‘[This approach] allows us to assess then and there. We can have assessment ... on the spot with students not feeling that they're being tested.' – Kate MacKenzie.
What is Drama Literacy? How can it impact student outcomes?
Teacher contributor Greg Whitby recently sat down with Kate MacKenzie from St Thomas Acquinas Primary in Springwood, New South Wales to find out.
MacKenzie explains how the approach was first implemented at the school in an effort to encourage students to give more in-depth answers in literacy tasks. By exploring emotions and themes, students can 'become' the characters and act out scenes so they can then go back and write from an area of knowledge.
‘They used comprehension skills from the drama, and you would see it coming out in their writing,' MacKenzie says, adding the program has increased reading comprehension scores for Progressive Achievement Tests in Reading (PAT-R).
Find out more in this short, five minute video.
Have you used drama activities to support learning?
What was the impact on student outcomes? How have you measured this impact?
