Teaching Primary Drama

This superb guide to teaching drama in primary schools is clearly laid out and packed with useful ideas.

The first section, 'Drama in Practice' looks at starting points, working methods and drama techniques. It gives very helpful guidelines for organising drama, including advice on control and discipline, questioning techniques and working with children in the early years. This section would be very useful for teachers beginning to use drama, as well as those with more experience.

Further sections of the book look at the use of drama in an integrated curriculum as well as planning and assessment. Perhaps the most useful section looks at extended examples of drama lessons and units for different age-ranges with links to the National Curriculum and the Primary Framework for Literacy. Despite the updating of the National Curriculum, the material remains relevant, including developing drama from art and narrative poetry, using drama to investigate history and to explore traditional and contemporary stories.

Any teacher wishing to use drama to support creativity and learning across the curriculum would benefit from using this clearly written and highly practical book.