TEACHING WITH DRAMATIZED EXPERIENCES

Listening to storytelling or reading is an individual activity, even if the story is presented to a group of children; dramatization of a story is a collective activity. Dramatization of a story means that we are “inside” of events and not “outside”, as often in story reading activity. “The pupils can be liberate to explore, what they understand of the original author’s ideas, they can embellish, expand, create ones…They become a powerful community with the ability to solve problems and resolve dilemmas” (Toye & Prendiville, 2000, p18). Individual experience is juxtaposed with a social context in ‘acting out’ the story, which is very important for young children.

Dramatizations together with adults offer an opportunity not only to observe but to practice ‘acting’ skills as well. We can conclude that the story gives shared content to children’s play activity and creates strong motivation.

Dramatic entrance is something that catches and holds our attention and has an emotional impact.

Formal Dramatized Experience

    A. Plays - Depict life, character, or culture or a      combination of all three.

    B. Pageants - usually community dramas that are based on local history, presented by local actors.

  C. Puppets – unlike regular stage play, it can present ideas with extreme simplicity, without elaborate scenery or costume yet effective.

Less Formal Dramatized Experiences

A. Pantomime – is the art of conveying a story through bodily movements only.

B. Tableau – (French word means PICTURE) is a picture-like scene composed of people against a background.

C. Puppets – unlike the regular stage play, can present ideas with extremely simplicity, without elaborate scenery or costume, yet effective.

Quite simply, a puppet is an inanimate object, constructed of wood, cloth, plastic, cardboard, papier-mâché, or any other type of material, brought to life and personified by the puppeteer. The puppet does not need to look like a human being; rather it must act like one. This is the puppeteer’s job and it will be discussed later.

Types of Puppet

1. The Marionette

Marionettes are generally fashioned from wood and resemble a human body. Body joints (ankles, knees,etc.) are connected by movable hinges. String is attached to various parts of the body, but most commonly to the arms, legs, and head, and it allows the puppeteer to create very lifelike movements. Although marionettes are renowned as an artistic and sophisticated method of puppetry, they are difficult to manipulate, especially for the beginner.

For the inexperienced marionette operator, the performance can be frustrating, as the puppet may not move in the intended fashion, and the operation strings may tangle or break.

2. Shadow Puppets

Similar to the marionette, but less sophisticated, is the shadow puppet. Shadow puppets are generally flat characters created from heavy paper or cardboard. Again, the characters are hinged, thus allowing the puppets to move freely, and rods are used to operate the gross movements. The figures are placed against a thin fabric panel, and a bright light is shone behind the screen. The result is that the audience sees a clear silhouette or shadow of a puppet. Although these puppets are quite simple to produce, they are not always simple to present.

3. Stick Puppets

Like most puppets, stick puppets vary in their complexity. A stick puppet can be as simple as a Styrofoam ball head attached to a stick, or a two-dimensional picture attached to a stick, or as complicated as a two-stick process whereby one stick supports the puppet’s head and body and the other stick becomes an arm and hand. Puppets can also be created using wooden spoons. Spoon puppets are easy to create and manipulate, but the puppeteer is restricted to very simple movements when using them.

4. Hand Puppets

Hand puppets are by far the most common type of puppet. They are relatively simple to create and readily available to purchase for those who are not inclined to make their own. With a hand puppet, the puppeteer’s hand is placed directly inside the puppet. Different fingers control the head and arms of the puppet. In addition to moving their head and arms, these puppets can pick up or manipulate props. The puppet becomes an extension of the puppeteer’s own hand, thus making movements with the puppet relatively natural. I recommend this type of puppet, particularly for the beginning puppeteer.

5. Mouth Puppets

Mouth puppets are my favorite type of puppet. They appear more lifelike than their counterparts (although this is not necessarily important to the child).

Mouth puppets are distinguished from other puppets in that they have movable mouths, thus allowing the puppets to talk more realistically. The puppeteer inserts his thumb into the lower jaw of the puppet and the other fingers operate the upper jaw. If the mouth puppet also has a body and arms, the puppeteer must decide what to do with the arms. A beginner might choose to simply leave the arms hanging to the side of the puppet. A second option is to tie some fishing line or invisible thread to both the wrist and the neck of the puppet.

Consequently, any large movement by the puppet would result in smaller movements of the arms.

6. Rod Puppets

Flat cut out figures tacked to a stick, with one or more movable parts, and operated from below the stage level wire rods or slender stick.

7. Glove-and-finger puppets

Make used of old gloves to which small costumed figure are attached.

Other Puppets

8. Stocking puppets

• Silhouettes make good shadow puppets
• Cardboard face on a stick is excellent for lower-grade children
• Cardboard face fastened to a band on pupils head

Making Puppet Theatres

Steps:

• Nail stick legs to each corner of a wooden crate that has two sides removed.
• Drape cloth from the bottom of the box and tack it around sides and front. Operators crouch behind the theatre.
• You may also use pieces of plywood, heavy cardboard or Masonite to produce a self-standing puppet theatre.

Suggestions of the puppeteers

• Do not use puppets for plays that can be done just as well or better by dramatic mean.
• Puppet plays must be based on action rather than on words.
• Keep the play short.
• Do not omit possibilities of music and dancing as part of the puppet show.
• Adapt the puppet show to the age, background, and tastes of the students.

D. Role Playing:

How role playing is done: It can be done by describing a situation which would create different viewpoints on an issue and then asking the students to play the roles of the individuals involved. Any kind of conflict situation, real or potential, is useful for role playing or any situation in which real feelings are concealed. Consider situation in school, at home, on the playground, at work, in the government.

The role playing has to be followed by a discussion.

• Among the questions that may be asked are:
• How did you, as actors, feel? Would you act/think that way in real life?
• As observers, would you agree with what the actors said or did?
• Any lessons learned?

Teaching with Contrived Experiences

Contrived experiences are those which are designed and arranged closely resembling direct experiences. It is not always possible to let a student have a direct experience of all things; some contrivances such as laboratory experiments, working models, etc. are very useful. Contrary to belief, contrived experiences are usually better than direct experiences. This is because models are made less complex, see-through as also easier and safer to operate.

We make use of representative models or mock ups of reality for practical reasons and so that we can make the real-life accessible to the students’ perception and understanding. For instance, a mock up of Apollo, the capsule for exploration of the moon, enabled the North American Aviation Co. to study the problem of lunar flight.

Recall how you were taught how to read time. Your teacher might have used a mocked clock. Those whose hands you could turn to set the time you were instructed to set.

Examples:

• Drama and role-playing
• Demonstrations
• Field Trips
• Exhibits and Models
• Motion Pictured and Video
• Visual Symbols
• Verbal Symbols

Why do we use them?

• Having the original is impossible
• It is the most effective and appropriate way to portray the idea
• It can justify the cost purchased
• It can stimulate to further learning

Using & Evaluating Instructional Materials

It is one thing to select a good instructional material; it is another thing to use it well to ensure effective use of instructional material, Hyden Smith & Thomas Nagel, advice us to abide by the acronym PPPF.

Prepare yourself. We should know our lesson objective and what you expect from the Dane after the session and why you have selected such particular instructional materials you have a plan on how you will proceed, what questions to ask, how you will evaluate learning & how you will tie loose end before the bells rings.

Prepare your students set class expectation and learning goals. We should motivate the students so that these interests in listening will be aroused. Give them a guide questions to be able to answer during the discussion.

Present the materials under the best possible conditions. Before discussing we should prepare first the materials so that your presentation will be successful.

Follow up. We should remember that we use instructional materials to achieve and objective not to kill time but we use the instructional material for the attainment of a lesson objective. To know if the objective was attained or not use should

DIRECT PURPOSEFUL EXPERIENCES AND BEYOND

Definition:

• It is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating, and managing solution to those problems, involved in all aspects of human learning.
•  Is a very broad item.
• It is the application of scientific findings in our method, process or procedure of working in the field trip of education in order to affect learning.
• It embraces curriculum and instructional design, learning environment, theories of teaching-learning.
•  It is also a filed study and a profession.
• It is the use of all human inventions for teachers to realize their mission to teach in order that students learn.
• These experiences are our concrete and first hand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning.
• These are the rich experiences that our senses bring from which we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives (Dale, 1969)

Example of Direct activities

• Preparing meals
• Making a piece of furniture
• Performing a laboratory experiment
• Delivering a speech
• Taking a trip

In contrast, indirect experiences are experience of other… people that we observe, read or hear about. They are not our experiences but still experiences in the sense that we see, read and hear about them. They are not firsthand but rather vicarious.          

Why are these direct experiences described to be purposeful?

• They are experiences that are internalized in the sense that these experiences involve the asking of questions that have significance in the life of the person undergoing the direct experience.
• These experiences are undergone in relation to a purpose, i.e. learning
• It is done in relation to a certain learning objective.

Summary:

Direct experiences are first hand experiences that serve as the foundation of learning. The opposite of direct experiences are indirect or vicarious experiences

Direct experiences lead us to concept formation and abstraction. We should not end our lessons knowing only the concrete. We go beyond the concrete by reaching the level of abstract concepts. Persons learn through the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. In the five senses sight has a greater percentage that are the people easily learned through seeing which has 75% followed by hearing(13%) then touch(6%), taste(3%) and smell (3%).

People Remember

It is said that people remember:

10% of what they read

20% of what they hear

30% of what they see

50% of what they see and hear

70% of what they write and say

90% of what they say as they do

The percentages –> 10% of what they read 20% of what they hear 30% of what they see 50% of what they hear and see 70% of what they say or write 90% of what they say as they do a thing are not from Dale. The bogus percentages appear to have been first published by an employee of Mobil Oil Company in 1967, writing in the magazine “Film and Audio-Visual Communications”.

These percentages have since been discredited. THEY ARE FICTION! This is one of the great training/ people development myths.

Old Chinese proverb

“What I hear, I forget;

What I see, I remember;

What I do, I understand.”

Stands true – but only again as a saying, and NOT as statistical fact.

The Cone was originally developed by Edgar Dale in 1946 and was intended as a way to describe various learning experiences. The diagram presented to the right (Raymond S. Pastore, Ph.D) is a modification of Dale’s original Cone; the percentages given relate to how much people remember and is a recent modification. Essentially, the Cone shows the progression of experiences from the most concrete (at the bottom of the cone) to the most abstract (at the top of the cone). It is important to note that Dale never intended the Cone to depict a value judgment of experiences; in other words, his argument was not that more concrete experiences were better than more abstract ones. Dale believed that any and all of the approaches could and should be used, depending on the needs of the learner.

How should the Cone be interpreted?

The figure above shows what students will be able to do at each level of the Cone (the learning outcomes they will be able to achieve) relative to the type of activity they are doing (reading, hearing, viewing images, etc.). The numerical figures on the left side of the image, what people will generally remember, indicate that practical, hands-on experience in a real-life context will allow students to remember best what they do. Again, it is important to remember that this doesn’t mean reading and listening are not valuable learning experiences, simply that “doing the real thing” can lead to the retention of the largest amount of information. This is in part because those experiences near the bottom of the Cone, closer to and including real-world experiences, make use of more of our senses; it is believed that the more senses that are used, the greater our ability to learn from and remember an event or experience.

How can Dale’s Cone be used to enhance SL learning?

As stated above, the Cone should not be interpreted as indicating that teachers shouldn’t make use of reading, listening, viewing experiences and the like. These are all valuable and important parts of learning a second language and all have a place in the B-SLIM model. What should be taken from reviewing Dale’s Cone of Experience is that experiences at ALL of the levels described should be used in the second language classroom. Just as Gardner describes the Multiple Intelligences and appealing to them all, Dale’s Cone emphasizes learning experiences that appeal to the different senses and the different ways in which we learn. Direct parallels can be drawn between the different levels of experience depicted in the Cone and the stages of the B-SLIM model. When looking at Figure 2 (from Alabama Professional Development Modules) to the right, the first 6 types of experience (from the top of the cone downward) are all part of the Getting It and Using It stages of B-SLIM. The real-world experiences at the bottom of the Cone relate directly to the Proving It stage; it is at this stage of the model that students are encouraged to use what they have learned in new, real-life contexts.

Systematic Approach to Teaching

Instructional Technology

What is it?

A term often used but misunderstood, instructional technology refers to how student learns. Learn about the five steps of instructional technology, its history and its issues.

Confusion Surrounding the Term Confusion Surrounding the Term

Many educators have heard the term ‘instructional technology’ thrown about in discussions involving pedagogy or curriculum and instruction. It’s frequently bandied about, but often misunderstood completely, due to the somewhat ambiguous nature of the nomenclature. Technology must mean computers, overheads, etc used in the classroom, right? Yes, this is why this term is frequently conflated with the concept of technology used in the classroom. However, instructional technology goes beyond the actual technological gizmos and gadgets used in the classroom, and focuses on how to use them.

What is it then?

In reality, instructional technology is a very broad, generalized term. It does indeed relate to the field of education, and more particularly, to the way students of all ages learn. The term encompasses the entire process of learning through and from technology, focusing on both the theory and the application or practice that follows the theory of learning.

     

Generally, Instructional Technology is the use of a variety of teaching tools to improve student learning. We usually think of computers and computer software when we think of instructional technology, but instructional technologies are not limited to computers in the classroom. Instructional technology describes all tools that are used for teaching and learning such as: cameras, CD players, PDA's, GPS devices, computer-based probes, calculators and electronic tools we have yet to discover.

The Five Parts

There are five steps involved in instructional technology. The first is the design, or brainstorming, of the technological resources used in teaching the material to the student. The second involves the actual development of the process used to convey the information, or the design of the technological resource, such as a software program. The third focuses on putting these processes or resources into practice, and actually using them in a pedagogical setting. The fourth involves the management of the technological resource that has been created. The final step, and perhaps one of the most vital to the success or failure of any one technological   resource, is the evaluation of the created product.

The five phases are ongoing activities that continue throughout the life-cycle of a learning program. After building the learning program, the other phases do not end once the learning process has begun, but are continually repeated as new challenges are encountered.

Students and teachers use computer software and Internet resources to locate, process, and present information, learn and assess their skills.

Students can locate information from millions of sources using a computer, online encyclopedias, databases, and the Internet. Computer-based tool software, such as spreadsheets and databases, help students organize and report information. Students create professional-looking products as they report information they have learned using word processing and presentation software.  Students use computers as electronic tutors to improve skills such as reading and math.

Teachers use computers and other instructional technologies to present information they want students to know. They also use computers to assess students' learning and identify and report students' learning needs.