Creative Drama in Language Arts

What is it?

Background information
What is it?
Who should use it?
Why use it?
Improvisation tips
Educator tip sheet
Webliography
Bibliography
Classroom application
TEKS
IRA & TExES Standards

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"When drama and theatre serve as teaching methods, teachers should view them as a concept and a philosophy rather than a set of curriculum models" (Sun, 2003, p. 1).

Creative drama is a process of guided discovery. The students invent and enact for themselves spontaneously as they compose and enact their parts. It is unrehersed drama that promotes written, oral, and listening skills as well as vocabulary growth (NCTE, 2005).

Creative drama has several intriguing characteristics:
  • Flexiblity
  • Plasticity
  • Continuity
  • No specific patterns or models (Sun, 2003)

Creative drama emphasizes:

  • Experience of the participant as the goal
  • Process rather than product
  • There are no wrong answers (Buesgen, 1999)

Creative drama can include:

  • Dramatic play
  • Story enactment
  • Imagination journeys
  • Theatre games
  • Music
  • Dance (Buesgen, 1999)