Have you ever gone to a musical or to see a play, and when you left, you were blown away by how brilliant and captivating it was? Imagine how the performers on stage felt. Remember how it made you feel. It is an exhilarating experience for all involved. The introduction of drama in school makes this possible. It is where the love for performance begins, but with education shifting to virtual platforms, some fear that drama class may lose its place.

In order to combat this, it is important to realize that with any component of the arts, students gain a multitude of advantages that prove beneficial in and out of the classroom (like higher engagement and participation in school, determination to succeed, higher academic achievement, and higher graduation rates, just to name a few)! Drama offers those benefits and more, and because of this, it should be considered an important part of distance learning. Drama class is an outlet for creativity, engagement, cooperation, and expression for every student involved. In addition to all of that, drama is fun!

With many students learning virtually from home, the need to interact and collaborate with others is more important than ever. Being physically separated from friends is difficult, and the feeling of isolation can lead to various health concerns if not kept in check. Drama can help to provide stability in those areas while giving students a way to engage with one another despite being physically distant. It also helps to facilitate the other aspects of school that students miss out on while learning from home. With drama class, students can continue to connect with their classroom community. Students can see their friends and collaborate with them while participating in fun and creative assignments.

Strategies for Transforming Drama Class for Distance Learning

As previously stated, education is relying more and more on virtual methods of instruction. In order to better serve our students and deliver all of the benefits discussed above, it is important that the aspects of drama class shift as well. Drama educators can continue to foster creativity and student engagement in a distance-learning format. Here are few strategies and ideas for how to transform drama class for distance learning to keep students excited and involved:

Record Scenes

With distance learning, it is apparent that students are not able to perform a play or musical using the traditional, in-person approach. This strategy requires students to record themselves performing specific parts or scenes assigned by the teacher. Students can perform these alone, or when necessary, students can record themselves acting out the required scene while on a Google Meet or other video conferencing platform. Then, those videos would be pieced together by the teacher for the entire class to watch.

As an extension to this activity, older students could be required to provide performance feedback to one another during a class discussion or through email conferencing. Student feedback could include two reinforcement items (what the classmate did well) and one refinement item (what will make the performance better in the future).

Improvisation Activities

One of the most exciting components of drama is the act of improvisation. It grabs student attention and keeps them on their toes. The great thing about improv is that students only need themselves in order to participate. No other materials are required thus making it an excellent activity for distance learning. Try incorporating improvisation during whole-group virtual meetings. Give the group a scenario or scene starter. You could even assign each student a character. Then, let the students act it out without dialogue or a script. Students will enjoy making things up as they go and collaborating with their classmates.

Storytelling or Monologue Session

Storytelling is another activity that can be easily transformed for distance learning. Students can select a short story of their choice, or the teacher may assign a story to each student. On their own time, students will record themselves telling the story incorporating the components of good storytelling. Intonation, inflection, body movement, eye contact, and the use of emotion should all be present. The teacher will use the recorded videos to evaluate each student’s performance and share them during a whole-group meeting. In addition, this same process can be completed using monologues. Assign each student a monologue and give them the task of memorizing and performing it on video.

Utilize Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms are a wonderful feature of many video conferencing platforms. Both Google Meet and Zoom allow teachers to create breakout rooms, or as I like to call them, small group rooms. To utilize this tool for drama class, teachers could divide students into small groups and create breakout rooms for them. From there, students can complete any number of activities with their group. Groups may practice scenes, perform individual work for one another, create their own script, run a short skit, and so much more.

Copycat Game

During a whole-class meeting, students can participate in a copycat game. This activity serves as an excellent warm up for students, or it can be used as the main focus activity. To complete, the teacher selects one student to silently act something out (baking something, gardening, etc.) for the class. The teacher can preselect the activity for the student, or the teacher may allow the student to select his or her own activity to act out; however, when the student acts it out, he or she cannot speak or make sounds. The student may perform for one minute. Then, the teacher will select a different student who must reenact what was just observed. Afterward, students may discuss what the activity was and how the performance could have been clearer, more detailed, etc. Students should also discuss what made the performance fun to watch and engaging!

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Nature Scavenger Hunt

Who says learning can’t be fun at home? You can create a nature scavenger hunt where families go out into nature to find various items. Creating a Google Slideshow and assigning it to the students through Google Classroom is a simple way to have students organize photos from the scavenger hunt.

This is an activity that can be used at multiple grade levels from elementary through high school. An elementary assignment would be much simpler as you can put items such as a tree or a bird, with extension questions in the Slideshow that would build upon knowledge such as, “What gas do trees release into our environment?” On a high school level, you could put more specific items on the scavenger hunt such as an oak tree and a woodpecker and create more complex extension questions. This assignment encourages being outdoors, and it is something the whole family can enjoy together.

At-Home STEM

STEM projects to do at home are also a great option and can also be used for any grade level. One example of a STEM project that includes the whole family is creating Origami Projects. The STEM teacher at my school created a Google Slideshow with origami projects to choose from along with instructional videos on how to create each one. These projects varied in complexity with classic projects such as a crane to a complex Ninja Star. Families could create these fun projects to do at home together and even make it a competition such as “Whose barking dog was the best?” Extension questions on the project can be geared toward the grade level or level of the students, and a Flipgrid video is a fun way to include the family and share with classmates how all the projects turned out.

English Language Arts

A way to include the family in an ELA activity would be to bring a story to life. Encourage students to take an assigned reading and create a play with the family. Have family members go through closets and dress the part as best they can and then perform the reading as a family. As Flipgrid has become a best friend of many teachers during distance learning, have the students record a small portion of the performance to share with classmates and teachers. This activity can be extended as students can do this for any book they wish to, and you can find scripts online to perform. This activity is probably best for elementary and middle school students but could also be used by drama departments to continue performances virtually.

Create a Song

A project that could be used for any subject area would be to have the family create a song! Students could choose any topic they wish such as the rainforests in Brazil to fractions in math! There are so many different types of learners this activity would reach. Students and their families create a song to teach about a particular topic. Creativity is encouraged, and some ideas are creating backgrounds, creating a dance to go along with the lyrics, use props in your performance, etc. This assignment is cross-curricular and includes many of the arts!

Teacher for a Day

Another activity you could have students participate in is to be a teacher for the day! Challenge students to teach their families about a concept that they have learned throughout distance learning. Students can create a Flipgrid and show parts of their lesson, as well as discuss their feelings on the assignment and successes and challenges they had throughout.

Social-Emotional Learning

An assignment that supports social-emotional learning and can be just for fun and optional is a “See a Dance, Share a Dance” series! I use this with my class, and create a dance video of the day on Flipgrid, and students and their families create their own. There are different themes such as “Throwback Thursday” where you can use a dance like the Macarena and “TikTok” where students perform their favorite (school appropriate) TikTok dance! This has brought a lot of fun and smiles to our online classroom.

Keeping families included in the online learning process really brings school, families, and community together, and an education project is a great way to do that. Making everyone feel supported through this experience is of utmost importance, and families, whether they have young kids or older kids, love to feel involved. As a teacher, it is difficult to recreate the wheel and find assignments that are meaningful and valuable to student learning, yet able to be completed at home. As Albert Einstein said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” Teachers are teaching in new ways, students are learning in new ways, and we are all evolving in our thoughts. We are all lifelong learners, and it is showing more and more through this elearning experience.

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In the span of about two weeks, many students and teachers, whether they had experience or not, have been thrown in the digital classroom. A digital classroom is a classroom that is fully immersed in technology. That definition may be a little stringent in our COVID-19 distance learning environment, but it passes the concept along quite nicely.

Since many schools have shifted their learning environment from the traditional classroom to the student’s home, digital delivery has become a huge medium in this transition. Most of the digital classrooms that students are using right now are delivery systems such as Google Classroom where teachers can post materials, post links to videos, post their own videos, post assignments, and students can return their completed assignments to the teachers and ask questions for clarification.

There are other digital classroom environments available, and they are used often. Edgenuity and Odysseyware are two examples where a set digital curriculum is already in place for students to follow with content, videos, explanations, etc. The teacher becomes more of a guide with these formats and can check progress and look for gaps in student performance. BrainPOP Jr. is a great example to look at for lower grades. My son is in first grade and really likes Istation.

Benefits of a Digital Classroom

While no one will argue the benefits of having a teacher in the traditional classroom or next to you guiding you through a math problem or helping you through annotations of a piece of literature, there are a couple of big advantages to the digital classroom.

First, look around us; this is the age in which we live. I mentioned my seven year old son earlier, and we also have a three year old. The way they pick up on using technology is amazing. Thus, if we are not teaching our students how to use this technology correctly, then actually we are performing a disservice to them.

As students matriculate through school, teaching them how to use technology covers two major areas: 1) digital citizenship — how to appropriately use the Internet, social media, etc. and 2) to be able to analyze the information they find on the Internet.

Secondly, in almost every job there is a piece of technology connected to it in some sort of way. Our students need to be prepared to go into the world and use their technology skills in the workforce. And again, if schools are not preparing students to use industry-level technology, we are not truly preparing them for the workforce.

Lastly, even though technology is here and changing each day, it is also the growing medium for higher education. Over the past five years, the number of college classes, workforce certification options, and continuing education classes that are online continue to expand. As our students continue to learn in a digital environment, they will be more prepared for the future.

How to Manage Your Own Digital Classroom

Much like many aspects of life, a major key to managing your own digital classroom is time management.

I posted for my students in their Google Classrooms the week we started distance learning that the number one thing they need to do is to find a routine. Whether that is in the morning or afternoon or split some time between both, they need to realize the importance of finding a consistent time of day where they can intentionally sit down and attempt to complete their work.

Secondly, it is important to minimize the distractions during this time. It may be hard not to have the kids around while you are in your digital classroom, or if you are an older sibling trying to keep the crumb-crunchers out of the room, it will be more challenging to be productive. However, the less you have going on, the more effective you will be.

Thirdly, the Internet has more resources than we can possibly imagine, so use them! Between Khan Academy and Youtube videos of how people solve problems, the answer is out there to be found.

Conclusion

If you look at the parabola of how quickly technology changes and improves, it mirrors the rate in which information is disseminated and consumed. The jobs that exist now and the forms of technology that exist now will likely be much different five and ten years from now.

Why does this matter? It matters because if we are not teaching skills, then we are not teaching our students something that is transferable from job to job or technology to technology. If we are not teaching our students how to filter and analyze the information they are taking in, then we are doing them a disservice because of all the information that is now at their fingertips. How to physically use technology is an important lesson, but how to process it is perhaps the more important lesson.

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What is Zoom?

Zoom is an incredibly user-friendly online platform for meetings. While it may have been used mostly for business in the past, now more and more teachers are realizing the usefulness of Zoom for distance learning. You can easily create an account by going to Zoom.com and following the steps to sign up. It is very easy to go from there and start inviting others to a meeting by sharing a link and a code. However, there are so many more features that can make your online learning instruction more effective.

Whiteboard –  Just like a whiteboard in your classroom, this can be used to demonstrate learning objectives for the entire class. You can also use the annotation feature to write on shared documents.

Breakout Room – This feature allows you to put students in small groups for a designated amount of time for group discussion or problem solving.

Audio Settings – Students can be muted when you need them to listen with minimal distractions. There is even a feature that allows students to virtually raise their hand in order to ask questions as needed. You can also pre-set your meeting to automatically mute students as they enter to minimize disruptions.

Sharing – You can easily share slides, files, or videos with students as you teach.

Poling – You can also poll students while in meetings. You can use single answer or multiple-choice answer format. You can do this during a meeting and see responses from your students. This is a great way to get a quick snapshot of student understanding.

Transcripts – An audio or text transcript can be given to students after the meeting so they can revisit information as needed.

How to Create Virtual Lessons

When creating your virtual lessons, remember that in many ways it is very similar to how you would teach and talk to your students in your own classroom. First of all, students do not have to sign up for an account in order to participate in meetings. After you have sent students the link they need to join the meeting and have set a date and time, you are ready. It is a good idea for you to join the meeting a few minutes early in order to ensure that the connection is good.

When you are beginning with your first virtual lesson, allow some time to speak to the students about the features of Zoom that they can utilize. Be sure to look at the camera to give eye contact to your students. Also, discuss appropriate behavior and procedures for eLearning.

Then, go ahead and give students an agenda or timeline of the events of the lesson. This tends to help students stay focused. Then, you can use screen share to provide direct instruction for your lesson topic. Throughout the lesson, you can allow time to promote questions, comments, and reactions. There may even be some small-group time to work problems together or discuss given issues.

Another great way to encourage student participation is to have students prepare a project, like some slides or a video, to share what they have learned with the whole class. You can use some of your time to check in with students individually to see how they are doing. Perhaps most importantly, allow some time at the end of the lesson for comments, questions, and closure. This is also a great time for engagement with the teacher as well as one another. Remember, relationships are just as important, if not more so, during this time of remote learning. This Tips and Tricks document is very helpful for learning your way around Zoom and all its features.

Other Ways to Use Zoom

Of course, there are many other ways to use Zoom. For example, teachers in our district are currently using Zoom to have meetings to discuss and share ideas for online learning. You can also use Zoom to meet with parents to help them with instructional issues that they are dealing with now as a result of this online learning situation.

Also, don’t forget how important it is that our students still get to have some social interaction with their friends. They miss each other as well and need to have some time to interact. Allow some time after a lesson or set up a meeting just for them to chat with one another. They need that communication and reassurance during this time most of all. Remember, you can always turn the volume down if they get a little loud. What a perk!

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Identify Lesson Objectives and Component Skills

The lesson objectives must be carefully thought out and outlined for the students. The targets must be clear and easy to understand. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers were accustomed to having written lessons plans for their courses, but not necessarily sharing those plans with the students. The teachers were using it as guidance for them to make sure they covered the material outlined for that day or unit.

An eLearning student might not meet with their teachers daily. The student must have a clear path moving forward, so they are not left behind their fellow students. The teacher can map out this trip for the student by being straightforward and precise when identifying the lesson objectives and skills that measure the students’ mastery of the topic.

Utilize Online Lesson Plan Templates

When creating eLearning materials, it is not necessary to re-create the wheel. The abundance of assistance online can be staggering. A benefit of using an online template is that the creator has provided the teacher with a road map that they can use to create clear and precise lesson plans. With a few exceptions, a K-12 teacher will be creating an eLearning environment that does not currently exist.

Stimulate Discussions

When teaching in a brick and mortar classroom, the teacher can create discussions by asking thought-provoking and probing questions. An eLearning teacher might not be able to do this as organically, depending on the delivery method of the class. If the teacher is not presenting live content, they must find other ways to get the discussion going. As an online instructor, I use my LMS (learning management system) as a delivery tool for dialogue with and between my students. I will create a discussion string on the board and require students to participate. The student must first post a response to the initial topic before they can move forward. Once the student creates the post, they must respond to at least two other students and then post a reflection to comments made on their initial response.

I have found by doing this, my students will begin to post their discussions regarding the lesson not only to seek assistance but also to provide aid. It is imperative that the teacher monitors these discussions for clarity, correctness, and to make sure that the responses remain professional.

Emphasize Regular Communication

As an online student pursuing my master’s in education, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of regular communication. It is easy for an online student at any level to get lost in day-to-day activities. The student can become overwhelmed quickly and give up. In a traditional classroom, the teachers will see their students regularly. They will have a chance to observe the student’s behavior, verbal and non-verbal, and have an opportunity to reach out to that student to see if they need assistance.

In an e-learning/online environment, that interaction might not take place. The teacher might not see the student every day and could not “see” the student at all. As teachers, we read our students to determine if they are struggling. Without these visual cues, we can lose a student and not know it until it is too late.

If the online teacher is communicating regularly with their students, they can help the students overcome difficulties and provide the assistance that is needed. The teacher could require regular check-ins or communication from the student or parent.

Create Engaging Content

An eLearning lesson cannot be just a PowerPoint presentation. It must be engaging and exciting. There are sites like Kahoot!, which have free or paid-for services, that can help to make content fun and engaging. Teachers could use Quizlet to create flashcards that quiz students on the materials that they studied. Softchalk gives teachers the ability to build a crossword puzzle, among other activities, to test a student’s retention of the lesson objectives outlined earlier.

The resources available to a teacher online can take them from an eLearning novice to an expert with practice and patience.

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