Alterego

Strategy Explanation: The strategy Alter-Ego is very similar to the concept of the devil and the angel on a person's shoulder. Alterego requires at least a group of three students. One person is sitting in a seat contemplating an issue or a dilemma. The other 2 students will be standing on each side of the person in the seat. They will then take on opposing views (e.g. the 'angel' or positive view, and the 'devil' or negative view). Each side will take turns making statements that encourage the decision maker to side with them. The person making the decision can verbalize their thinking or show their thoughts through facial expression. This activity could also be done with groups that represent each side of the argument or dilemma. This strategy visually demonstrates the internal battle people face when making decisions.

Cross-curricular connection: This strategy could be used in any subject area that requires making a decision. An example could be in Grade 4 Science, Habitats and Communities. When talking about eco-friendly habits, the class could debate the positives and negatives of recycling. Someone in the class could be deciding to recycle or not. One side would express reasons why you shouldn't recycle, such as convenience and time saving, whereas the other would say reasons why you should recycle such as eco-friendliness. At the end the person in the middle will make a decision about what they side with.

Differentiated Instruction: students with communication disabilities or anxiety in social situations could write their ideas on whiteboards and show it to the decision maker rather than verbally saying their idea/statement.

Side Coaching

Strategy Explanation: Side coaching is when one student directs another in respect to actions, emotions, or concepts when they are engaging in a dramatic role. The purpose of side coaching is to encourage students to develop and follow their instincts and also provide constructive and positive feedback to others. A side coach could be used in any dramatic experience whether it be miming, mirrors, or theatre production. This strategy may encourage teamwork in the classroom, constructive commenting, and positive encouragement.

Cross-curricular Connection: Side coaching could be used in visual art to assist or guide students in their drawings. The side coach could provide the drawer with feedback and comments that help the drawer reach their goal or intended art piece.

Mirroring

Strategy Explanation: Mirroring requires students to copy the actions of a lead in a fluid and seamless manner, like they were the person's reflection. Mirroring is a fun and light activity to do with the students, even as a warm up drama activity. Within the strategy students will be in pairs, identified as the lead and and the mirror. The lead students will be acting out while the mirror students will be facing their partner and mirroring the movements of the lead. Mirroring can also be done in large groups where one person is the lead and a group follows.

Accommodating for younger students: The difficulty of this activity could be changed in many ways such as limiting them to stationary actions, from the waist up actions, or allowing locomotor movements. Mirroring encourages focus for the mirrors and creative thinking for the lead.

Activity: To turn mirroring into a game, you could have students in pairs during the activity and have observers who have to guess who is what role.

Guided Visualization/Imagery

Strategy Explanation: Guided Visualization/Imagery is storytelling that uses descriptive language to visualize setting, characters, time period, emotions and events of a story. Guided Visualization/Imagery encourages listening skills, creative thinking skills and reflection.

Cross-curricular Connections: This strategy could be used in Language Arts when teaching creative writing or newspaper writing to emphasize the need for and use of detail in writing. In Visual Art, the teacher could read a passage from a book to students and have them draw what they think the setting looked like.

Differentiated Instruction: This strategy is easily accessible by teachers as it does not require many props or resources. Students with auditory impairments may need to be signed to instead of read to, or read the passage without any visuals accompanying it.

What if...

Strategy Explanation: The drama strategy of “what if” can be applied to any improvised skit. A group of any number of people can work together on this strategy. The audience or facilitator suggests a “what if” question and the group has to act out the scenario and finishing with a solution. An example of this strategy could be "What if I was stuck in rush hour traffic on the way to school?"

Cross-curricular connections: This strategy encourages creative and critical thinking and could be integrated into any other subject area. In science, you could ask students to act out things pertaining to the curriculum such as what if we never recycled? Or for the social studies curriculum, you could ask students to act out what if the war of 1812 did not occur? Using this strategy also allows for students to express their knowledge in a new way and demonstrates that many ways of thinking are welcome in the classroom.

Differentiated Instruction: What if can be modified in many ways to include all students. Encouraging students to play a version of themselves in their what if scenario would require no accommodations as they would be acting as who they are.

Gibberish

Strategy Explanation: Gibberish is nonsense speech with no recognizable words in any language just a series of sounds to communicate a message. Students need to consider speed of voice, body language, facial expressions as these elements will help with communicating the message.

Age Recommendation: Gibberish is a strategy that may be more effective with older students. Since students need to rely on their body and face to express emotion and a message, students need to be able to be confident in their ability to do so before engaging in gibberish. This technique may also result in laughing and loss of focus during presentation as it seems and sounds funny. This is another reason why using this strategy with older students may be a good choice.

This strategy is inclusive for students with language barriers as they are not required to orally communicate to participate.

Elements of Movement/Dance

The Elements of Movement/Dance

The above table outlines the elements of movement/dance specified by the Ontario Ministry of Education in the arts curriculum document. Within various drama strategies, movement is involved. This table can be taught to students to help them refine their movement and give them purpose as well.