7 December 2012 (Fri)

Can drama exist in English curriculum and do its job?

This time, I was invited by Hong Kong Institute of Education Research of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and conducted two seminars. The seminars aim to share my experience of setting up a learning English through drama curriculum in a local school, and introduce the use of process drama in English learning. Though it is better to introduce drama through workshop, this time I tried to do it in the form of seminar as this can accomodate more teachers as an introduction. Hopefully, teachers who attended my seminar may become interested and attempt to join workshops sometime.

The participants are English teachers in secondary schools in Hong Kong.

Prezi presentation can be found clicking the words underlined.

For teachers who are looking for some user-friendly materials for trying, please see Language Alive: Teaching English through Process Drama (a collection of unit plans). Although it is a set of primary school materials, they are good enough for adaptation for teaching.

15 November 2012 (Mon)

Professional Development Sharing with English teachers in CUHKFAA Secondary School

In this workshop, I merged my sharing of the school-based learning English through drama curriculum with practical drama conventions that could be tried out in classrooms.

The teachers were energetic and active though after the whole day of teaching.

I have shared the project I have been working for six years. This project is about setting up learning English through drama curriculum in the secondary school that I am working now. Drama is used as pedagogy to learn English in a English double lesson every week.

The presention can be found here-- Drama workshop with teachers in CUHKFAA.

10 November 2012 (Sat)

Professional Development Sharing

"To be an actor or a teacher? That is the question!"

Targets: English teachers in Pimary schools (Hong Kong)

The workshop began with a sharing of my school-based learning English through drama curriculum in my recent school (Our Lady of the Rosary College-- a secondary school in Hong Kong). It then was followed by a series of warm-up exercuse and a process drama workshop based on the story "Goldilocks and the Three bears". After the workshop, Noel who is another facilitator in the workshop, shared her experience of working with primary schools in using drama as pedagogy in English learning. The workshop went well as the participants were really active and playful.

Noel and I used the story as a pretext to demonstrate to the teachers how the use of process drama can scaffold students' learning of English in a meaningful and playful way. Teachers do not have to play the role of a professional trained actor; more importantly they are playing a role of a facilitator to guide students to make meaning by living through the make-believe world. As students are making sense of their experience, they express themselves through the target language with the support of the teacher.