Drama and Math
Drama strategies can be implemented as a way to integrate movement and engagement throughout mathematics, which in turn can be used as a way to assess your students knowledge and understanding on concepts or themes. Two Drama strategies that my peers and I found may be of value was "Living Venn Diagram" & "The Hot Seat" in order for students to convey their knowledge about a concept in a way that facilitates student knowledge, rather than transmitting it to them or making them complete a task.
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Description
The living Venn Diagram allows the students to get up and move to share their opinion or answer to a given question. The teacher may pose a math problem or question on the board and tell students to move to the space in the room which they most agree with.
For example:
Question: “A rhombus has four sides which are equal in length, or congruent ”
Task: Living Venn Diagram
- Stand on the left if you think this statement is true.
- Stand to the right if you think this statement is false
- Stand in the middle if you are unsure about this statement
Strategy #2: Hot Seat!
Description
This Drama strategy can be applied across curriculum, as it enables students to think in different perspectives, activate their prior knowledge and develop questioning and problem solving skills. Additionally, it can be used as a diagnostic assessment tool to see how much students know about a topic, and be used throughout the year in order to examine their progress in questioning, understanding and inferencing.
Lesson Example: Grade 5
Drama & Geometric Reasoning
This can be applied before or after teaching students about shape properties and characteristics. For example, when entering the hotseat they can choose to take the perspective of a specific shape, whereby their peers have to ask questions that will allow them to learn more about their characteristics. For example the students could ask...
- How many sides do you have?
- Do you have any parallel lines?
- Do you have a 90 degree angle?
- Are you symmetrical
Connection to Curriculum
Here, students access their prior knowledge on both math (problem solving & geometric reasoning) and questioning skills (language and arts). Additionally, they are engaging in the creative process, as they are introduced to a challenge, generating questions, focusing on the concept, exploring various ways to ask questions and then taking the feedback in order to reflect and generate new ones that help them solve the problem.Drama Elements Used
- Role/character: adopting the attitude, voice, or emotional state of a fictional character
- Relationship: listening and responding in role to other characters in role
Lesson Adaptation - Grade 5 Arts & Math
- Drama B1.4- Communicate thoughts, feelings, and ideas using audio, visual, or technological aids to achieve specific dramatic effects (e.g., puppets, props, illustrations)
- Geometric Reasoning - E1.1 identify geometric properties of triangles, and construct different types of triangles when given side or angle measurements
These tasks are driven through UDL theory as it enables the teacher to differentiate instruction, allows all students to be included, and reduces barriers that may inhibit students from engaging in their learning process.
Modifications & Accommodations
- If you have students with ASD who feel strongly / are passionate about a topic that involved the hotseat activity you can allow them to go first and help others
- Students who have physical disabilities may need more space to be involved
- Instead of getting up out of your seats for the venn diagram students can write their answer or you may have colours for “true/false/in the middle” that they can display
How to use the theory
Today we talked about the theory of multiple intelligences! The Multiple Intelligences Theory
Psychologist Howard Gardner developed this theory in 1983. He claimed that people have eight independent ways of processing information, which are:
- Verbal–Linguistic
- Logical–Mathematical
- Visual–Spatial
- Auditory–Musical
- Bodily–Kinesthetic
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Naturalistic
Online learning
It’s more accurate to think of the eight intelligences as abilities or strengths. The human brain is extremely complex, and all of these types of “smarts” work together. To apply the Multiple Intelligences Theory to online learning, use it to help your student develop all of his or her strengths. Remember that there are activities that help develop more than one ability at a time. For example, you can help your child do some creative learning activities, such as
It’s more accurate to think of the eight intelligences as abilities or strengths. The human brain is extremely complex, and all of these types of “smarts” work together. To apply the Multiple Intelligences Theory to online learning, use it to help your student develop all of his or her strengths. Remember that there are activities that help develop more than one ability at a time. For example, you can help your child do some creative learning activities, such as
- Taking photos for the online school yearbook to exercise visual–spatial skills
- Trying our leaf colour chemistry activity to build nature smarts
- Drawing a map to scale and exercise logic and visual–spatial smarts
- Spending ten minutes writing about one of his or her best attributes to integrate word smarts and intrapersonal smarts
Reflection
This weeks lesson revealed so many ways in which drama can be used within the classroom that I found to be relevant and valuable. Getting students moving in an equitable and inclusive way allows for increased engagement and enthusiasm, which is critical for math. Implementing these types of activities in my classroom will not only help my students, but will also allow me to assess them in an active and engaging way. Furthermore, as a student who strongly disliked math, I found these strategies very inclusive and valuable, without making the students feel pressured or “stupid” in relation to a topic as they can work together and have the right to pass.
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