21 Dramatizing Information
Definition
Acting out information such as steps in a task or an abstract concept using physical gestures and modeling to assist in understanding and learning of a skill or concept.
In action
Teachers can incorporate dramatizing information into lessons to help students internalize and better understand information and skills.
Support Strategies
- In history class, a teacher or student can act out a specific moment of history to help them remember the smaller details such as dates and names.
- Teachers can model the steps of a task like washing hands or using a specific function on a calculator while talking through each step.
- Teachers or other students can use gestures to teach the difference between pronouns (I- point to self, you- point to other).
Case Study
Student: Grade 4 student in language class
Content: Students are asked to recall what happened in the story they read by writing a summary.
Problem: The student is having trouble remembering what happened in the story because they had trouble reading the book.
Solution: In small groups of 4-5, the teacher has students act out the story before writing the summary.
Additional Resources
- Definition and examples of story dramatization from Reading Rockets
- Definition of modeling with video exemplars from the University of Louisville
- Description of the multiple variations of video modeling from News2you
- A how to guide for video modeling with emphasis on research and effectiveness
- Video on video modeling and prompting from DADD
