Six Quick Things About Storytelling and Drama

ONE: You can build a curriculum rooted in story and drama

Drama does not mean acting things out or putting on a show. Any teacher of any subject can you use dramatic principles and storytelling to help move children from engagement (politely doing what they’re told) to investment (loving the learning and not wanting it to stop).

TWO: A piano can be a behaviour management tool

Being strict is easy. Building relationships and being the sort of teacher that students want to be behave for takes creativity, consistency and kindness. And, where you can, the odd elements of quirkiness. Being able to knock out a tune on an old piano that was going spare was one such useful quirk.

THREE: Storytelling and drama give the knowledge purpose, lifting it off the page

Rather than simply ‘learning stuff’, you can use the power of stories and drama to bring the facts to life, to give them a point and a purpose, to make them at least appear real. ‘Let’s say they’re building a hotel on your favourite beach. Let’s say you’re a protestor. No, I know, but let’s say. I’ll speak as the builder…’

FOUR: As a pedagogical tool, storytelling is simply about people in places with problems – you don’t need heroes and villains

As soon as you introduce your class to a dilemma, you have something for them to get past. What they use to solve that dilemma are the new knowledge and skills you want them to learn. This gives the exercise of learning a purpose which is closer to real-life problem solving than, ‘It’s for the test’.

FIVE: All drama has a healthy tension which leads to children being invested in what happens next

We are all naturally drawn to a bit of mystery, lured in by a sense of intrigue, moved to the edge of our proverbial seats by the suspense of a ‘what happens next?’ moment. In the same way that great music is all about tension and release, you can do the same with your lessons.

SIX: The ‘should curriculum’ is what you have to teach but the ‘could curriculum’ is what you can teach

Your skill as a teacher – what you do to display that extra bit of ‘botheredness’ – does not lie in delivering what the curriculum dictates you should. It comes in all the things you could do to make that curriculum warm, relevant and worth investing in.

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