This is my blog of “reflection-on-action” (Schön, 1983: 50), on Short Courses of RCS, working with children of P5-7 through Process Drama (Digital Version).
In this blog I will reflect and write about things that went well and things that needed improvement in each week’s Process Drama plan and digital content.
The creation of this week’s material was the most fun of all. I had this core idea of prompting the young participants to drive the drama from within through a decision making concept such as choosing opposing sides within the story.
There were two sides to choose from: The side of the Hacker No 251 and the side of Felicity Bell, representing CIRCLE. Both characters presented their arguments and their beliefs on the matter and both asked for the support of the participants. Later on, the participants are faced with a slide within the .pdf file that asks them to choose a side, whether they want to support the Hacker No 251 or Felicity Bell and click on the icon accordingly. That led them to the assignment of the week which was different for each side.
The way that the slideshow was constructed made it more active and further enhanced the belief in the drama as it was more interactive than ever before.
The learning question for this week which was infused throughout the process drama plan was about justice and how ‘personal is political’ regarding our decisions and how choices and specifically the existence of choices is important. bell hooks says “being oppressed means the absence of choices” (hooks, 1984: 5) and this week’s core idea was to amplify the democracy and justice around the act of decision making.
The participants were exposed to two different opinions, from two different leaders that were trying to gain their support and afterwards the young participants were critically engaged with both ideas and asked themselves the question of “who should I believe? Whose beliefs align closer to mine? Who should I support?”. It’s a way for the young participants into decision making for later stages in their lives such as supporting, by voting, a political party, decisions that, ultimately, shape their future.
Next week is the final week that concludes the drama and the short courses in general. The storyline of the drama had a very clear arch from the very beginning, following a natural flow of events with plot twists, such as the one of this week where the participants finally met who the person behind the hacker No 252 is, keeping their interest to the peak.
Reference List
hooks, bell (1984). Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. 1st ed. South End Press.
Schön, D.A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner : How Professionals Think in Action. S.L.: Basic Books.
Digital Content (1st Draft): CIRCLE 5th WEEK
Digital Content (Final Draft): CIRCLE 5th WEEK
Digital Content (Annotated): CIRCLE 5th WEEK (Annotated)
Process Drama Plan (1st Draft): Process Drama WEEK 5
Process Drama Plan (Final Draft): Process Drama WEEK 5
Process Drama Plan (Annotated): Process Drama WEEK 5 (Annotated)
Mentor’s Feedback: Mentor’s Feedback
Co-facilitator’s Feedback: Co-Facilitator’s Feedback