Teachers and theorists agree that students learn more effectively and deeply when they are actively engaged in their learning. Enactment or drama strategies do exactly that! These simple strategies immediately move students from a spectator role in reading to an engaged, active participant within the learning experience. The good news is that you do not have to be a drama major or have been cast in the lead role of your high school play to be successful in using these strategies with your students.
The purpose of any enactment strategy is to help students enter and experience the ”story world." As students take on the "roles" of characters within the events in the story, they experience first hand the feelings, emotions, and reactions of those involved in the story. Students dramatize the scenes depicted allowing them to see the story play out from multiple perspectives. As students share their reactions, thoughts, and feelings about the text, students are able to take the discussions and reflections to a much deeper level.
There are several kinds of enactment strategies that can accomplish this goal. One that I find powerful and easy implement is called : The Revolving Role Drama
Here’s how it works:
- Students pair up and each partner assume the role of story character.
- During a particular scene, students are asked to "enact" or briefly dramatize that scene from their characters perspective. As students dramatize that scene in pairs, they explore what each character might say, do, feel, believe…
- Students can exchanging partners or roles several time during the reading. This allows each student to view the story from a different perspective and discuss how they believe the characters would now respond to a certain problem or dilemma.
- Throughout the story students students are expected and taught how to talk, write, reflect, or represent their understandings of the text, author, characters, and themes.
Coming Up: We’ll explore this strategy in action!
