Story Theatre

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Story Theater in Education

Theatre in Education
Theatre in Education (TIE) is a process in which it includes all the interactive theatre/drama practices that help aid the educational process. As TIE is used, new strategies and objectives for using theatre as an educational tool emerge. It includes the interactive theatre practices that helps student in their educational process (learning).

Read this Story:
   One day a hungry beggar went to the house of a rich man. He asked for some-thing to eat. The rich man invited the beggar in and gave him some soup.The beggar drank the soup very quickly. When he finished the rich man asked, “Do you want more to eat?”“No, thanks,” the beggar answered. “That was enough. I’m full.”But the rich man gave the beggar a large plate of meat.The beggar finished that very quickly also.“Do you want more to eat?” the rich man asked again.“No, thanks,” the beggar answered. “That was enough. I’m full.” But the rich man didn’t stop. He gave the beggar some delicious chocolate cake. The beggar quickly finished the food again. “Why do you lie to me?” the rich man asked.“Every time I ask you if you want more to eat, you say no; but every time I give you more, you eat it quickly.”The beggar looked around. Outside the kitchen there was a box. He filled the box with stones and asked the rich man, “Is this box full?”“Of course it’s full, the rich man answered.Then the beggar put some sand in the box that was full of stones. “Is this box full?”he asked again.“Of course it’s full,” the rich man answered.Then the beggar got a pail of water. He poured the water into the box that was full of stones and sand. “You see,” he said to the rich man. “Every time I ask you if the box is full, you say yes; but every time you say yes, I fill the box again. It’s the same thing with the food you gave me. There’s always room for more.”

Why this story?

This is a tale for students to tell. I’ve chosen to begin with it to give a context for what is to follow, and to demonstrate that Story Theater can be used with students of all ages and all levels of English proficiency. With it,we can highlight basic features of Story Theater that will become more varied and complex as the tales become longer, with wider vocabulary and more challenging images for student actors to project.

What is a story theater?

Story Theater takes a text—a piece of fiction,a fable, or a folk tale—  and students act it out.They have not written this text, but if there is    narration, they recite that narration. They do not write dialogues; but if characters in the story have dialogue, then students will speak that     dialogue. Students will orchestrate the drama that a story portrays,     choosing sound effects, props, and blackboard pictures to provide       background. They decide who stands where and what actions are      needed to bring the story alive…in a special way.In Story Theater,      students, not the teacher,do the telling, although the success of the    telling depends, first of all, and mostly, on the teacher’s original           decision in selecting a tale. In making this choice, the teacher should remember that while students may become frustrated, truly                  exasperated, as they struggle with this foreign language, they also       have the faculty of imagination.                                                           

Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays

Readers Theater is a dramatic presentation of a written work in a        script form.  Readers read from a "script" and reading parts are           divided among the readers. No memorization, costumes, blocking, or special lighting is needed.  Presentations can easily be done in a k-3  classroom.  Scripts are held by the readers. Lines are not memorized. The focus is on reading the text with expressive voices and gestures.  Making comprehending the text meaningful and fun for the student!    Once you start Reader's Theater in your classroom you and your        students will be loving it!!!                                                                      

The benefits:

1-Story Theater evokes imagination, putting a number of formal pedagogical principles into play simultaneously as action proceeds.

2-language materials ought to engage the students, pique their curiosity, and be within their range of proficiency so that they are not bored.

3-Story Theater is especially relevant at that time when students are tired or are about to become tired.

4-It is also useful with students who are afraid to make mistakes, or with those who have a knowledge about the language and can recognize words, but cannot easily produce what they can recognize.

5-The text of a story gives words to them so that they can actively use the language. This provides security.

Characteristics of TIE^:

• There is a clear aim and educational objective running throughout this process.
• The cast should be small so actors must be versatile and often have multi-role.
• A low budget project has to be taken such that actors often play instrument too.
• The production must be portable so that the design of the production will be simple and representational.
• The Explore of issues has to be from various viewpoint, so that we can see the effect of action upon a range of people.
• There should be a level of involvement of the audience.
• They are rarely wholly naturalistic because for engaging the audience narration has to be used.
• Due to actors have a multiple-roles, the costume are representational and simple.
• For educating the audience they can include facts and figures.
• They may have a strong message or moral running throughout the production.

TIE can create different kind of productions:

• Supported by the resource materials, Production can to be designed to stimulate reaction and participation from its small audience, through role play and debate.
• By specifically targeting an area for a particular age group in a school’s personal, social and health education curriculum.
• For the young audience the play designed can be based on the traditional story and allowing range of follow-up activities if desired.
• Linking the story in the given activities for very young children can help in the opportunities for involvement.
• For the adult age group some dramatizing activities as to be add with specific needs, e.g.- learning parenting skills or preparing for employment.
• It should be organised meaningfully.

Feedback:

Active learning depends on dramatization, miming, acting and playing roles among learners to change the theoretical text into alive practical learning or real life situations through using language in real situations.  The teacher must be like an artist , a musician or a clown that has a role to perform on the stage.  The stage at school is the classroom.  The team of artists that share the teacher are the learners themselves.  This brings life into the content, text, the vocabulary and the structure to be means of communication.  Besides, story theater addresses and envolves the learners physically, mentally and environmentally.

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Other Resources:

1-Teacher's Toolbox.5-Rediscovering Curiosity, Imagination, and Humor in Learning.

2--Writing for the Reader: A problem- solution approach.

3--Metaphors in EFL Classroom

4--Story Jokes for real communication