Where the Action Is: How Drama Contributes to the Art of the Teaching and Learning of English

Abstract

This paper looks at the way drama works to bring a model of an arts curriculum into reality. He also shows how drama is valuable when discussed as a separate, autonomous subject in the school curriculum as opposed to one subsumed within English. He argues for a view of the arts and gives an example of a sequence of work in an English GCSE class based around Arthur Miller’s play View from the Bridge. From this he draws out several strands about the relationship of the drama curriculum to the individual students and teachers, the school, and to culture. He also emphasises the primacy of performance in drama education.

• Drama
• literature
• performance
• curriculum
• classroom
• teacher
• student
• player
• audience
• personal
• cultural
• social
• feeling
• English
• GCSE