Lesson Plan Format/ How To Teach

There are endless opportunities for bringing any subject to life through drama. Historical scenes may be enacted. Or let us say the class is studying poetry. In pairs, one student might be a news reporter and the other a poet. The reporter might be interviewing Maya Angelou, or Carl Sandburg, or Emily Dickinson. Both students would need to know about the period and place in which the poets lived, both would need to know about the poet's life, and both would need to be familiar with a number of poems. The benefit of such study is that it requires much deeper reading and understanding than from just writing a report or answering questions on a test. Even more important, when a student has actually "been" a poet or a character from Chaucer, there is greater interest, motivation, and understanding involved.It is also possible for creative dramatics to be an important element in other kinds of active learning. Let us say that the topic is a historical event, such as the American Civil War. What motivation might we use to interest students in this topic? Perhaps a discussion of a current war within factions of a country such as Afghanistan? A snippet of a movie about the Civil War? A song? A poem? The lesson itself might be a presentation using slides or Power Point, along with assigned reading with questions to guide the reading. The review might be in the form of an enactment of some event, or students discussing key issues in pairs or groups of people who might have lived at that time and are discussing the war in someone's home. Or it might be in the form of a group creating concept maps or flow charts showing connections between events, or letters written home by an imagined soldier or officer. Notice that active review not only consolidates the learning, but also is a way of evaluating if students have really understood. Following the review, students might then have an opportunity to apply the learning by teaching it to someone else or another class, by writing a story or report, or by writing and performing a play or song.Does it take more time to teach in this way? Yes, but the learning stays learned! Exploring topics to be learned in depth pays great dividends in terms of developing interest and motivation, as well as giving students opportunities to learn in ways that accommodate individual strengths and abilities.