Drama at Key Stages 1 and 2

Drama and Writing

Engaging in drama and writing

Student teachers need to take part in some drama and writing, to help them understand this mutually reinforcing relationship. The following example is based on a unit of work on Pat Hutchins' book Rats!, the final aim of which was to produce one quality piece of persuasive writing.

Read the opening to the point at which Sam is trying to persuade his mother that he can have a rat (he has bought one already!).

• Having set the drama frame with an effective pre-text, invite the student teachers to role play the conversation in pairs.
• After a few minutes interrupt and ask them to reflect upon whether their invented conversation was more of an argument or a persuasive conversation. Highlight that if they wrote at this point the drama will have become involved and motivated, but this would not necessarily influence the quality of their writing.
• Brainstorm the possible forms of writing which could emerge from this scenario, e.g. problem pages, diaries, the row, persuasive writing.
• Explain that you intend to work towards a piece of persuasive writing and invite pairs to join up. With two of them representing Sam and two his mother, invite them to take up the role play again with a more persuasive orientation. List reasons why children might desire pets.
• Divide the seminar group in half and invite one half to represent the mother, and the other to role play Sam. Ponder aloud what might be her Achilles heel. Will she eventually be prepared to tolerate a rat in her home? What arguments will Sam use? How well developed is his bargaining power? Then join one side and let the role play recommence.
• Scribe the persuasive argument recording the class's ideas, starting perhaps with a sentence from the text. As a group, half can read Sam's words and half his mothers. The student teachers will realise that to find appropriate speech verbs and adverbs is not difficult in this context.
• Re-read the class composition and evaluate it together. Reflect on both the writing and the compositional support that the drama offered. The student teachers could take it further through writing collaboratively with a partner.
• In the unit the children worked upon this and other pieces of persuasive writing as the novel was read and explored, selecting one to submit as their final assessed piece.