Theatre in classrooms : “wow period”or“fun time”...

 

Azraa Fatima doing HOT SEATING as big turnip

 

Sasvath doing HOT SEATING as skin

  

Vedanth doing HOT SEATING as nose

The students of Velammal  Vidyalaya NewGen School ,Shollinganallur have the Theatre in Classroom program which the students fondly call as“wow period” or “fun time”. The school teachers are trained by Ms.Kritika Dhiwahar,ELT & Theatre trainer of Velammal to use these theatre based instructions even in a first standard classroom.

 Hot Seating is a theatre based instruction in which a character is played by a student and is interviewed by the rest of the students in the class. This activity invites students to recount a specific event, explore motivation and multiple perspectives/experiences related to a theme, topic, event, or idea. Here are videos of grade I students, who do hot seating as a big turnip, skin and nose. The Hot Seat technique has been adapted here to suit Grade 1 learners to explore characters and concepts in English and Science.

These theatre techniques deepen students’ critical thinking, engagement and commitment to their character(s) by modeling a strong commitment to character and the situation. 

 After the hot seating the students reflected on the following

•         How did it feel to step into the character’s shoes/embody the character?
•         What new insight did you gain about the motivation of the character from the HOT        SEATING  activity?
•         What are the key issues/factors affecting this/these character(s) and their actions?

Opportunities like these make learning at Velammal an exciting experience for the students! 

Blog post by

Ms.Sivaranjani.R

ACO, Velammal  Vidyalaya NewGen School ,Shollinganallur