Democracy in the Classroom

One of the biggest challenges in my first week at Runnymede, was the fact that the grade 7s and 8s needed to create a "Theatrical Piece for the Drama Showcase - student written and acted - linked with Social Justice and/or History. Uses Dialogue as well as Movement."

My question was "How do you create polished student written/acted material in a class of 35 students with the following challenges?"

- The piece can be no longer than 3-4 minutes
- Must have a Social Justice/History theme
- Incorporate: Dance, Movement, Choral, Poetry, Song, Tableau
- Must incorporate the WHOLE CLASS

I'm very proud to say that using a completely democratic voting method, each class has come up with a theme/idea for their piece in the drama showcase. We accomplished this in a 3 class method:

1) In the 1st class students made groups of 4-5. In their groups they used chart paper and markers to brainstorm ideas for the drama showcase. They had to make sure to stick to the above Drama Showcase Guidelines.
2) In this lesson, students learned about the  Elements of a Dramatic Performance. I gave each group a handout that they had to fill out with their group's idea and what Elements of a Dramatic Performance were included in their idea. Each group had to have a Title, a Theme (Social Justice/History theme), a Plot (Beginning, Middle, End) and one other Element (Character, Language, Song, Spectacle)
3) In this class, each group presented their idea to the class. We then had a democratic voting process, whereby each student was given an anonymous ballot and voted for their 1st and 2nd choices in a voting booth.

This method has worked extremely well and the votes have been tallied. I am very excited for the next lesson where we will let the classes know the outcome of their votes and we will begin the process of casting/blocking/staging the piece... Drama is exciting stuff!