, “ZAP!” That student repeats and says, “ZOOM!” This continues for a couple minutes as a greeting. Instead of saying “ZIP, ZAP, ZOOM” the students may say the peer’s name (name tags are good to use in this situation if the students are unfamiliar with each other.) The goal of this activity is to encourage eye contact when addressing another person.

Brainstorm ideas that will fit the developmental and social needs of the students in your classroom to build a repertoire of social skills building activities. An enormous chunk of a child’s education should go beyond academics and focus on giving students the tools needed to survive in life.

Heart-Mind Online

Drama games for inclusion and social change.

• Gets Along with Others
• Compassionate and Kind

  Social inclusion and exclusion [ 1 ] are central issues in many young people’s lives.

While school yard politics are short lived, the power dynamics that drive exclusion in schools do not disappear upon graduation. Oppression, marginalization, and discrimination are part of the legacy today’s young people will inherit in the “real world”, and are already shaping young lives [ 2 ] – often to a greater degree [ 3 ] than many adults realize. Nurturing compassion and inclusion provides a way forward for children and adults alike to create social change in their lives and in the world. 

Drama is one tool for empowering young people to give voice to their troubles and embody the change they wish to experience in the world. Creating skits or improvising together creates space for children to playfully explore social issues that may be too heavy to approach in other contexts. When sensitively guided towards topics of exclusion, drama games can support young people [ 4 ] to interactively explore, challenge, and re-write their social scripts. The drama games described in this resource provide a starting point for using drama to foster a culture of inclusivity within grade 4-7 classrooms and in other group settings.

Tips for Hosting Drama Games with Young People:

• Throughout the following games, it is essential that participants maintain ownership and autonomy [ 5 ] in the stories, problems, and resolutions they dramatically explore. For this reason, it is important that the adult facilitators refrain from contributing to the content of the scenes.
• Participants bring their own diverse histories and experiences into their dramatic play. Working through themes of exclusion may be painful or triggering for some students, especially those who have felt excluded in real life or have experienced trauma. Work to cultivate an environment in which participants feel safe [ 6 ] to join in the games and set healthy boundaries for their own involvement.

Drama Games for Social Change

1. warm-up - fill the space.

Time: 5-10 minutes

Purpose: Building awareness of self and others while moving through space

Setting: Room or outdoor space in which children can walk around freely without bumping into objects or each other

Instructions: Children walk around the room without touching one another, trying to fill all of the empty space. As they walk, give instructions at 30 second intervals [ 7 ] to "freeze," "shake out your whole body," "walk like someone else in the room," and "stop." When you are ready to conclude the game, instruct children to "shake out your body again" and "stop."

2. Main Activity - Forum Theatre

Time: 45-60 minutes (may be spread out over multiple sessions depending on class size)

Purpose : Acting out scenarios of exclusion at school and brainstorming ways to resolve them

Setting: Space for a "stage" area and an "audience" area in a classroom, gym, or outdoors. Props may be used but are optional.

Instructions: Brainstorm scenarios of exclusion and write them on the board or slips of paper. Divide children into small groups. Giving them several minutes to prepare, invite each group to act out one of the scenarios in a 2-3 minute skit. Then, invite each group to perform it a second time, with a twist: audience members may take the place [ 8 ] of the actor(s) who are excluded in the skit. Finally, invite each group to perform their skit once more, with a new twist: audience members may volunteer to replace [ 9 ] the "excluder(s)" in the scene. The scene is over once time is up or the actors run out of ideas. 

Variations: Switch [ 10 ] , First Responders [ 11 ] , and Feelings Freeze [ 12 ]

3. Closing - Look For The Helpers

Time: 15 minutes

Purpose: Discussing ways that compassion showed up in the Forum Theatre activity and brainstorming how they could extend to real life

Setting: Seated in a circle in chairs or on the carpet

Instructions: Ask children what compassion means [ 13 ] to them. Ask students to think about ways that their peers acted with compassion during Forum Theatre (a trick for noticing compassion is to look for the helpers!). Then, invite them to reflect on how they could use compassion to help when they observe or experience exclusion in real life, and discuss as a group.

Click Here for Recommended Readings [ 14 ]

Photo Credit [ 15 ]  

• Emotional Intelligence
• Conflict Resolution
• Middle Years

Photos created by pch.vector, rawpixel, and gpointstudio on freepik.com. 

In a 2020 Canadian study , nearly 30% of grade 5-8 students reported experiencing social exclusion at school.  

For example,  Priest et al.’s (2013) systematic review found that racial discrimination is a key determinant of health for children and young people. In particular, racial discrimination is strongly associated with negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, psychological distress, low self-esteem, and low self-worth. 

For example, a 2020 American study with over 600 respondents found that children develop an awareness of race in early childhood – long before most parents begin talking with them about it.

Co-author Jessica Sullivan, PhD, reflects on why this may be the case in an interview for the American Psychological Association :

“Children are capable of thinking about all sorts of complex topics at a very young age […] even if adults don't talk to kids about race, children will work to make sense of their world and will come up with their own ideas, which may be inaccurate or detrimental.” 

These games are inspired by Theatre of the Oppressed, which is a form of structured dramatization that seeks to expose, resist, and transform social and political injustice in the real world.

• For example, in the "Forum Theatre," game themes of exclusion are presented for participants to work through together. While the participants may experiment with compassion and inclusion as possible paths through these scenarios, these resolutions are not scripted or imposed - nor is the idea of "one correct path" conveyed.
• In "Look for the Helpers", participants reflect together on ways that compassion arose in their scenes. In this way, compassion is used as a tool for reflection and to spark discussion of how to resist and/or transform exclusion in real life.
• Establish ground rules for participation that include privacy, awareness of self and others, and a mutually agreed to "safe" word or gesture that participants can use when they want to leave the scene.
• It can also be beneficial to invite, rather than instruct, participants; offer choices about whether and how to participate; and check in one-on-one with students as needed. A trauma-informed approach is encouraged.

Once the participants get comfortable, call out the following suggestions with only 10 seconds between them: "you are made of jelly," "you are carrying a bowl of soup on your head, don't spill it!," "you are a superhero," "you are as small as a grain of sand," "you are really old." Feel free to improvise or invite the children to call out ideas.

Their objective is to resist being excluded by acting out ways in which they could overcome being left out in real life.

Their objective is to act out new ways of maintaining their power of exclusion.

Audience members may call out "switch!" at any time, at which point the actors playing the "excluders" and "excluded" must switch roles.

At any point, the actor(s) being excluded may pretend to dial a "first responder" - an audience member who will join the scene to help them out in some way. 

No more than twice per scene, an audience member may call out "freeze," and the actors must freeze in place until they have shared a word, gesture, or sound describing how they feel in this moment.

If needed, explain that we feel compassionate when we feel bad for others who are suffering and want to help them. We are compassionate when we notice these feelings and use them to do something nice or helpful for someone who is suffering. We can also be compassionate towards ourselves!

• Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal (1993)
• Games for actors and non-actors by Augusto Boal (2002)
• Theatre of the Oppressed: A Manual for Educators by Gopal Midha (2010)
• Theatre of the Oppressed with Children: A Field Experiment by Johnny Saldaña (2005)
• Youth and Theatre of the Oppressed edited by Peter Duffy and Elinor Vettraino (2010)

These languages are provided via eTranslation, the European Commission's machine translation service.

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• Azerbaijani

“Inclusive Education in the Classroom: Using Drama for Students with Special Needs”

Drama is a technique that helps students to develop social skills in a fun, stimulating environment.Drama is about collaboration,when it is used in mixed-ability groups it can act as a bridge between children with special needs and others in their peer group, it can enable students with SEN and provides an ideal environment to encourage them to work together and to develop trust and friendships.

Description

• From integration to inclusion: the benefits of inclusive education;
• Sharing experiences and best practices in working with learners with special needs and learning disabilities;
• Inclusive Education in The Netherlands: Overview;
• Why drama in the classroom is important?
• The incredible effects drama has on students with SEN;
• Elements, purpose and application of pantomime in SEN classroom
• Knowing Each other through Drama Games: Introduction to Creative Drama;
• Creative Drama for Pupils with Special Needs;
• Effective Communication through Drama;
• Drama as a Social and Educational Inclusion Tool;
• Drama Games for special needs children;
• Pantomime techniques to encourage students with SEN to engage in some fun and learn process at the same time
• Learning Differences – Learning Styles;
• Drama technics for emotional, social and psychomotor skills according the needs of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism, Down Syndrome, Dyslexia, Anxiety, Social and Emotional Problems;
• Tips for Special Education teachers in Drama Activities
• Activities for the classroom: Drama as a way to fight stereotypes and prejudices and fostering tolerance in the classroom;
• How to create welcoming and inclusive school environment for all diversities.   Feedback, course evaluation and dissemination focus; Delivery of Certificates of Attendance

Learning objectives

Methodology & assessment, certification details, pricing, packages and other information.

• Price: 400 Euro
• Package contents: Course

Additional information

• Language: English
• Target audience ISCED: Primary education (ISCED 1) Lower secondary education (ISCED 2) Upper secondary education (ISCED 3)
• Target audience type: Teacher Head Teacher / Principal Pedagogical Adviser
• Learning time: 25 hours or more

Key competences

More courses by this organiser.

“Inclusive Education and Diversity in the Classroom: Effective Strategies and Teaching Tolerance”

Next upcoming session  13.05.2024 - 19.05.2024

"Effective Coaching for Teachers and Importance of Extracurricular Activities"

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Drama Start

This is an educational drama resource site for teachers, parents or anyone working with children.

Drama Activities for Special Needs Education: Embracing Inclusivity Through Creativity

Introduction

Drama activities provide a unique and dynamic platform for children with special needs to express themselves, improve communication, and develop social skills. The key to success lies in adapting these activities to be inclusive, ensuring every child can participate and benefit. This blog post explores specialized drama techniques and activities tailored for special needs education.

Understanding the Audience

Before diving into activities, it’s crucial to understand the diverse needs of your participants. Whether it’s physical, developmental, or emotional challenges, each child’s needs should guide the adaptation of drama activities.

1. Sensory Storytelling

Activity overview:.

Sensory storytelling involves narrating a story while incorporating sensory experiences. This can be particularly engaging for children with sensory processing disorders.

How to Adapt:

• Use tactile props (like soft fabrics or textured balls) to tell a story.
• Incorporate sounds and music relevant to the story.

2. Expression Mirroring

This activity involves children mirroring the facial expressions and body language of the instructor or peers, enhancing empathy and emotional understanding.

• Use clear, exaggerated expressions for children to mimic.
• Encourage verbal descriptions of emotions for non-verbal or visually impaired participants.

3. Role-Play Scenarios

Role-playing different scenarios helps children with special needs practice social interactions and problem-solving skills.

• Choose relatable scenarios and guide them through appropriate responses.
• Use visual aids or storyboards for children with communication challenges.

4. Puppet Play

Using puppets can be a powerful tool for children who struggle with direct communication or social interaction.

• Allow children to choose or create puppets that they feel connected to.
• Guide them in simple puppetry techniques to express thoughts and feelings.

5. Rhythm and Movement

Activities focused on rhythm and movement can aid in motor skills development and coordination.

• Use music with different tempos and encourage children to move in a way that feels natural to them.
• Provide support or adaptive equipment for children with physical disabilities.

6. Relaxation and Visualization

Relaxation techniques and guided visualization can help children with anxiety or sensory sensitivities.

• Create a calm, comfortable environment.
• Use soothing narratives and gentle music to guide them through relaxing scenarios.

Creating a Supportive Environment

Safety and comfort:.

Ensure the physical space is safe and comfortable, accommodating various mobility needs and sensory sensitivities.

Flexibility:

Be prepared to modify activities on the go, maintaining flexibility to cater to each child’s response and comfort level.

Positive Reinforcement:

Celebrate every small achievement and provide positive reinforcement, fostering a sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.

Incorporating drama activities in special needs education offers a world of benefits, from enhanced communication and social skills to creative expression and emotional development. By adapting these activities to be inclusive and responsive to each child’s unique abilities, educators and caregivers can create a nurturing and empowering environment. Remember, the goal is not just to teach drama skills but to provide a platform where every child can shine in their own way.

Here are some more fun activities from this site.

A Movement Story

A Space Adventure

Improvisation for Beginners

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Using Drama as a tool for inclusion within the classroom

The principle of inclusion of all students in daily teaching practice and activities is a simple concept in presentation but can offer pragmatic challenges to ensure that it is true inclusion, meaningful and significant for all.

Australian Senator Pauline Hanson recently voiced parental concerns in particular with regards to children with a disability and the concept of inclusion potentially causing a diminution of success for other children. Whilst grievously erroneous in her delivery and conclusions, based upon empirical evidence, it did raise an important conversation that needs to be had. The right for all children to be included in education and, more importantly, how this can be practically achieved.

What is inclusion?

Inclusion means all children are involved and supported in all aspects of education, no matter the gender, ethnicity belief system, social circumstances or challenges (including disability). Separating children into ‘special' areas for learning is not inclusion but integration or segregation (dependent upon the context). This is not inclusion, and yet whilst the default of Australian and indeed international education systems is for inclusion, too often there are reports of this not being applied.

The challenge is that whilst inclusion is an ideal, the pragmatic reality of application is why teaching is a challenging career that requires the sharpest and most creative minds, as well as the most empathetic. To be truly inclusive is challenging but is also easily undertaken with thought and sometimes a re-positioning of default language and practice.

Key to inclusion for all is the usage of words and how we present knowledge and task. It is through the framing of classroom activities that we can easily include or exclude. The task ‘draw a picture of your family' seems like a simple activity for a five-year-old. However, for those children without a family it is excluding them. ‘Draw a picture of whom you live with' is the inclusive phrasing. Ensuring that those students with English as a Second Language (ESL) are supported through additional staff can also be inclusive.

The key to any inclusive settings is for the teacher to place themselves in the position of all students before them and ask, ‘what barriers are there in this lesson to allow the students to access it?' Barriers may be emotional, intellectual or physical.

Creative Arts

In particular, a focus of my research at the University of Newcastle has been the role that the Creative Arts can play in inclusive learning in the curriculum. This involves both teaching in the Arts (Arts skills and practices) and through the Arts (using the Arts to teach other knowledges).

The Arts communicate in non-linguistic, expressive ways, culturally, and through symbol and metaphor (Wiggans, 2009; Wright, 2003) Wright highlights the non-linguistic nature of artistic expression and communication stating that the Arts ‘involve expressive and symbolic modes of thinking, understanding and knowing, and communicate ideas in a unique manner … they enable us to “say” things to each other that cannot be expressed in any other way' (Wright, 2003, p.17). Most importantly they communicate something ‘other', something valuable that is ‘beyond' words; this is what the Arts ‘do' for us, and therein lies their real value to adults and children alike.

Because the Arts are fundamentally vehicles for personal and shared expression and communication, learner agency is critical if genuine artistic learning and identity support is to be achieved. Robyn Ewing (Ewing, 2010) highlights the power of Drama as a means of increasing student agency by ‘authentically sharing power and risk-taking' (Ewing, 2010, p.41) between teachers and children. This is not to say that other curriculum areas do not also offer student agency. Multiple learning areas that involve physical activity (such as Design and Technology or PE) can lay claim to this. However, all of the Arts have the potential to increase learner agency, because they enable children to engage through authentic processes as artists, as makers and as responders.

Drama and masks

My recent research (Roy & Dock, 2015) into the role of masks within the classroom unexpectedly exemplified the potential for true inclusion in the classroom through the engagement of the Arts as a learning. School pupils were using masks to adopt characters and role-play situations such as conflict. Using a mask had an interesting add-on effect. Firstly, it removed the children's ‘identity'. Gender and ethnicity disappeared. Communication was more reliant on physicality. It encouraged students to be very aware of movements and motor skills (supporting those with motor skill challenges) and most importantly students stated a sense of freedom to try ideas without judgement

What was increasingly interesting, to both observe and be informed within the research, was the impact that masks appeared to have on students with identified neurological disabilities and/or learning challenges. Their inclusion, and partaking of activities within the classroom, was not only equal, but Students with Learning Difficulties definable characteristics were not immediately apparent to the outside observer. This included children with autism and dyspraxia. Their role within the teaching and learning was as such that they presented as neurotypical students. This was an unintentional outcome that was not specifically sought but revealed by the teachers of the mask classes observed. This matched with the literature on mask usage with children, that has had limited study, but suggests this may be the case.

The Creative Arts, whilst teaching physical skills in a non-competitive manner, and through collaboration, are also, in simplest terms, a method of creative communication. The Arts allow us to communicate ideas and understandings in alternative ways to the limitations of traditional literacy. They allow students with challenges; the ability to make mistakes, develop learning and communicate it often without barriers (Roy, 2016).

An ‘AI' responsive 21st Century curriculum

The 2010 European study, Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competencies in Education ‘DICE' (Cziboly, 2010) demonstrated this. Drama education increases the quality of education for all students.

DICE was a two-year research study that involved 12 countries, 111 different Drama programmes and 4445 students, and the measurable impact Drama had upon their educational attainment. Examining five of the eight Lisbon Key competencies, it found that students in schools engaged with Drama in the curriculum are more likely to be successful citizens than those that are not. It found that students who study Drama have an increased employment rate; stay in school longer; have a higher quality level of education and training; make clearer links between culture and education; are more active citizens; more sympathetic to cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue; and are more innovative, creative and competitive citizens.

If, as media reports suggest , the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution will require a curriculum that teaches social skills, empathy, creativity, collaboration, presentation and communication as well as inclusion, we do not need to worry. That curriculum is already there. Perhaps we need to make sure that the Creative Arts, and in particular Drama, are core subjects rather than limited elective choices.

Inclusion is possible. We just need to be Creative.

References and related reading

Cziboly, A. (2010). The DICE Has Been Cast: A. Cziboly (Ed.) Research Findings and Recommendations on Educational Theatre and Drama Retrieved from http://www.dramanetwork.eu/

Ewing, R. (2010). The Arts and Australian Education: Realising Potential . Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.

Martin, A. J., Mansour, M., Anderson, M., Gibson, R., Liem, G. A. D., & Sudmalis, D. (2013). The Role of Arts Participation in Student's Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study, Home, and Community Factors. Journal of Educational Psychology , 105(3), 709-727.

Roy, D. (2016). Masks in Pedagogical Practice. Journal for Learning Through the Arts , 12(1), 1-16.

Roy, D., Baker, W., & Hamilton, A. (2015). Teaching the Arts: Early Childhood & Primary Education: Early Childhood and Primary Education . Cambridge University Press.

Roy, D., & Dock, C. (2014). Dyspraxia, drama and masks: Applying the school curriculum as therapy. Journal of Applied Arts & Health , 5(3), 369-375.

Wiggans, J. (2009). Teaching For Musical Understanding . Oakland, CA: Centre for Applied Research in Musical Understanding.

Wright, P. (2006). Drama Education and Development of Self: Myth or Reality? Social Psychology of Education , 9(1), 43-65.

Wright, S. (Ed.) (2003). Children, Meaning-Making and the Arts . Sydney: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Put yourself in the position of your students. Are there any barriers – emotional, intellectual or physical – preventing all of your students from accessing lessons? How can you overcome these barriers to make the setting truly inclusive?

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Six Engaging Starter Activities for Classroom Drama

The start of the lesson is prime learning time, when students can be the most receptive and concentration levels can be high, so harnessing this is crucial. However, with many drama lessons taking place in classrooms at the moment, what are the best starters to use, which are both engaging and purposeful, without being labour intensive?

An ex-colleague used to refer to the starter activity as the 'buy in' and, as a young teacher, I definitely focused too much on making the start of the lesson 'exciting' as opposed to thinking about the learning taking place. I now know that there are many ways to start a lesson which are engaging and not labour intensive, and don't rely on copious amounts of technology. I have six of these to share with you, with some specific ideas about how they can be used in the drama classroom and have compiled these Six Engaging Starter Activities for the Classroom Drama in a handy prompt sheet, which you can download and print at the bottom of the post.

Planning your Starter Activities

Those first few minutes are crucial in terms of engaging a class and getting them off to the best start. A starter can be engaging if it includes the following:

Competitiveness

A sense of fun

A desire to find out or complete an answer

Collaboration or

An element of surprise

When planning lessons and schemes of work, ask yourself- " what is the purpose of the starter? " This should be connected to your lesson objectives. For example, is the purpose of the starter to:

Prepare for new learning or a new topic?

To revisit and practice important skills?

Consolidate knowledge from & make connections with previous lessons?

Assist memorisation?

Or be surprising and fun?

Effective and engaging starter activities can be planned as a sequence of discreet units to build knowledge, understanding and motivation over a series of lessons. In drama, a good example of this is if you want to teach key terminology over several lessons or develop the essential knowledge and understanding around a specific text at GCSE or A-Level before exploring it practically. Ultimately, starter activities need to challenge students and therefore need to demand both pace and thinking in order to engage, so aim to make starters both active and thought-provoking.

Planning Starter Activities

" If we begin the lesson with a well-chosen recap, we are activating that prior knowledge, and making it much more likely they will be able to understand any new concepts being introduced " Jo Facer, Simplicity Rules , p.62

Former English Teacher, now Headteacher, Jo Facer dedicates a chapter of her book Simplicity Rules to 'Starting a Lesson' and offers several effective but time-efficient strategies which can be adapted for the drama classroom. She suggests that, when planning a unit or scheme of work you need to have a "really clear and organised idea of what the specific things are in your subject that you want your pupils to remember for the long term" (p.62). She also says suggests to ask questions with short or one-word answers so they can be done rapidly. You only want to be spending the first 5-10 minutes of the lesson maximum on these recap, starter activities.

I suggest you create twenty questions when you are planning a scheme of work, which link to the essential knowledge for the particular unit and then spread them out as starter activities throughout the unit, ensuring that you revisit each question several times. Remember, that "it is reckoned that children need to be expose to a new idea at least four times for it to stick." (Facer, p.6) These are low stakes questions and you should have the expectation that many of the students in your class should get 100% in each of these starter activities. This starts each lesson positively for the whole class and increases confidence for students of all abilities.

Six Engaging Starters for the Drama Classroom

I've put together a prompt sheet for you to download and print off with the six key ideas from this BLOG! It is available for free in my free Resource Library. These are time-saving, versatile and engaging lesson starter ideas for the drama classroom, which can be incorporated into schemes of work or can be planned in under ten minutes immediately before a lesson. All the activities can be simply projected as a task on a PowerPoint slide on the board, for students to complete immediately as they enter the room. You may also want to include a countdown timer showing how long they have for completing the task. When the timer has finished, ask for a 'hands up' to see who has X number of answers, in order to get a feel for how high you have pitched the level of difficulty for your task or questions. You can then decide to give students time in pairs to discuss their responses, prior to whole class feedback. Facer suggests that students mark it themselves, in a different coloured pen and "go over it rapidly" so you can get into the main activity of the lesson (p.65). To get a sense of which questions students have struggled with, ask for hands for questions they got wrong. This is important for future planning of lesson content and recap questions. So here are the six starters:

Starter 1: Three to five questions from the previous lesson's learning, with one word or short answers

This is a really simple starter, which takes very little time to prepare and answers can be checked verbally within the first five minutes of the lesson. For A-Level I find these questions are great for checking student knowledge relating to the context of a particular text or practitioner. Here are some examples:

Example from a Key Stage 3 Stage Spaces SOW

1. Name the stage space with the audience on two sides.

2. What is the name of the End on Stage space popular in the late eighteenth century?

3. What is alternative name for a thrust stage space?

4. Sketch an aerial view of a theatre-in-the-round, with the audience clearly labelled.

Example from an A-Level SOW on Our Country's Good (AQA)

1. Who wrote The Recruiting Officer and in what year?

2. Briefly describe the Workshop process which informed Wertenbaker’s writing of the play.

3. List three ways in which Ralph Clarke changes as a result of directing the play.

Starter 2: Three to five answers from the last lesson- Students write down the questions

This is an alternative approach to the first activity and can lead to wider discussion and debate. This is because there are multiple questions which could be written with a one-word answer or phrase. For example, if the answer was 'the transformational power of theatre', in relation to Our Country's Good , this could lead to a discussion around how this theme is conveyed in the play, or perhaps why Wertenbaker chose to explore this theme in the wider political context of the 1980s. For this reason, I find this activity works particularly well with A-Level and GCSE students, studying a set text.

Starter 3: Open-ended questions to plan or think- e.g. "What if..../ How might you..."

You are looking for more reflective, personal responses here, as well as checking knowledge and understanding. If GCSE and A-Level students are creating devised work or preparing to perform, you could ask questions such as:

What if you were to add a moment of ___________ to your performance piece?

What if you were a set designer, creating a set for a theatre-in-the-round?

How might you apply Brechtian techniques to this particular scene?

How might you use Stanislavski's objectives to explore this scene practically?

These questions might lead onto students writing a diary rehearsal log, in preparation for developing portfolio work or might lead into group discussions for practical devising. It also works well when students are preparing production concepts for set texts at GCSE & A-Level.

Starter 4: One minute to mind map keywords related to a topic, text or area of study

This works well as a starter for online learning, as students can then visually share their ideas once completed.

This is an example of a Key Stage 3 One Minute Mind Map recapping 'Performance Skills' terminology.

Starter 5: Find three quotes from a play text

This is an effective revision tool, especially when students are starting to think about the textual evidence they are going to use for an essay question at GCSE or A-Level. I would make this quite focused and ask them to select quotes from a specific section or scene. This is also a great way to recap the scene you have studied or explored in the previous lesson before moving on.

For example:

quotes which relate to the theme of......

quotes which relate to specific area of context.

quotes which reveal a character's personality trait or mood.

Starter 6: Provide students with a new or unfamiliar concept or keyword. Students decide which definition is correct.

This creates curiosity, intrigue and discussion around a new concept or topic. Simply write the word or phrase on the board and ask students to write down or discuss which definition or definitions they think are correct and why. This may also involve identifying the definition which is incorrect. For example:

An artistic movement which started in literature and then moved into drama.

It was pioneered by the practitioner Bertolt Brecht

It was concerned reproducing real life on stage.

So there we have it- six effective and engaging starters for the drama classroom. I hope this has given you some time-saving ideas for starters. The activities suggested in this article need not be limited to only the start of the lesson of course. They can also be used at the end of lessons too, as plenaries or can also be used to check knowledge in blocks of longer lessons. You can download & print our prompt sheet of all six starter activities (which is really handy to keep on your desk) by filling out the box below and gaining access to the We Teach Drama Resource Library :

Facer, Jo 2019, Simplicity Rules: How Simplifying what we do in the classroom can benefit children . Routledge

#lessonplanning #starteractivities #outstandinglessons #classroomdrama #retrievalpractice #schemesofwork #simplicityrules #teacherworkload #promptsheet #freeteachingresources #plenaries #planningschemesofwork #lessonobjectives #effectivestarters #timesavingstarters

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Sometimes we think theater games belong only in drama classes, but finding ways to apply these activities to your subject area can increase engagement, creativity, and critical thinking. It’s also a great way to get students moving around, interacting with each other and having fun with your subject matter.

Below are some theater games you can use in a variety of classes. Just keep your students’ ages, comfort levels, and physical and linguistic abilities in mind. You know what will work best with each group and what accommodations students might need. And don’t be afraid to alter these activities to really make them your own.

This game is typically best for eighth- to 12th-grade students who have a good command of English, as it requires them to improvise and know a variety of words that start with each letter of the alphabet. The game pairs students in a conversation where they take turns speaking back and forth on an assigned topic — trying to go from A to Z. The first word of each ensuing sentence must start with the next letter of the alphabet. Sentences still have to make sense and fit with the topic you give them.

This game can get students into a creative yet focused conversation on a general topic like ecosystems, or it can review something specific like key players during the Harlem Renaissance. For an added challenge, invite advanced student pairs to try to fit in terms or vocabulary words.

• Student 1 goes first, beginning a sentence with a word starting with A, such as “Are you ready for that test on the Industrial Revolution?”
• Student 2 replies with a sentence beginning with a word starting with the letter B, such as: “Better believe I’m prepared, and I know all about urbanization and labor unions.”
• Student 1 responds with the letter C, with a line like, “Can’t forget about Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, who got really rich during that time.”
• Student 2 would reply with the letter D, and so on.

If one student gets stuck, the partner can help out. If they’re both stuck, they can start over and see how far they get, or sit down and study.

Tips : It’s best to model this game first with a student you’ve prepped in advance. It’s also helpful to walk around during the activity to monitor and encourage each pair.

One-word story

This improvisation game requires students to be focused, attentive listeners who are knowledgeable about the subject matter you’re choosing to review through this activity. In small groups of three to five, students work together to improvise a cohesive story. The catch is they must take turns, saying only one word of the story at a time.

In drama classes, this game quickly turns into a lively tale full of imagination and expressive body language to convey characters’ emotions. In a history, science or English class, you can still encourage that kind of drama to keep it fun vs. mechanical. You can also require students to fit in certain vocabulary words or key concepts.

Students can either practice this in groups around the room, or they can take turns standing in front of the class to tell a story. You can ask them to explain something such as how WWII began, give a summary of Sir Isaac Newton’s life and accomplishments or describe the major conflict in the play “A Raisin in the Sun.”

The topic and how you focus their attention is really up to you. You can also make this into a fun way to review before an exam by asking a question from their study guide and pointing to a specific group to respond, requiring them to take turns, saying only one word at a time.

Tips: Assigning groups cuts down on students getting distracted when working with their friends. It’s also important to make sure students understand they are on a team when they’re in a group, so when they’re practicing around the room they can help each other out. Groups will often have to start over. If you let them know that that’s part of the process (since we all make mistakes), then they will handle it better as individuals and as a team.

Angel/devil dilemma scene

This is a great game for studying moral dilemmas, using historical figures or famous fictional characters who faced difficult decisions pulling them in opposite directions. The activity can be really useful because students have to act things out to show they understand why somebody feels torn.

Groups of three or four students write, practice and act out the scene in front of the class. One person plays the historical figure struggling to make a decision. Another person plays the angel on one shoulder, and another plays the devil on the other shoulder.

If your groups number more than three, make them supporting characters who speak with the main person who is struggling internally — unsure whether to listen to the angel or the devil. If angel and devil figures seem too religious-sounding for your students, call them the conscience and the temptation, the superego, and the id, or the good voice and the bad voice.

Acting out scenes like this can help students solidify important literary scenes or historical moments in their minds. It can also help them develop empathy and fully comprehend the gravity of a situation by creating realistic dialogue, showing emotion, and including relevant details that demonstrate comprehension and critical thinking.

A group acts out the moment Juliet finds out her beloved Romeo killed her cousin Tybalt, and she doesn’t know what to think. Does she react with love and forgiveness — or rage and violence? Students act out both sides, adding depth to this brief but important moment that’s wedged between scenes of violence and romance.

Tips: Make things even more engaging by starting a discussion after groups perform their scenes: Ask students what they learned while performing and watching, and to apply it to their own lives. That’ll help them feel more connected to the characters or historical figures in the spotlight.

Kara Wyman has a BA in literature and a MEd from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She has worked with adolescents for a decade as a middle school and high school English teacher, the founder and director of a drama program, and a curriculum designer for high school and college courses. She works with 13- to 19-year-old students as a project manager of a nonprofit organization.

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Tagged as: Art ,  Engaging Activities ,  High School (Grades: 9-12) ,  Middle School (Grades: 6-8) ,  New Teacher ,  Professional Development

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• David Farmer

Drama Games – see all    ➤

Count to 20, daft definitions, drama games for language teaching (teenage to adult), drama games for story books, family portraits – online/socially distanced, fruit salad, grandma’s footsteps, groovy image factory, guess the pet, guess who i am (inc online version), imaginarium, night watchman, open and close, pecking order, podcasts and webinars with david farmer, poetry in motion, random sound stories, sculptor and statue, shoe shuffle, siren (voice warm-up), soundscapes, sources of light, status pictures, story orchestra, ten second objects, three changes, three word sentences, two truths and a lie, what are drama games, where do you stand (inc online version), drama downloads – quick and easy    ➤, a midsummer night’s dream (5-11 years), cinderella – listen to me – restorative justice (5-11 years), commedia dell’arte drama unit, funnybones drama and dance unit (5-7 years), introducing augusto boal (12 years to adult), the gruffalo drama activities (4-7 years), the king’s sentence – a world without words, the musicians of bremen script, the refugee cat drama unit (5-11 years), the tiger child drama unit (4-7 years), world war two evacuees drama unit (7-11 years), drama strategies – see all    ➤, 3d living pictures, action clip, conscience alley, cross-cutting, developing freeze frames, flashbacks and flash forwards, forum theatre, freeze frames, hot seating, hot spotting, image theatre, mantle of the expert, marking the moment, role on the wall, storytelling, teacher in role, thought tracking, whoosh bringing stories alive through drama, 101 drama games and activities.

'Belongs amongst the top 10 books any director or drama teacher should own.'  - English Touring Opera

101 MORE Drama Games and Activities

'This book cheered me up. Buy it and smile. There will be a lot of laughter in your classroom.' - Drama Magazine.

Learning Through Drama in the Primary Years

' Full of easily accessible advice... clear explanations and inventive suggestions.' - National Drama Magazine.

Playful Plays

'David Farmer has hit gold with Playful Plays... an off-the-shelf, ready-to-go, high-quality rehearsal process ideal for primary-aged students' - Drama Magazine.

Drop of a Hat

‘A flexible, varied book filled with engaging drama activities’ – Drama and Theatre magazine. Lesson plans to bring the curriculum to life through drama and creativity.