Reading, response, and realization: The relationship between drama in education and literacy to learning in the elementary classroom

Abstract

This thesis explores links between the fields of literacy and drama in education for the elementary whole-language classroom. In her transactional theory of reading, Louise Rosenblatt has provided a theory regarding students' transactions with text, and the exploration of ideas and impressions generated during a reading event. This thesis extends Rosenblatt's theory into the uses of drama in the learning process. Marjorie Siegel propels the notion of transmediation in education. Students should be encouraged to generate and express meanings gathered in reading across multiple sign systems. As a meeting place for many language-based and nonlinguistic sign systems, drama provides an ideal place for transmediation to occur. Several drama strategies, advocated by Dorothy Heathcote, Brian Edmiston, David Booth, and others, are introduced. Finally, two drama systems, story drama and narrative theatre, are introduced to show how drama, when linked to the curriculum, can generate rich and layered learning experiences.