After watching the Annenberg video about engaging literature, we were to dramatize a story. Unfortunately, my preschool teaching position has ended for this year so I have just been substitute teaching. I did get a chance, while subbing, to see one experience where a dramatization would be very useful I actually was going to incorporate this after students were finished with what the teacher wanted them to do. However, I was only in the classroom for half a day so I had little time to play with. We read Lon Po Po together and the teacher had about six or seven critical thinking questions for the students. One question asked the students to retell the story in their own words. If I had the chance to do this over again, I would have gone ahead and had the students work on a dramatization before completing the questions. Most students seemed to have problems understanding how to retell the story. I explained to them that they do not need to include every detail from the story and they should not copy word for word as that is plaigerism. I told them that they need to think of one of the absent students walking in right after we completed the story. They had to answer all the questions as well. How would you tell them what happened (including the end) so that they could be successful in answering the questions themselves? I also let some of the students retell the story directly to me so that they could get something flowing. They did great, but I was not able to get to everyone in the class. I believe that a dramatization activity before completing the questions would have saved time and energy. By dividing the class into smaller groups, the students could discuss the story themselves to help make connections among the group (along with my own guidance). In this way, the students would have a better understanding of what happened in the story whether or not they understood all the vocabulary in the story. The students would also be able to watch the various groups perform for the class which would make deeper connections and might bring out something that might not have come up within their group. If I had this activity to do over again, I believe I would take the risk and include a dramatization just to help the students to be successful.
SS/ELA Module 5 – Dramatize a Story
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