John teaches a JSS 2 English class. He arranged with his school principal to ask a local parent (known to be a good storyteller) to come and tell a story to his class.
The students really enjoyed the story and had a lot of questions for the storyteller. After thanking her, John asked his class to tell him the main parts of the story, which he listed on the board. Next, he divided the class into groups and asked them to think how they could act the whole story or any part of it they had particularly liked. He gave them 20 minutes to sort out their ideas and practise. He sent some of the class out into the playground so there was more room in the classroom for everyone to try out their ideas.
Next, he called the class together and then asked each group in turn to show what they had done so far. The students watched each group with great interest and applauded at the end. John was delighted with how well they had listened and was amazed with their performance and the interesting ways the groups acted out the same story. The students asked if they could do this again, as they liked both the storytelling and acting, and seemed to remember much more.
In the next lesson, John asked his class to think about the way drama could be used, not just to tell stories, but also to explore issues and problems that affected the local community or the wider world. He told them about an acting troupe in a nearby city that specialised in improvised drama about global issues such as pollution and climate change.
As the groups he had used for the previous acting task had worked well, John decided to use the same groups again. He explained that he wanted them to research a local or global issue of their choice and then present it as a short (5–10-minute) drama. They would have the rest of this lesson and the next lesson to research and plan, and then all the groups would present their short plays in the third lesson. John said that they could improvise their drama when they performed it if they chose, but suggested that in this case they still plan the structure of the drama and make sure they knew any particular vocabulary associated with the issue.
The groups chose a range of issues, both local and global, for their short plays and John was delighted with what they achieved. He felt that beginning the range of activities with the storyteller had inspired the students to be creative, and the language practice that resulted from the research, group work and performing the plays had been invaluable.