Dramatic+Recreations

Laura Roussey ** What it is  ** : Students can write a short skit, act around an artifact or prop or use a passage from a reading that is a difficult to understand and use their social studies knowledge to act out a scene from history. This also helps students to focus on a skill like voice projection or body language or a technique like improvisation or pantomime. ** How it’s done:  ** A teacher can set up the scene and let student’s brain storm who may have been there and then act out what the people may have done and acted like in that situation. This allows students to get into the minds of the character and think like the people they are trying to recreate. **  Or   ** The teacher could also choose a passage that has just been read and allow the students to interpret what the scene may mean and then allow them to recreate or retell the scene. Have the students freeze at some point during their performance so the audience can ask questions and have the students acting answer the questions in character. **  Strengths:    **  · Students can better relate to the people that they are reading about in their books.  · Students can also use prior knowledge to set up the scene and the people who would have been there.  · Students are able to ask questions and interpret what happened in history in their own way and the teacher can assess the students understanding of the topic without giving a formal test.  · Being able to visually see what was read may help some students get a better understanding.  · Students are able to practice other skills such as improvisation, voice projection, and body language in a fun and interesting way. **  Limitations:    **  · This activity can be very time consuming and requires that all students have done their work and understood the topics.  · With students interpreting history the way they want to may confuse them about what really happened, and having students come up with answers as if they were the actual person may be misleading.
 * __ Dramatic Recreations __ **