Playing to Your Students’ Strengths

Drama teachers understand that we must plan our curriculum around the standards established by school boards, administrators, and other leadership. But whenever possible, it’s wonderful to incorporate the strengths and interests of your students into the assigned curriculum. That doesn’t mean letting students dictate every moment of drama class, doing an entire semester of only improv, or trying to find a show with 30 starring roles. It means that you’re showing care for and interest in your students, that you’re listening to their thoughts and opinions, and that you’re being flexible, adaptable, and thoughtful in your lesson planning. You aren’t just doing the same thing year after year; you’re continually growing and evolving your approach. It can also help you to reach out to and connect with students who are reluctant to participate or who aren’t taking drama class by choice. Making those connections and showing students how aspects of theatre can relate to them personally can make their drama class experience much more pleasant. These are all key ingredients in a recipe for success.

Let’s think of some drama class scenarios. What are your students’ strengths? Perhaps you’ve got a class full of hilarious students who love cracking jokes and making each other laugh. Use that energy and consider teaching a unit on commedia dell’arte, having students try their hand at writing sketch comedy scenes, or creating costume designs that make others smile, such as a new outfit for a Weird Barbie-type character. If you’ve got a class full of athletes and sports aficionados, they might enjoy movement-based drama units such as stage combat, dance, or puppetry, and studying plays and musicals like The Wolves, Chariots of Fire, Rocky, or Bring It On. Student activists and future leaders might really appreciate activities focused on community service, opportunities to direct, stage manage, or problem-solve, or coming up with sustainable ideas for theatre, such as creating sets out of recycled materials or researching eco-friendly lighting boards, sound systems, and makeup suppliers. Computer wizards and social media moguls can discover (or build!) the best apps for theatre tech and ticket sales, create viral marketing plans for upcoming shows (actual school productions or exercise-based), or study shows featuring social media use, like The Prom or Dear Evan Hansen. Students can use their strengths and skills in many new and different ways in the drama classroom.

Furthermore, incorporating your students’ personal interests into your lesson plans can really help to engage them and increase buy-in on certain topics, especially ones that they may be less interested in or nervous about. For example, perhaps some of your students are big professional wrestling fans. For a monologue unit, they could write and perform solo pieces where they are “cutting a promo” (wrestling-speak for performing a monologue to advance a storyline). Or maybe your students are big Swifties — in a playwriting class, you could have those students write quill pen, fountain pen, or glitter gel pen scenes, inspired by Taylor’s songwriting process. Marvel and DC fans could design and build new costumes and tools for or inspired by their favourite superheroes and villains. The possibilities go on and on.

What if you don’t know what your students’ strengths and interests are yet? Use a questionnaire to find out what they’re interested in, what their skills and strengths are, and why they’re taking drama class. You might find that there are a few similar topics that most students want to explore, so if it’s possible, spend more time on or do a deeper dive into those topics. If there is a wide variety of interests expressed, perhaps an independent study assignment where students pitch their own topics could be a good final project. You can even use the questionnaire results to help with tasks such as creating bellwork questions or exit slip topics: Would you rather watch a monster truck show or go to the ballet? What is your greatest strength, and how can you use it in drama class? If you could become an expert on a topic, which topic would you choose and why?

You’ll find a sample questionnaire in the giveaway below; feel free to use it as is or adapt it to suit your students’ needs.