Why would I be willing to try process drama in my classroom? Honestly, I would be willing to try it simply for the fact that my students will have to interact with one another outside of the realm of text messaging. I have witnessed several examples of poor social skills in my student observations, and in my opinion this is ridiculous. Kids rely on technology far to much for communication and we are losing the common social skills that generations past have taken for granted. For instance, kids need to learn to react to each other without the protection of an electronic device. Using an emoticon does NOT give you the right to be nasty to someone else. I really think that students struggle with this!
Anyway, back to process drama and Pirie's quote the "[one] function of drama [...] is its compelling invitiation to widen our focus beyond the individual, to include interactions with others and with contexts " (p. 51). I agree! Kids need to interact with each other and the texts in a way that is concrete and real. Sure they can do it via the computer, but I like the added challenge of forcing students to be in the same room to complete a project. Imagine that?! It's also important for works that were meant to be seen and not read (like Shakespeare's plays), and students need to understand how both the text and the stage directions work together. It would also force them to understand tone and purpose as a lot of what they will be doing is left up to their interpretation. So of course I would try this in my classroom because the benefits far outweigh my concerns!
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