Teacher’s commentary

Teacher Sarah Marino discusses the use of conventions in process drama:

I decided to use process drama as a way of supporting my intended outcomes for a social studies investigation. I wanted the students to consider as the “big idea” how the cause and effect of events shaped the lives of a group of people, as seen in the establishment and demise of a mining community. I also wanted the students to think about how people organise themselves in response to challenges and crises. What effect would the advent of the First World War have had on this community?

Curriculum links (levels 3–4)

• Social Studies: Time, Continuity, and Change; Social Organisation
• The Arts: Drama: PK, DI, CI
• English: Listening and Speaking; Poetic and Transactional Writing; Viewing and Presenting

Pretext

The starting point (pretext) for the process drama was the image of the miner’s wedding (image 5). Questioning based on this image provided the students with the context for their drama. They were asked to consider these elements:

• Focus: How do you think events (cause and effect) have shaped the lives of this particular group of people?
• Time: When do you think this photograph was taken? When should our drama be set?
• Space: Where do you think this photograph was taken? Where will our drama take place?
• Potential roles: Who might the people in this image be?
• Some clear actions: What led up to this moment? What might happen next?

The image also provided the hook and the initial tension that motivated students to get involved in the drama. The group agreed that the pictured wedding was happening in a small, nineteenth-century, coal mining village in New Zealand and that this would be the setting for their drama.

Conventions used

I chose conventions for particular dramatic purposes as well as to contribute to investigating the big idea. In choosing which conventions to use first, I selected those that would build my students’ belief in the imaginary world and help establish the elements of time, space, and role. I sequenced the conventions so that each built on ideas suggested by the previous ones, as well as helping to structure the drama. At times, several conventions were used together.

I used the convention of mapping or making diagrams to build the students’ belief in the imaginary world of the coal mining village (the time and space of the drama). Making a map (image 7, poster 4) also suggested what roles might be associated with the village, for example, mine workers, the mine owner, housemaids, and so on. Before mapping, we considered what geographical features, buildings, and town markers might be necessary for the villagers to survive and prosper. After mapping, I asked the students to name the village. They also developed symbols of the village to demonstrate what objects and ideas were important for its people.

Using locations and roles suggested by the map, the students created freeze frames (image 4, poster 3) to show moments of tension in the lives of the miners and villagers.

To draw out the characters’ inner thoughts (speaking thoughts aloud), I asked the students to consider what their role might be thinking, rather than saying, at this moment. These thoughts were revealed while the group presented their freeze frame. Image 8 shows the miners behaving respectfully towards the mine owner while they are being paid. However, when I tapped each of the students in turn to hear their spoken thoughts, they revealed their antagonism towards the owner.

We used role play to extend the freeze frames, developing the roles and the dramatic action more fully and building belief in the characters.

To encourage my students to look at their village roles from a different perspective, and to consolidate their belief in these roles, I changed the frame of the drama from the nineteenth-century mining village to a twentieth-century museum. I invoked the convention mantle of the expert, asking the students to take on new roles as scientists, historians, and sociologists (image 1, poster 1). As teacher in role, I became the museum curator. (For more detail about framing, see pages 21–22 of Telling Our Stories and pages 23– 24 of Playing Our Stories).

The experts provided specialist advice to the curator on recently discovered objects thought to be from the nineteenth-century mining village, for example, clothing and mining equipment. They also wrote reports (writing in role) about their findings. While in role as experts, the students made frequent direct reference to their villager roles, looking at these with a more dispassionate eye. In both frames, the mining community was central to the drama action but viewed differently.

To introduce the major tension in the drama, I shifted the frame back to the mining village but eighteen years on, in 1914. During a community meeting to rework the town map, while in role as the postmaster, I announced that war had been declared and that all men between the ages of 18 and 40 were being called up to serve. The students used several conventions to explore and reflect on the effects of this announcement:

• Conscience alley: In image 10, one miner considers whether he should join up as a soldier or become a conscientious objector. The other students form a corridor and, as the miner walks through, the conscience alley voices his thoughts from different perspectives. This convention gives students an opportunity to reflect on significant moments in the drama and allows them to draw on their own beliefs and attitudes and to understand that others have different beliefs and attitudes.
• Reading and writing in role: In image 2, soldiers in the front-line trenches read letters from home and tell their families about their experiences in their replies.
• 

  Image 6, poster 3

  Hot seating: A hot-seated mother (image 6) answers questions about life in the mining village now that the men have gone to war. The questions focus on how her responsibilities and position in the town have changed. She talks about how the town is no longer the same place. Many people have moved away to find work because the mine had to close when the miners went to war.

Out of role, the students engaged in reflection. They discussed their thoughts about the war and made connections to their own experiences and understanding of wars occurring around the world today. They compared situations and considered similarities and differences. As a final reflective statement, they created another freeze frame showing the memorial to the town erected by the descendants of the mining community. They also wrote inscriptions to capture the spirit of the people who once lived there.