Student perspective on perspective taking

Through the drama conventions, especially writing in role, students began to express understandings about what it must be like to be another. In discussing both their writing and the use of the conventions they were able to reflect on why the characters were acting as they did. In The Very Best of Friends drama, the students described what it must be like for Jessie when James died and that her love for James and his memory caused her to change her treatment of William, the cat. The students demonstrated the ability to write both in role and to reflect out of role on the characters’ behaviour. In their out of role writing students were asked which drama convention helped them to view the situation from another

perspective. The writing from all the students was rich and deeply reflective. I have selected three from the sample group as examples. Here Jade describes what life must be like for Jessie.

I feel sad, I don’t like cats but William is an exception. I don’t want to get rid of him because he meant so much to James, James wouldn’t be happy if I got rid of him. Life without James is really hard, I’m so busy and I feel really sad without him (SWR).

Out of role Jade was able to say perhaps why Jessie was treating William unkindly.

That loss causes sadness and sometimes causes people to neglect animals …. When she realised what she had done, neglected William (SRJ).

Jade in her reflection said that the drama convention, writing in role was helpful

because it helps me realise/understand how Jessie felt about the situation (SFJ).

Another student, Lois writes in and describes how she will treat William better, in memory of James.

It’s very lonely without James, so lonely. I miss him dearly. I am going to keep William because he was very loved by James and he would’ve wanted me to keep him. I’ve grown tolerable of him and inside, very deep inside I know I am able to love him as much as James did (SWR).

109

Lois, later recorded that writing in role was an effective way to help her

understand what it must be like to be Jessie and perhaps prepare her for a similar situation in the future. In answering the question I wonder why William grew lean and mean? Lois stated that

Jessie realised that William had grown lean and mean through her own faults and how she treated him. She knew that isn’t what James would’ve wanted (SFJ).

Lois like Jade, explained that writing in role helped her gain another perspective.

The feelings that I wrote about and what it would be like if I went through what she went through. I thought this was a great way to learn about things that you haven’t experienced (Jessie’s loss).

…… I learnt this way to get an idea of how Jessie felt though I will never know until it happens to me (SRJ).

Brian for whom writing is a struggle, wrote the following when in role as Jessie:

My life has been so sad when James died. I have been so lonely no one to help me. No one to keep me warm. I have felt like I was the one who died (SWR).

The poignancy in Brian’s comments was deepened further when placed alongside his reflection that freeze frame was helpful as a convention in understanding how both William and Jessie felt because of the way the group got William to scratch Jessie (SI).

In all three of these examples it can be seen that the Crow boy drama gave students an opportunity for a different kind of writing. Once again this showed perspective taking within the drama. They were asked to adopt the blanket role of principal and RTLBs. The challenge was to create a programme for his learning needs. The convention ‘role on the wall’ was used to enable students to write in role as principals, describing the ideal teacher for Crow Boy. All the students agreed that the essential characteristic of the ideal teacher was the ability to be kind and care about kids. The girls were adamant that a female teacher was the best because females tend to treat kids as their own and males tend to be grumpy. Boys generally said as long as they had the characteristics that were described in

110

the job description it didn’t matter if the teacher was a male or female teacher. The boys tended to use primary rewards such as coffee and food as an inducement to teaching someone with learning needs. When writing in role as teachers of learning and behaviour (RTLBs) they wrote an inclusive and engaging programme. It is difficult to summarise the ideas as they were original and creative but some of the common statements from the class were suggest

• Develop an encouraging programme, one because if it wasn’t he would fail and not make it through school. A programme where they fold paper/origami + paper activities, play eye games like eye spy, could do a bug day when they just teach about bugs and they go out and find some bugs. Could get people from other schools that are like him so that they can relate for one day.

• Helping him learn /understand maths, self-defence, games that make learning fun for him. Lots of playful activities, paper construction, board games, counting, basketball, netball, computers.

• Developing a bully free zone, learning space centre, a punching bag, science class, a special meeting club. Learning posters on the roof and walls. Have a rewards chart for him.

Students would not be able to write such a compelling job description without developing a strong sense of Crow Boy’s perspective and needs. Here, then we have evidence of drama strategies and conventions being used to establish multiple perspectives and later to express these multiple perspectives through ‘in role writing’ and ‘role on the wall’.

See figure 8, for characteristics described by the students as the ideal teacher for Crow Boy.

111

Teacher Job Description

112

Further evidence of the students’ ability to take multiple perspectives was found in the questionnaire before and after the Crow Boy drama. See Appendix M. In analysing the response to the first question Why do Students run away from school? the majority of the students recorded in their view that students run away from school because they are bullied or the programme is boring. In response to the question, How must life be for Crow Boy?17 Most of the students used two to three words. The students outside the sample group (n=18) reported the following words to describe how Crow boy must have felt, lonely (6),hard (5),sad (3),boring(3),exhausted, miserable, complicated and horrible (2). The sample group used similar descriptors. They were hard

(5),sad,(2),difficult(2),horrible(2),lonely(2) no friends (2). When both the class and the sample group were asked in their post reflection what they would do if Crow Boy was in their class? The class reported, 13/18 that they would be kind to him, help him, and include him, 2/18 said not to pick on him and 1/18 said she would probably leave him to himself unless he was being bullied. The sample group 5/8 reported that they would be nice to him, friendly and talk to him. However Lois said , Maybe I could be nicer to people when they feel how Crow

Boy felt. She then went on to say I would probably still ignore him, Sam said not sure, and Gavin said He is a bit weird. Jade tended to summarise what the rest of

the class said in their reflections. Just try to be nice and not to judge him because

things aren’t always as they seem.