Students examine the production process in terms of the developmental needs of children and critically review a wide range of dramatic literature written for young people. The course culminates in the production of a play for local youth. The emphasis throughout is on exploring the educational potential of theater as an art form. 301 Drama in a Developmental Context Students in this course study the relationship between dramatic experience and human development with an eye toward examining the educational potential of drama. In addition to exploring various perspectives on drama in education, students complete readings that analyze the functions of drama in human development.
Students also develop a drama project with a group of local children.
Participants in the course are expected to tell and read stories in local schools. There is a laboratory with this course. In this course students examine the ways children learn to speak, read, and write, and the role schooling plays in that process. The objective is to enable students to move beyond the perception of language as a discrete, technical experience to be mastered by becoming proficient in describing linguistic structure, a characterization that is central to many traditional approaches to teaching the language arts. Students deal with the process of interpretation at a more general level by examining selections from psychology, literature, art, anthropology, and philosophy, as well as education.