There is readily available technology that can record work and allow us to con- sider it at greater length after the event, particularly video recording. This is an approach we have been taking for a long time now; it provides evidence that we use to assess our own performance as teachers working in drama. Again, if teachers are paired to do the assessment, one can handle the camera while the other teaches.
Some teachers object to the use of video recording on the grounds that it distorts the drama process. Our experience is contrary to that. If it is used fre- quently and if it is negotiated with the class, they soon forget the camera and the work continues in its spontaneity. In fact, if anything, we find that it helps raise the status of the work and aids concentration levels.
Analysing video recordings of drama we need to look at issues relating to:
● the language used
● the non-verbal communication
● proximity to the teacher – who are the invisible pupils, the outsiders of the drama who do not seem in any way engaged?
● the empathetic and affective tendencies of pupils, their speech and their actions as they intervene.
We will now look at a transcript from a video recording of a drama lesson at a key moment and consider the way it can be assessed. This is from a session using ‘The Highwayman’ drama with a class of mixed 8- and 9-year-olds; it occurs after first meeting Tim the Ostler, in the inn. It is the end of some dis- cussion out of role about what Tim is like and what is happening. Previously, when asked his name, TiR as Tim has answered, Tim, but I wish it wasn’t. The class are sitting on chairs facing Tim’s chair. At this point teacher OoR is stand- ing up talking to the class.
ToR: Do you want to ask him any other questions?[pause] What did he say to you when you spoke to him about the stables and so on? Did he say anything a bit odd?[pause] What’s he looking like anyway? How is he looking?
Rosie: Upset.
Chloe: Under the weather.
ToR: He’s certainly described as being.[that is, in the poem, of which they have read the first part before starting the drama]. He doesn’t look as though he’s very well at all.
Neil: You know the lights changed. Did that mean they were going back in time?
ToR: It does, yes.
Charlie: He couldn’t see the time fly by.
Teacher: So they’re back in his time. So it is the stables at the back. So what do you want to ask him?[pause] He’s not very happy. He’s been muttering about the horses. What do you want to ask him? Because you, as historians, can find a lot about the legend.
Alan: Why don’t you like your name?
ToR: Do you want to start again? You ask him that and then if you’ve got any other questions ...
TiR as Tim: Yes?
Alan: Why don’t you like your name?
TiR as Tim: I wish I wasn’t me at the moment. Something terrible’s happened. Oh, I don’t know what to do.
Neil: Is the Highwayman still around?
TiR as Tim: What do you mean? What do you know about him? What do you mean? I don’t know no Highwayman. I’ve never seen him. I’ve heard about him.
I’ve never seen him.
Ruth: What’s bothering you?
TiR as Tim: [drops voice] It’s the soldiers. We need to keep very quiet. There’s a lot of soldiers arrived here.
Charlie: We think we know why. As the Highwayman’s ...
TiR as Tim: Shush! Shush! Shush! The soldiers are here. Don’t ... Keep quiet.
They’re out the back having a meeting apparently.
Charlie: [whispers and leans forward towards Tim conspiratorially, mirrored by other children in the class] They’re here because they’re trying to get the Highwayman. The Highwayman stole some gold for the landlord’s daughter to get the keys.
The following analysis is written by the teacher who was leading this session.
How to Begin Using Assessment through Drama 87
There are a number of critical moments to assess here. As the teacher I was look- ing for a way of raising the tension and you can see I am out of role outlining certain key atmosphere setting points about Tim: He’s not very happy. He’s been muttering about the horses. What do you want to ask him? Because you, as historians, can find a lot about the legend. My intention is to engage them more fully with Tim and then with his dilemma about whether to tell on the Highwayman to the soldiers, which is the central focus of the drama at this point.
Alan’s contribution is worth assessing for its value. He seems to have been thinking about what Tim said before we stopped and out of the blue says he wants to raise the issue with Tim. He is not responding to what I have imme- diately said, but is taking us back to the previous conversations with Tim and may be picking up on what the two girls have observed about how Tim is,Upset. Under the weather. It is a gift for me running the drama as I can use his focus on what Tim is complaining about to connect to the issues I want to emerge in the drama so I go straight back into role and take his question.
Alan is not the most vocal member of the group so for him to volunteer to lead in on the next part is good; he is also not the most able academically so this is a significant contribution from him. He is interpreting what Tim said and showing possible level 4 attributes on the Speaking & Listening Levels –
‘talk adapted to purpose: developing ideas thoughtfully’. He has ‘listened care- fully’ as I dropped in theI wish I wasn’tas a throw-away line, almost inaudibly.
In answering him in role I can expand on why Tim is wishing himself away, something terrible’s happened, hinting at but not telling what is happening.
Other members of the group are then able to interpret what this means and are keen to introduce the Highwayman themselves. Neil introduces the sub- ject and at once the tension of the situation can be raised. Charlie is creative in developing ideas of what he thinks the soldiers and Highwayman are doing, They’re here because they’re trying to get the Highwayman. The Highwayman stole some gold for the landlord’s daughter to get the keys.
The level of engagement in the drama for him is very high. He is introduc- ing storyline ideas that are original to him and can be used by me in developing the drama later if the class agree to take on the ideas. He is operat- ing within the parameters of the drama as I am setting them: he lowers his voice as Tim indicates the danger of open discussion with the soldiers there and is modelling for all of the class. The nature of the situation changes as these historians from the twenty-first century are drawn into the mesh of Tim’s difficult situation. Alan’s contribution can be seen to have opened this up and he can be rewarded for empathising with Tim from the previous exchange.
Pictures and captions
There are other models of recording what is created, using the current technol- ogy to freeze moments of the drama.
We can take digital photographs and project these onto a white board, where children can annotate what it means, showing their ideas by adding cap- tions or notes of the speech by their roles, bubbles with the thoughts their roles might have at the moment, etc. If we go lower tech, drama techniques can be used to help the class themselves assess what is important. The class can look back over a drama and key moments can be recreated as tableaux. These can be added to with captions summing up what the picture means. This can help self-assessment by the children or peer assessment, when reflecting on their contributions to the drama work, because they are critically analysing what is important about what they have done.
Teachers should talk to children after drama sessions in order to elicit their understanding. Children need to reflect separately and together on the process.
Then they will understand more about their own achievements in speaking and listening. Such discussions will provide yet more evidence of what has been going on, particularly the listening.