The new school year started. I teach many sections of drama at my school. All sixth graders (nearly 300 of them) cycle through me for a 9 week wheel class. Then there is a 7/8th grade full year drama elective for about 35 students, a 7/8th grade class specifically for English Language Learners (ELL), and an after school theatre ensemble of nearly 50 students, who train as an ensemble and then perform theatre for the rest of the school.
For the time being I want to focus on writing about the work I do with English Language Learners, specifically on using drama to facilitate their learning/acquisition of English through drama. This will be the 4th year that I have taught a class that does just that. It has about 22 7th and 8th grade students representing many different languages. Many are newcomers with little if any experience in English. Some are long term EL's. I will outline lessons I use and thoughts about the process of using Drama to teach English.
I just met my students a few days ago and I don't fully know each of the their stories or home languages. I know that so far we have Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian and Tagalog speakers and, if past years are any indication, more will come as the year progresses. It is a mixture of students who are very educated in their primary language, as well as students whose schooling was fairly spotty in their home countries.
Many of my friends who teach theatre ask me what I do to teach English using drama. My short answer is I do similar drama activities to what I do with mainstream drama classes. The difference is I begin by looking at things through the lens of language acquisition. I think about specific language goals and how that activity will help support that. And we work from there.
My experience has taught me that drama is a natural form for teaching language. Over the course of this year my plan is to share the specifics of our work in the class, as well as readings, resources and also add insights about language teaching I gain from my experience as a home based English teacher for a Karen (Burma/Myanmar) refugee family in Oakland, California.
For the time being I want to focus on writing about the work I do with English Language Learners, specifically on using drama to facilitate their learning/acquisition of English through drama. This will be the 4th year that I have taught a class that does just that. It has about 22 7th and 8th grade students representing many different languages. Many are newcomers with little if any experience in English. Some are long term EL's. I will outline lessons I use and thoughts about the process of using Drama to teach English.
I just met my students a few days ago and I don't fully know each of the their stories or home languages. I know that so far we have Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian and Tagalog speakers and, if past years are any indication, more will come as the year progresses. It is a mixture of students who are very educated in their primary language, as well as students whose schooling was fairly spotty in their home countries.
Many of my friends who teach theatre ask me what I do to teach English using drama. My short answer is I do similar drama activities to what I do with mainstream drama classes. The difference is I begin by looking at things through the lens of language acquisition. I think about specific language goals and how that activity will help support that. And we work from there.
My experience has taught me that drama is a natural form for teaching language. Over the course of this year my plan is to share the specifics of our work in the class, as well as readings, resources and also add insights about language teaching I gain from my experience as a home based English teacher for a Karen (Burma/Myanmar) refugee family in Oakland, California.
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