Critical reading : Drama

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1         The Background of Problem

Reading is the one of ways to get a comprehension on a reading. The core of reading comprehension is the ability to store and retrieve information from written texts. This reading comprehension can be applied not only to the reading texts but also in a scene of drama. How someone does interpret on a scene of drama and retrieve information from the drama itself.

The term drama is used to describe the classroom activities and strategies. Other names for drama in educational settings include creative drama, creative dramatics, educational drama, dramatic play, classroom drama, educational drama, playmaking, and improvisation.

Drama, especially as it is used in classrooms for learning purposes, exists for the benefit of the participants. Although it uses many theatre terms and conventions, its focus is on the process of the experience for students and teachers, not on a product created for others. Theatre, on the other hand, is a disciplined artistic experience in which artists work and rework the same material with the goal of performing it perfectly for an audience.

1.2         The Formulation of the Problem

Based on the description in the background, the authors formulate a problem as follows:

1.        What is drama?

2.        What are the drama objectives?

3.        What is the integration between Drama and Reading Comprehension?

4.        What are the strategies of reading comprehension?

5.        How to get reading comprehension skills from a scene of drama?

  

1.3         The Purpose of Writing

Purpose of this paper is based on the formulation of the problem above is as follows:

1.        To know what the definition of drama

2.        To know the drama objectives

3.        To know the integration between the drama and reading comprehension

4.        To know the strategies of reading comprehension

5.        To know how to get reading comprehension skills from a scene of drama

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

2.1         The Definition of Drama

The word drama comes from the Greek word dran, meaning “to do or to act.” Drama is the specific mode of narrative, typically fictional, represented in performance.

Students and teachers do, act, and create in the moment—improvisationally. What they create is not meant for anyone else’s eyes. Their acting and dialogue are generated spontaneously for their own self-expression and learning. Using no sets and few, if any, costumes and props, drama does not result in a polished production. Drama revolves around the creative process.  The participants are simultaneously the playwrights, directors, actors, audience, and critics. As playwrights, they decide what story to tell and what words to speak. As directors, they decide what drama strategies to use and which actors play which roles. As actors, they play the characters in the drama. As audience members, they observe the acting of others. As critics, they assess the dramatic experience and reflect on how to improve future presentations. In drama, participants live in the moment of the action. By using their imaginations, participants play roles and experience what others think and feel. Drama allows them to experience empathy for other people, comprehend complex situations, consider varying viewpoints and opinions, and feel the consequences of choices and behaviors. All of these dramatic experiences may cause participants to change their personal feelings or attitudes, thus impacting their real-life choices.

2.2         Drama Objectives

In order to use drama in the classroom, students must think and behave primarily like actors. To do so, students need to understand the actors’ basic tools and skills. Just as students use tools (paper, pencils, desks, etc.) and skills (reading, writing, listening, etc.) to perform at school, actors use tools and skills to perform on stage. The three basic acting tools are imagination/mind, voice, and body. To be proficient, actors must use these tools well. In addition, there are a variety of complex skills that effective actors use. For classroom drama work, however, students need the basics. The two basic acting skills are cooperation (working as an ensemble) and concentration. To participate in classroom drama, it is essential that students develop these tools and skills.

2.3         The Integration between the Drama and Reading Comprehension

There are strong, natural, and meaningful connections between reading comprehension and drama. Basic acting training and the very purposes of drama dovetail beautifully with the reading comprehension strategies. Combining drama with reading comprehension strengthens students’ abilities in both subjects. Using reading comprehension strategies within a dramatic context gives students the skills and awareness of what they need when they approach a text. Such as imagery, the readers can visualize the details of story assembled as a whole rather than trying to remember individual parts separately. Imagery may also increase the capacity of working memory during reading by assimilating details into larger chunks. Imagery also seems to be involved in making comparisons and analogies. It may function as an organizing tool for coding and storing meaning from reading. Imagery-based information seems to be remembered more easily than text-only information. Theoretically, if reading instruction can be made less dependent on memory of text and can focus instead on visual images described in the story, then the readers are likely to store, retain, and recall more about what they read.

One teacher in Oklahoma compared integrating drama and reading comprehension to training for a marathon: “When my students use drama with these reading comprehension skills, it’s like they are working out in the gym. They are training and developing their muscles so they can run the race . . . they can read and understand a text.” Another teacher in inner-city Washington, D.C., agreed: “Comprehension goes through the roof when I use drama with my students.”

2.4         Reading Comprehension Strategies

A reading comprehension strategy is a specific way that readers engage with text in order to deepen their understanding of it. Reading comprehension strategies do not work in isolation. They are simultaneous processes that occur during and following reading.

These are six reading comprehension strategies:

1.             Developing Sensory Images— The use of some or all of the five senses to imagine what the text describes in words.

2.             Building and Activating Schema— The development and application of background knowledge to increase understanding of the text.

3.             Questioning— The use of questions to clarify and speculate about elements of the text.

4.             Determining Importance— The ability to distinguish significant text information from minor details.

5.             Inferring— The ability to interpret or draw conclusions about what is not directly stated in the text.

6.             Synthesis— The ability to create something new based on information in the text.

Here are the explanations of the strategies above.

1.             Developing Sensory Images

To enhance their understanding of a text, students will use multiple senses to create mental images when they read. Students will:

§  Visualize the setting, characters, and action of the text (create a mental movie)

§  Imagine the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures described in the text

2.             Building and Activating Schema

To more deeply comprehend what they read, students will consider how their life and learning experiences are similar to those described in a text. Students will:

§  Make connections among various parts of the text

§  Make connections between the text and other texts they have read (text to text)

§  Make connections between the text and their personal experiences (text to self) and prior knowledge (text to world)

3.             Questioning

To explore unresolved issues, concerns, and ideas raised during and after reading a text, students will engage in questioning. Students will ask or develop questions that:

§  Clarify evidence in the text

§  Probe for deeper meaning

§  Seek to discover new information

§  Promote wondering

§  Speculate on possibilities

§  Search for answers to problems

4.             Determining Importance

To find the essentials in a text, students will distinguish between the main ideas and the details of what they read. Students will:

§  Demonstrate comprehension of the important elements of the text

§  Identify setting, characters, conflict, obstacles, and resolution

§  List the sequence of key events

§  Retell the plot (beginning, middle, and end)

§  Demonstrate an understanding of the author’s intent

§  Determine the text’s primary message

5.             Inferring

To extend and enrich the meaning of a text, students will draw conclusions and make interpretations based on information provided, but not specifically stated, in the text. Students will:

§  Make predictions

§  Discover the implied information within the text—read between the lines

§  Combine clues found in the text with prior knowledge to make logical guesses

6.             Synthesis

To demonstrate their understanding of a text, students will take information from what they have read, combine it with prior knowledge, and create something new. Students will:

§  Summarize and paraphrase the main points of the text

§  Connect the text’s main ideas with larger concepts and issues

§  Generalize and/or make judgments about the text

§  Extend and apply the information in the text to different contexts

§  Respond personally to the text

§  Form new ideas, opinions, or beliefs

§  gain new perspectives

2.5         Reading Comprehension through Drama

During the 10-week program, students in experimental classes worked with a drama teacher for one hour twice a week. In each one-hour session students dramatized a scene from a story. Stories involved between two and four characters occurred in one location, and required one prop. All stories were written at about the third-grade level so that a maximum number of students would be able to read the material, focus on creating images and remember the story.

The program had four stages, each emphasizing different story elements. Five days were devoted to each stage. In all stages the students silently read a story, and then the teacher read the story aloud. In the first stage, students created images for the “what, who, and where” elements of the story and used these to retell the story to another student.

The second stage involved students in retelling the story in sequence, using a three-panel drawing to illustrate the beginning middle and end. Stage three focused on the sense elements, they are sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch of the story. Students retold the story by acting out scenes that highlighted the sensations the characters might have experienced.

In the final stage, students explored critical, interpretive and opinion-based elements. Students were interviewed as if they were one of the characters in the story. Students responded to questions by inferring the character’s likely response according to what they had read about his/her motivations, actions, and personality. 

CHAPTER III

CLOSING

3.1         Conclusion

A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension is designed for teachers with little to no experience in drama. It contains information, advice, directions, steps, tips, charts, lists, photos, and ideas for use with students in grades one through eight. Readers will find in-depth explanations of the layers of effective educational drama experiences based on classroom texts.

In addition, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension includes a comprehensive. Readers will find a variety of assessment guidelines, tasks, tools, and definitions of terms.

REFERENCES

Kelner, Lenore Blank and Flyinn, Rosalind M, 2006, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension: Strategies and Activities for class room  teacher, [pdf], (https://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00794/chapter2.pdf)

Drama-based reading comprehension program (http://www.ernweb.com /educational-research-articles/drama-based-reaading-comprehension-program/) [15/12/8]

The effectiveness of creative drama as an instructional strategy to enhance the reading comprehension skills of fifth-grade remedial readers. (http://www.artsedsearch.org/summaries/the-effectiveness-ofocreative-drama-as-an-instructional-strategy-to-enhance-the-reading-comprehension-skills-of-fifth-grade-remedial- readers) [15/12/8]