ABSTRACT
Book Title – Drama and Reading for Meaning Ages 4–11: A Practical Book of Ideas for Primary Teachers
Chapter Author – Larraine S Harrison
Chapter Number & Title – Chapter 6, ACTIONS AND PERFORMANCES
This chapter gives practical examples of how actions and performances can support reading for meaning and pleasure with children aged 7–11. Re-enacting and performing a range of texts helps children explore the different ways in which those texts convey meaning e.g. performing a version of a novel in the form of a play or reciting different poems on the same theme. The need to find appropriate actions to represent words and phrases also provides an opportunity for children to have fun with unusual words or explore unfamiliar vocabulary and illustrates how the meaning of words depends on their context e.g. words used in figurative language. An added bonus is the increased attention children pay to a text when they know they will be asked to perform it. Links to reading for meaning include engaging with texts; dramatising stories; empathy; sequencing; summarising plots; extending vocabulary; preparing and learning texts to read with expression; figurative language; comparing different poems on the same theme. Activities include: action freeze narration; the silent movie; performing poems, fables, classic texts and riddles; improvisations; and on air.
