Drama is the creation of meanings in action and pupils have to struggle all the time to make sense of what is going on around them so that they can engage with it. They have to make sense of the fictional situation as it develops. Unless pupils listen they do not know what is going on. The teacher can provide sur- prises, challenges, interesting people to meet in the forms of teachers in role;
pupils can provide models of language use for each other because lead pupils begin to take initiative and provide input.
In drama we can get new levels of listening because of the pupils’ interest in the problem-solving of the drama itself. The focus of the problem or dilemma that the pupils face embodies the nature of the language. In order to carry out all of these speaking activities they are, of course, inevitably developing their listening and we see this in all its powerful and active modes, listening that is:
open, sensitive, reflective, receptive, supportive, attentive, collective, creative.
This is because each pupil has to make sense of what the teacher and the rest of the pupils are gradually building up around them.
Pupils feel valued in drama and consequently have more confidence in what they want to say and show more respect to what other contributors to the drama say.
In order for drama to work the teacher has to listen very closely as well, to see where the pupils are, to pick up what the pupils are offering and use it within the drama.
Let’s look at a class showing these skills as they engage in a dialogue in
‘Daedalus and Icarus’. This is the sort of dialogue that can be generated by a drama. We will take an actual extract from a lesson and consider what is being achieved.
We will consider this in the light of dialogic teaching (DT) and the Speaking and Listening requirements of the English National Curriculum (EN1 S&L levels, National Curriculum, DfES, London.
Transcript from a session on Daedalus and Icarus
This comes from the third hour-long session of this drama with a class of mixed 8- and 9-year-olds. The teacher is taking the role of Daedalus and another adult the role of Icarus at the beginning of this. The class are enrolled as the servants of Minos the King. (See the outline of the drama in Part Two of this book for details.)
ToR: The inventor was looking for Icarus. Do you remember?
[DT – teacher and pupils address the task together]
[After a recap of the work from last time the teacher moves to stand out- side the group]
TiR as Daedalus: Icarus! Icarus!
Adult as Icarus: What shall I do?
Pupils: Hide! Hide!
(The tension at this point is high even though it is picking up from the previous session. Tension is a strong promoter of listening.)
Daedalus: I must speak to you. I can’t see where you are. There are too many rooms and passageways.
Icarus: I’m here. I’m here.
Daedalus: Can you come to me please? I don’t have a lot of time. I have things to get on with.
Icarus: I’m here.
Daedalus: Yes, but I want to see you.
[Icarus comes out of hiding]
Daedalus: What have you been doing?
Icarus: Just playing.
Daedalus: With the servants?
Icarus: Yes.
Daedalus [to the servants]: What’s he been doing?
(Notice how the teacher uses the role to challenge the commitment of the servants to siding with Icarus.)
Servants: Playing. Catch.
Daedalus: Playing catch with you?
Servants: Yes. (S&L levels 2/3 – listening carefully and responding with increasing appropriateness/shows an understanding of the main points.)
Daedalus [to Icarus]: I want to talk to you very seriously, Icarus. Something has gone missing from my room and you were in there earlier today. And I want to find out about it.
ToR: Can we just stop the story a minute?
[Moves OoR to manage the drama by setting up the forum theatre where Icarus and Daedalus sit facing each other with the class gathered on either side]
Pupil: Say it’s in the bin.
Icarus: It might be in the dustbin.
Daedalus: But that will be the fault of the servants. They would have tidied up.
I’ll have to have words with the servants if it’s got in the dustbin.
Pupils: Tell him the truth. (S&L level 4 – making contributions.) ToR: Let’s stop a minute.
[Moves OoR to let the class discuss the approach Icarus should adopt, as there is a split within the class in their advice to the person playing the role. This is the chance for reflection on the activity, important metacog- nition. DT – teacher and pupils share ideas and consider alternative viewpoints]
ToR: Several people are saying ‘Tell him the truth’ and what then? Bring back the folder?
Pupils: No ... Yes ...
ToR: Why not, Brian?
Brian: I think you should keep it to yourselves – not tell the truth. [DT – pupils articulate their ideas freely, without fear of embarrassment over
‘wrong’ answers]
How to Generate Quality Speaking and Listening 47
ToR: Why do some people think that Icarus should tell the truth at this point?
Helen?
Helen: Because it could be very important to tell him the truth. It was wrong and it could be very, very important that he told.
ToR: That he’d been honest to his father? Anne, what do you think?
Anne: Well, it might get found out in the end. (S&L level 4 – develops ideas thoughtfully, conveying opinions clearly.)
Other pupils: Yeah! ... Yeah!
ToR: And he could be in trouble then you mean? It would be better that it comes out now. Is there another reason why it might be important for the father to get the file back now?[DT – cumulative – teacher builds on pupils’
ideas]
Lucy: To get away from the King, because he doesn’t want to live with him any longer. [DT – pupil builds on own and others’ ideas]
ToR: Right, if he hasn’t got his invention, how can they get away from the island?
Lucy: Well, they can’t.
ToR: Is there anything else? Some people say he should tell the truth. Is there anything else they can do now? Sally?
Sally: He can say, ‘I’ll have a look for you.’ Icarus might go and he might pick them [the folder and drawings]up and say, ‘I have found them’ and say they were in the dustbin.
ToR: So you could say ‘I’ll have a look around’ and find them, pretend that he’s found them, when he knew where they were.
Some pupils: [spontaneously] No!
Other pupils: [spontaneously] Yes!
ToR: It’s lying or telling the truth, is that what it’s about?
Lucy: I think you should tell the truth because if you ... We’ve been telling lots of lies in the story and if it all comes out, we’ll get into deep trouble for telling all these lies. (S&L level 6/8 – takes an active part in discussion, showing understanding of ideas and sensitivity to others/shows that he/she has listened perceptively and is sensitive to the development of the discussion.)
ToR: All right, because lies can get you into trouble.
Version 1: telling a lie
ToR: We’ll do both of them and then we can see what happens in both cases. Is that OK?
[DT – teacher steers the talk with specific educational goals]
[From this point pupils one at a time take over the role of Icarus from the adult. They sit in Icarus’s chair. Sally tries her ‘lie’ first]
(Here one aspect of drama that reaches beyond ordinary discussion is vital, the non-verbal communication. Sally keeps her face serious, stares clearly and unblinkingly back at TiR, ‘her father’. She adopts the role per- fectly and there are no official attainment levels to record the drama skills, taking role effectively, for example.)
TiR as Daedalus: Do you know anything about this folder?
Sally as Icarus: No, I haven’t seen it.
Daedalus: Well, I need it very, very ... much. It’s for both of us, because we’ve got to get away from the Palace and the folder helps with that. If I haven’t got it, I have lost all the work that I have spent weeks and weeks on.
Icarus: I’ll have a look for you.
Daedalus: If you can, but I’ve looked everywhere ... you’re not lying to me, are you?
Icarus: No.
Daedalus: You wouldn’t lie to your father?
Icarus: No. (The tension in the group is palpable here.)
Daedalus: You’d better go and have a look then and if you find anything bring it to me.
[Sally goes to get the folder from where the pupils previously hid the folder when Daedalus first called to Icarus]
Daedalus: That was very quick. Where was it?
Icarus: In the dustbin. I thought it would be.
Daedalus: I’m going to have to have words with those servants.
Pupils: Shrieks[as they realise the implications].
Version 2
[Sally leaves the chair and Mary volunteers to take over and illustrate telling the truth]
TiR as Daedalus: Now, that folder is very important to me, Icarus. It’s very important to us. Do you know anything about it?
Mary as Icarus: [nods and mouths] Yes. (S&L level – How do we assess this?
Mary is a very quiet girl in the group and just to take the chair is a major step for her. She tackles the task shyly but determinedly and appropriately – the descriptors do not seem fit to cover this adequately.)
Daedalus: I thought you did. Well tell me then?
Icarus: It’s behind the piano.
Daedalus: Why? What’s it doing there?
Icarus: We were hiding it.
Daedalus: Why did you do that? And why did you have it anyway?
Icarus: We were having a look at it.
Daedalus: That was very ... naughty. Those are my private papers. I hadn’t given you ... Why didn’t you ask me?
Icarus: [no response]
ToR: Just a minute. To help her, what should she say?
Pupils: [make some suggestions to Mary]
ToR: Hang on. Liam, why don’t you swap with Mary. We’ll give you a chance.
Well done, Mary. [Liam swaps into the seat to take over Icarus]
Daedalus: Why didn’t you ask me?
Liam as Icarus: I wanted to see what we were doing because if we picked a bit that was ... a little too heavy and I didn’t know that, then we wouldn’t be able to get off the island so quick.
(Liam adds a dimension to the truth of the confession but subtly. Here he hints at knowing what the folder of documents concerns – that it is about making a flying machine.)
Daedalus: So you know what it’s about, you mean?
Icarus: Not exactly, no.
(He baulks at fully owning up. The dialogue is complex at this point and Liam shows he believes in the delicacy of the negotiation with the father, is afraid of what he might do, senses the danger of the situation. Again there is no descriptor in the S&L levels to cover this; the language he uses is not of level 8 – ‘structures what is said carefully, using apt vocabulary’ – but is it possible the emotional content is at that level – ‘is sensitive to the development of the discussion’?)
How to Generate Quality Speaking and Listening 49
Pupils: [laughas they realise the implications of what he has done]
Daedalus: How did you know I wanted to get off the island with it?
Icarus : [speechless as he realises what he has revealed – other pupils laugh]
ToR: Sarah, swap with Liam. Anybody can have a go. If you get an idea for something you want to say, you swap. Listen carefully to what other people are saying and then I’ll give other people a chance.
Daedalus: Now, Icarus, you knew about this did you? You worked out what it means?
Icarus: No.
Daedalus: Well, you said about getting off the island ... Do you know how I’m intending to get off the island?
Icarus: Yes, we do know.
Daedalus: What did you know about it?
Pupils: Oh! Oh![as they all want to have a turn]
ToR: Shush ... now I’m not going to choose anyone who interrupts.
Icarus: Flight frames.
Daedalus: So you worked out what the pictures meant did you? Because there is no writing. I thought you were very clever.
ToR: Lucy, just swap. Well done, Sarah.
(Lucy decides to go for the full confession, knowing that this is what this version was set up to try out. She is clearly operating at least at level 7 – confident in matching talk to the demand of different contexts – or level 8 – shows that she has listened perceptively and is sensitive to the devel- opment of the discussion – the word discussion as used in the attainment target is also inadequate to cover the nature of this fictional dialogue.) Lucy as Icarus: Well, we weren’t playing catch.
Daedalus: You weren’t?
Icarus: No.
Daedalus: What were you doing?
Icarus: We were looking at the folder. The servants and I ...
Daedalus: ‘We’! You mean you’ve shown the servants?
Pupils: [Laugh at the tension and the sense that the truth is coming out with all these implications for them in their role as servants]
Daedalus: That’s very serious. Don’t you realise they might tell?
Icarus: I told them not to tell.
Daedalus: Did they promise?
Icarus: Yes.
Daedalus: I must have a word with them. You must bring them to me straight away.
Pupils: [Shrieks of excitement about what they will have to face as the servants!]
Lucy OoR: Either way gets the servants into trouble (i.e. whether Icarus lies about the stealing of the folder of drawings or tells the truth).