Using Drama to Enrich a Genre-Based Pedagogy for Teaching Academic Writing across Content Areas

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Using Drama to Enrich a Genre-Based Pedagogy for Teaching Academic Writing across Content Areas
Language: English
Authors: Rafaela Cleeve Gerkens (ORCID 0000-0001-7351-4713)
Source: Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 2024 47(3):427-449.
Availability: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 23
Publication Date: 2024
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Early Childhood Education
Grade 3
Primary Education
Grade 4
Intermediate Grades
Descriptors: Drama, Academic Language, Writing Instruction, Foreign Countries, Elementary School Students, Grade 3, Grade 4, Elementary School Teachers, Teaching Methods, Concept Formation, Content Area Writing
Geographic Terms: Australia
DOI: 10.1007/s44020-024-00072-8
ISSN: 1038-1562
1839-4728
Abstract: Drama has the potential to enrich and enliven established approaches to literacy learning, engaging students and expanding their possibilities for meaning-making. Drama-rich pedagogy is well-established as an effective tool in supporting language and literacy development. However, research to date has not explored the possibilities of using drama to enrich established genre-based approaches to teaching writing. This article reports on findings from an interventionist case study in an Australian primary school examining how a Year Three/Four teacher used drama-rich pedagogy to support students' academic writing of a scientific explanation text. The findings indicate three key pedagogical benefits of employing drama to build conceptual understandings of the field of study and relevant academic language as part of a genre-based pedagogy for teaching writing. Firstly, drama experiences can make visible students' prior knowledge of a topic, allowing teachers to identify, interrogate and transform students' misconceptions through reflective dialogue on embodied experience. These embodied and interactive experiences also support the development of shared understandings of key concepts and language. Finally, drama experiences provide embodied and interactive contexts in which students can move from common sense to more abstract/technical understandings of the topic of study which they can apply in writing their own texts. In sharing these findings, this article aims to illustrate how drama can be used to develop the conceptual and linguistic understandings required by genre pedagogy in engaging, embodied ways that draw productively on the diverse resources that students bring to their learning.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2024
Accession Number: EJ1446595
Database: ERIC
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