LEARNING TO TEACH DRAMA 11-18. By Andy Kempe and Helen Nicholson. Continuum International Publishing pound;14.99.
CRACKING DRAMA. By National Association for Teachers of English pound;19.50. Tel: 0114 255419.
PLANNING PROCESS DRAMA. By Pamela Bowell and Brian S Heap. David Fulton pound;15.
These pragmatic books take the view that drama’s national curriculum status, under the wing of English, has given it more security,but point out that there is a serious shortage of trained teachers.
Learning to Teach Drama 11 - 18 is aimed at the student teacher, but all trainees and newly trained teachers should find its practical, encouraging approach useful on organisation, use of workspace, materials, planning, building relationships with pupils, dealing with behaviour, assessment, personal reflection and so on.
Cracking Drama is less appealing to non-specialists. It shows how progress in English can be made through the use of drama techniques, but the structure of the book is confusing. It offers a variety of approaches from units of work to support text work in the literacy hour through to teaching Shakespeare.
Planning Process Drama points out that Process Drama is for the benefit of participants, not the audience. The authors acknowledge that it is only one part of drama teaching, but in their view the most important part. The strength of this book lies in its practical examples.
Brian McGuire
Brian McGuire is a drama consultant and assistant headteacher
