Embodied meaning making

In Drama, students engage with and make-meaning from stories, cultural understandings and archetypes through action and discussion. Students utilise their literacy skills through active listening, oral language, body language and writing. The focus of the following strategies is the building and expressing of embodied understanding, rather than on students’ performance abilities (Bird & Sinclair, 2019; Neelands, 2011). 

Using embodied images to support descriptive characterisation

During this activity, students create embodied images drawing on their existing knowledge. Students use their own physical representations and those of their peers as the foundation for speaking and writing. 

1. Each student finds their own space in the room.
2. The teacher explains that in this activity, there is no ‘right’ interpretation. Students may draw on their own experience and earlier knowledge of stories and characters from books, film, television, or oral storytelling.
3. The teacher asks the students to walk around the room as music is played. 
4. When the music stops, the students form frozen images according to the teacher’s prompt, for example: ‘villain,’ ‘hunger,’ ‘pride,’ ‘giant.’ These prompts may be linked to a narrative, play or archetypal characters central to the upcoming lesson/unit.
5. The students hold their frozen images for 5 seconds and then when the music re-starts, they drop their pose and return to walking around the space. 
6. During the next stage, the teacher adds detail to the prompts using adjectives or adverbs and longer noun groups, for example:  ‘a hungry boy’; ‘an angry giant’; ‘a wicked witch’; ‘a wolf licking his lips greedily’; ‘a politician holding his head high with pride’. 
7. After two or three rounds of ‘frozen images,’ students form small groups of 4 or 5. 
8. Each group is provided with a list of ‘characters’, including those used in the teacher’s prompts (for example: ‘wolf’, ‘giant’, ‘politician’) and situations/contexts (for example: ‘in the supermarket’; ‘in the grand dining hall’; ‘at the door of the old, creaky house’). 
9. In their groups, students are asked to use their ‘frozen images,’ the teacher’s prompts and their existing knowledge to extend the characters using adjectives, adverbs, extended noun groups and verbs and to place the character in a context/situation. The teacher provides examples.
   • ‘A skeletal wolf with long, sharp claws and fierce teeth moves stealthily to the door of the old creaky house.’ 
   • ‘The arrogant local politician held his head high with pride as he jostled through the media throng.’ 
   • The teacher and students deconstruct the examples to identify nouns, adjectives (for example, ‘skeletal’), adverbs (for example, ‘stealthily’), verbs (‘jostled’).
10. The teacher asks for a representative from each group. 
11. Taking turns, the nominated students read their group’s sentences to the rest of the class who are asked to repeat the ‘frozen images’ activity based on the descriptions.
12. The teacher and students discuss how the extended language in the prompts influenced their physical interpretations. 

Curriculum links for the above example: VCADRE034, VCADRD035, VCADRD036, VCADRD042.

Literacy in Practice Video: Drama - Embodied Images

Teacher: Cally Robinson

‘Whoosh’ – embodying and interpreting aspects of complex narratives

The ‘Whoosh’ is an effective Drama strategy that supports students to understand complex texts through

• active listening
• oral language
• body language and gesture
• intertextual knowledge
• collaboration.

A ‘whoosh’ is an action-focused version of an existing narrative. Often, a ‘whoosh’ is used to acquaint students with the plot developments of a complex text. 

For the ‘whoosh,’ the teacher may write their own version or summary of the complex text in accessible language. The new, simplified version of the text is broken into small segments so that each plot development or character introduction is clear. At the end of each segment, there is a ‘Whoosh,’ indicating a pause.

The Shakespeare Globe has further explanation about using the drama technique whoosh. 

The ‘whoosh’ is intended to be inclusive of all students. During the ‘whoosh,’ different students take turns to express ideas and characters for a short extract from the narrative, so the action is built quickly with a sense of fun. Students who are hesitant to play a character may form part of a crowd or represent settings and objects, for example trees in a forest or the wall of a castle. 

This meaning making activity is not about the quality of performance or expression but an embodied form of comprehension. The students work in-the-moment, and collaboratively, to visually represent and experience key moments in the story. Students can recall key aspects of the story readily through their embodied and visual memories of the whoosh activity. The ‘whoosh’ activity provides an opportunity for the students to embody key aspects of the story, its characters and the relationships between the characters as the story develops.

The following example uses a ‘Whoosh’ text that has been created from extracts from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

1. The teacher and the students form a large circle in the Drama space. 
2. The teacher explains the purpose of the ‘Whoosh’ activity is to support students to:
   • understand key plot developments and characters in the text
   • listen actively
   • use gesture, movement, and speech to convey plot developments, characterisations, and settings
   • draw on their existing ideas of characters from other texts
   • collaborate with their peers.
3. The teacher emphasises that are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ interpretations and that students are encouraged to have fun with their interpretations. 
4. The teacher acts as narrator, and starts reading the prepared text, using expression to highlight key aspects, emotions, and actions. The teacher pauses at regular intervals in the texts indicated by the word ‘whoosh’.
5. While narrating, the teacher encourages individual or small groups of students to take on a role for that short extract. The teacher may do this by gesturing to students. 
6. The nominated students move to the centre of the circle and enact the extract while the teacher is narrating. This enactment may involve movement, gesture, and/or oral language. The student might create a frozen image of an object or a character, repeat dialogue spoken by the teacher, or create their own dialogue. 
7. When the teacher says ‘Whoosh’ at the end of the short extract, the students in the centre move back to the circle. 
8. The teacher continues to narrate. Students are nominated by the teacher or self-nominate to move to the centre of the circle and continue to ‘act out’ the story. 
9. As the narration continues, the students build on each other’s frozen images and simple actions. 
10. Students in the centre of the circle stay in position until the teacher reaches another pause or ‘Whoosh’ in the story. At each pause, students in the centre clear the space and return to their place in the circle. 
11. The story continues with different students taking part in building the narrative. 
12. The teacher nominates reluctant students to participate in small parts to build confidence.
13. At key moments in the enactment of the story, the teacher prompt students to respond to literal, inferential, and evaluative prompts, for example:
    • Who are the main characters in the narrative? (Literal)
    • What are their relationships to one another? (Literal)
    • Why does Helena tell Demetrius about Hermia and Lysander’s plans to run away? (Literal/inferential)
    • How would you describe the character of Egeus, Hermia’s father? (Inferential)
    • When do you think this narrative is set? (Inferential)
    • What does the narrative so far reveal about the positions of people in this society? (Evaluative)
14. Students are encouraged for their participation in the collective re-enactment of the key elements of the story. 
    
15. At the end of the session, the teacher leads a reflection on the strategy using prompts such as:
    • How did the ‘whoosh’ session support your understanding of the text?
    • What skills and knowledge did you need to use to take part (for example, listening, speaking, body language, expression?
    • How did you and others draw on your knowledge of other texts?
    • Reflect on how you worked with others during this session.

Curriculum links for the above example: VCADRE034, VCADRD035, VCADRD036, VCADRD042.