Focus Questions
This resource was designed to prompt deeper reflection, focus reading, and support learning. Discuss these questions with colleagues who might stimulate new ideas and insights.
- By experimenting with the language behaviors used by parents and siblings, an infant gradually learns how to communicate his or her desires using words. Social interaction therefore plays a pivotal role in language development, as does the child’s impulse to communicate. How does classroom drama mirror the manner in which children learn their home language? Why might this make classroom drama a useful tool for helping K-2 English language learners absorb English?
- Mages proposed a causal model to explain the impact that creative drama has been shown to have on literacy. By using their bodies and voices to dramatize the characters’ words and actions, children fully engage their imaginations. How could this increase their ability to mentally simulate the events, characters, and nuances of a story? What impact might this have on comprehension?
- In what ways do Visual Thinking Strategies use details of art works to enhance understanding and nurture verbal language skills? How is this similar to—but different from—the Visible Thinking routines developed at Harvard Project Zero? Why is it crucial to ask “What makes you say that?
Additional Resources
- Understanding Steiner/Waldorf Approach to Preschool Ed
- Kindergarten Theater Lessons
- First Grade Theater Lessons
- Second Grade Theater Lessons
- Kindergarten Dance Lessons
- First Grade Dance Lessons
- Second Grade Dance Lessons
- K-2 Puppetry Lessons
- Common Core English Language Arts Standards for Speaking and Listening
- Visual Thinking Strategies
- Visible Thinking in Action
- Arts and Language Development (PPT)