Drama Strategies: Bring Literature to Life
Illinois Association of Teachers of English Conference
October 16, 2015
Presenters: Marjie Hillocks and Laurel Serleth
Creative Drama Specialists, Evanston School District 65
Of Mice and Menby John Steinbeck, 1937
1.Frozen Tableau/Audience Remarks/What’s the Headline (small groups)
A. Students in small groups create a tableau with one of the following emotions: tension, fear, isolation, anger.
B. Small groups, using the same emotion, create a tableau of a scene that happens in the bunk house. (Students would be able to choose their own scenes demonstrating these emotions).
Tension: George stopping Lennie from talking when the Boss enters. (p 21-22)
Isolation: Curly’s wife entering the bunk house. (p 31)
Fear: Candy protesting Carlton’s wanting to shoot his dog. (p 47-48)
Anger: Curly threatening to fight Lennie. (p 62-63)
Secret Thoughts (Inner Monologue)(individuals-one at a time)
Students, as characters, are asked for their secret/inner thoughts.
2. Role Playing/Missing Scene/Spotlighting (groups of 3)
Play a scene at Aunt Clara’s dinner table the night that Aunt Clara asks George to take care of Lennie. Characters: Aunt Clara, George and Lennie. (p 22, 40-41)
3. Hot-seating (One student takes on a role and sits in the front of the group, teacher and other students ask questions.)
Curly’s Wife: One student take on the character of Curly’s wife. (p 88-89, 92-93)
Any character can be hot-seated, including characters that are only mentioned
such as Aunt Clara; or characters that may advance student’s understanding
such as a Sheriff, Lennie’s mother, George’s father.
4. Good Angel/Bad Angel (small groups of 3)
Play a scene with three students: George, good angel, and bad angel. George hears reasons from his inner voices as to whether or not he should shoot Lennie.
5. Interviews(pairs)
Students, in pairs, one as Slim, one as the Sheriff. The Sheriff interviews Slim as to what happened to Curly’s wife and why Lennie was killed. (Description of Slim
on p 33-34.)
6. Mantle of the Expert/Teacher in Role (whole group, with teacher in role)
Students and teacher are in role as jury members. They are considering the
death of Lennie and whether George should be punished.
7. Letter Writing or Journal Writing (whole group, but write as individuals)
Students, as George, write a letter to Aunt Clara explaining Lennie’s death.
8. Voice Collage or Popcorn (whole group, with teacher facilitating)
Students chose a favorite sentence or phrase from their letter. Teacher can point to students one at time to read, or students can read randomly.
Neelands, Jonothan and Goode, Tony. Structuring Drama Work: A
Handbook of Available Forms in Theatre and Drama. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1993.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension.
New York: Scholastic, 2002
Marjorie Hillocks
Laurel Serleth