I decided to try something different in Term 1 this year by using an idea from my background as a secondary Drama teacher in my Prep (Foundation) library lessons. The Australian Curriculum groups Foundation – Year 2 Drama content descriptors together; so while this particular unit was taught to Prep students, it could be easily modified to suit Year 1 and 2 classes.

Readers’ Theatre was the form of Drama I used to introduce Prep classes to the joy of texts. In Readers’ Theatre, a narrator – in this case myself as the teacher librarian – reads a narrative and students take on the roles of the characters, performing the actions of their character as the story is read. This type of structured yet improvised performance is a fantastic place for students to start exploring Drama. My experience is that kids absolutely adore this unit; expect very eager little faces staring back at you when you ask for a volunteer to play a character:

“Kindergarten” by Navy Hale Keiki School is licensed under CC BY 2.0

It is very important to select the right books to use in Readers’ Theatre; the best kind are children’s picture books with a handful of easily recognisable characters. To begin with, I used books by Nick Bland such as The Bear Series and The Wrong Book, which are lots of fun. The Gruffalo Series by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler were the next set of books we explored. The descriptive language used in these books is perfect for helping budding actors get into character. Finally, in order to assess the students’ drama skills, I selected The Mr Men and Little Miss Series by Roger Hargreaves. This series of books is a perfect fit for Readers’ Theatre, as there are a large number of books in the series, with a mix of male and female characters that are heavily stereotyped and as such quite easy for young students to characterise.

During and after lessons, I took notes on the students based on the Foundation – Year 2 Drama Curriculum. I created a criteria sheet and allocated the students a level using the notes I had taken. This enabled me to team library lessons with the Drama curriculum and gave the teachers one less subject they needed to tackle in the classroom during Semester 1. However, this unit could easily be taught to students by the classroom teacher, instead of the teacher librarian.

When reflecting on the unit at the end of the term, I decided on one main thing that I would change for next time. The biggest difficulty I encountered was the size of the Mr Men and Little Miss books; they are quite small. Even though the students’ attention was mainly on their classmates’ improvisations, they were still interested in looking at the pictures in the book. I also felt that the images in the book would have helped the students with less dramatic flair come up with ideas for actions. I have since discovered the MR MEN LITTLE MISS OFFICIAL YouTube channel, which features seven minute long videos of the Mr Men and Little Miss stories. My plan for next time is to use the classroom at the back of the library, and clear the desks to the side of the room. Students will be able to sit on the floor with the actors in front of the Smart Board. Together as a class we can then watch a Mr Men or Little Miss video in short snippets and pause it to allow the actors to perform the part of the story they have just watched.

An example of a Mr Men YouTube video: Mr Happy

This unit addresses the Australian Curriculum Foundation – Year 2 Drama Content Descriptors…

• Explore role and dramatic action in dramatic play, improvisation and process drama (ACADRM027)
• Use voice, facial expression, movement and space to imagine and establish role and situation (ACADRM028)

…and General Capabilities

• Literacy
• Critical and creative thinking