Introducing drama to the learning experience is guaranteed to enrich a child's development, and is an especially effective approach for children with special educational needs, including those with autism spectrum disorders. This practical handbook offers teachers an array of simple and easy-to-implement theatrical techniques that will enhance students' learning and encourage artistic expression. The author demonstrates how dramatic play doesn't have to be restricted to drama lessons and can be applied to a diverse range of school subjects and recreational settings. 'The Little Red Hen', for example, covers themes that are relevant to literacy (rhyming and rhythm), maths (counting seeds), science (discussing farming), and art lessons (designing costumes). Step-by-step lesson plans take teachers through every aspect of running fun and engaging story dramas, including warm ups, movement, songs and props. Handy tips throughout suggest ideas for developing the plays further and ways to adapt them according to the needs of the group. This book will be an essential and comprehensive guide for anyone interested in drama as an educational tool in inclusive or special needs settings.

Outlines the therapeutic and education benefits students with disabilities gain from involvement in drama

This is a handbook for teachers and facilitators working with people with learning disabilities who are interested in creative expression through drama. Based on their considerable experience working with the Strathcona Theatre Company, Ian McCurrach and Barbara Darnley have created a step-by-step guide to running a drama group.

You may wish to use drama in a teaching or group situation but lack either the confidence to speak in character or the time to develop a role and/or workshop. This book solves both of these problems by providing the words to speak, an established well-worked lesson plan to use and an easy format to follow for multiple adaptations and future dramas. If you have experience of using drama, the ideas in this book will inspire and assist your creative lessons. Intensely practical and hands-on, this is a book of scripts and drama-workshop breakdowns designed especially for people with special needs, including those with PMLD or Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Each script format and workshop plan has been fully worked with groups of varying ages and abilities and includes valuable notes of experience - documenting lessons where the unexpected happened and how it was handled. As with any group of special people, getting to know their needs is paramount in order to gear the drama towards their specific requirements, however, these script formats are guaranteed to work even on a first meeting! Just follow the script as written or substitute the characters and situations themselves to create limitless drama possibilities.

Aimed at professionals working with children with special needs, this title covers the spectrum of students attending special need schools, including those with attention deficit disorder, autism and Asperger's syndrome. Crimmens places methods of using therapeutic storymaking, within the context of drama therapy.

Through reflecting on their own developing practice, the contributors recount what the students and themselves have learnt, passing it on in a way which will encourage other teachers to try out ideas of their own.The book considers these practical accounts in a broader educational context and discusses the contribution that drama can make to the whole curriculum.Written by experienced authors who have been teaching young people with special needs for many years.Many teachers new to special education sense that the active, physical aspects of drama may be an invaluable contribution to their classes. This book provides with an insight into a wide range of techniques and ideas upon which to draw for practical classroom work

Key Concepts in Theatre Drama Education provides the first comprehensive survey of contemporary research trends in theatre/drama education. It is an intriguing rainbow of thought, celebrating a journey across three fields of scholarship: theatre, education and modes of knowing. Hitherto no other collection of key concepts has been published in theatre /drama education. Fifty seven entries, written by sixty scholars from across the world aim to convey the zeitgeist of the field. The book’s key innovation lies in its method of writing, through collaborative networking, an open peer-review process, and meaning-making involving all contributors. Within the framework of key-concept entries, readers will find valuable judgments and the viewpoints of researchers from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The volume clearly shows that drama/theatre educators and researchers have created a language, with its own grammar and lucid syntax. The concepts outlined convey the current knowledge of scholars, highlighting what they consider significant. Entries cover interdependent topics on teaching and learning, aesthetics and ethics, curricula and history, culture and community, various populations and their needs, theatre for young people, digital technology, narrative and pedagogy, research methods, Shakespeare and Brecht, other various modes of theatre and the education of theatre teachers. It aims to serve as the standard reference book for theatre/drama education researchers, policymakers, practitioners and students around the world. A basic companion for researchers, students, and teachers, this sourcebook outlines the key concepts that make the field prominent in the sphere of Arts Education.

Now in a fully revised and updated second edition, this innovative and wide-ranging book shows how storytelling can open new worlds for individuals with special educational needs and disabilities. Providing a highly accessible combination of theory and practice, the contributors to this book define their own approaches to inclusive storytelling, describing the principles and theory that underpin their practice, whilst never losing sight of the joy at the heart of their work. Topics include therapeutic storytelling; language and communication; interactive and multi-sensory storytelling; and technology. Each chapter includes top tips, and signposts further training for practitioners who want to start using stories in their own work, making this book a crucial and comprehensive guide to storytelling practice with diverse learners. This new edition: · has been fully updated to reflect the way in which this field of storytelling has grown and developed · uses a broad range of chapters, structured in a way that guides the reader through the conceptualisation of a storytelling approach towards its practical application · includes an additional chapter, sharing the lived experiences of storytellers who identify as having a disability. Full of inspiring ideas to be used with people of all ages and with a range of needs, this book will be an invaluable tool for education professionals, as well as therapists, youth workers, counsellors and theatre practitioners working in special education.

Incorporate drama and improvisation into your classroom to build confidence, support social-emotional learning, and engage every student in the curriculum. This book’s detailed and easy-to-implement chapters walk you through using drama to develop critical listening and communication skills, conflict resolution abilities, behavior regulation, and even grow new skills in math, literature, geography, and more! Each chapter builds on the skills learned in previous lessons, allowing you to increase the complexity as students progress. Designed for use with inclusive classrooms as well as dedicated special education programs, this guide features adaptable activities to include students at every ability level.

What can society learn about disability through the way it is portrayed in TV, films and plays? This insightful and accessible text explores and analyses the way disability is portrayed in drama, and how that portrayal may be interpreted by young audiences. Investigating how disabilities have been represented on stage in the past, this book discusses what may be inferred from plays which feature disabled characters through a variety of critical approaches. In addition to the theoretical analysis of disability in dramatic literature, the book includes two previously unpublished playscripts, both of which have been performed by secondary school aged students and which focus on issues of disability and its effects on others. The contextual notes and discussion which accompany these plays and projects provide insights into how drama can contribute to disability education, and how it can give a voice to students who have special educational needs themselves. Other features of this wide-ranging text include: an annotated chronology that traces the history of plays that have featured disabled characters an analysis of how disability is used as a dramatic metaphor consideration of the ethics of dramatising a disabled character critical accounts of units of work in mainstream school seeking to raise disability awareness through engagement with practical drama and dramatic texts a description and evaluation of a drama project in a special school. In tackling questions and issues that have not, hitherto, been well covered, Drama, Disability and Education will be of enormous interest to drama students, teachers, researchers and pedagogues who work with disabled people or are concerned with raising awareness and understanding of disability.