How to Teach Drama to Middle School Students
To teach drama to middle school students successfully, you need to find the balance between the games and playtime that is used with younger students, and the serious scene study and improvisation studies that are undertaken with high school students. If you can find the balance between the fun and the serious approach to drama with middle school students, you have a much greater chance that your students will both absorb and enjoy the class. They need to have fun, but they will also enjoy a certain amount of challenge.
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Instructions
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Pick a final project to work towards. You can pick a script that will work well for the students in your class, or dedicate a portion of the class to creating an ensemble show that is written collectively. The important thing is to have a final result in mind for the term or session, however long it may be. This gives the students something to focus on and work towards.
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Structure your days or lessons so that there is time allocated for a variety of activities. You should always come back regularly, and at least once per class or session, to the work on the final project. However, students at this age certainly do not have the endurance to only work on one thing throughout a term. Instead, intersperse work on the project with lessons on a variety of important drama topics. Let the students know the schedule. This helps structure the work time for them and can help keep them focused. Devote a portion of each lesson to fundamental studies, a portion to specific drama topics and the final portion to working on the class project.
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Use the start of class for fundamental and warm up work. Basic movement and vocal exercises can help make the students become more familiar with the tools that they have at their disposal. Mirror exercises or slow motion work are good physical exercises. Tongue twisters and singing can provide an introduction to proper vocal technique.
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Expose the students to many different concepts and ideas during the lessons that come in between work on the project and the warm-up sessions.Clowning, improvisation, character work, physicality and movement, voice work, mime, dialect study and more can all be worked on, even with middle school children. Improv is often especially fun for them, but don't give into the urge to let class become one long improv game session with no learning objectives in mind, except once in a while as a reward session. Instead, focus improv sessions on specific improv skills such as listening and on not blocking your partner's suggestions.
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Tips & Warnings
Every group of middle school children is different, and the better you are at listening to them, the better your classes will be. Figure out what type of work is engaging to them, and try and focus on it. If they feel like they are in charge of creating something, they will become engaged and passionate about the process. If they feel like they are being told what to do and how to do something, they will quickly become bored.
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Resources
- Photo Credit theater image by Luisafer from Fotolia.com
