Primary Drama Inset Development Days

Would you like to help your staff to develop their primary drama teaching skills? If so, book a training and development day with David Harmer.

Training days and workshops are essentially practical, offering opportunities to walk and talk through a variety of strategies and approaches from foundation to KS1 and KS2. The primary training objectives are:

1. To model and demonstrate key drama strategies and show how they relate to the Revised Primary Framework for Literacy.
2. To show the link between oracy and writing in the Primary School. This has clear implications for boys and literacy.

David models how to develop drama in which characters interact with each other, listen and speak to each other and who, eventually, have to solve collectively the dilemmas and conflicts they face within their community.

David makes use of a variety of sources from which the drama can emerge, for example Beowulf, Robin Hood and other myths and folk tales.

The workshop models how these powerful narratives can be exploited to develop drama and how that drama can be structured so that real learning takes place.

Some of the drama strategies used include:

• Thought tracking
• Working in Role
• Hot seating
• Mapping the story
• Mantle of the Expert
• Decision Alley
• Freeze Frames
• Forum Theatre
• Emotion Posters
• Performance

Throughout the workshop, the drama is clearly linked to a variety of writing opportunities in a variety of genres. Simple planning tools and frameworks are offered.

If it is thought appropriate, time can be spent on considering how these drama strategies can be used to enhance children’s understanding of Shakespeare and how writing can be developed from the texts.

 

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Health Warning: A great deal of humour may be involved.