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Reflection & Critical Thinking

Help students think deeper about drama.

Explore reflection prompts, discussion ideas, and critical thinking activities that help students analyze their work, respond thoughtfully, and grow as theatre artists.

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Reflection & Critical Thinking

Closure Practices for the Drama Classroom

What is a closure practice? A closure practice is a way for students to separate the work done in drama class or rehearsal from their everyday life. When working on intense exercises or scenes in...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Small Actions, Big Results

Students often come to drama class with big goals: Get the lead in the show! Become a performing star! And while some students might make great steps towards achieving those big goals, most don’t...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Why Is Reflection Important?

Reflecting is an important tool in the drama classroom, and an essential part of personal growth. If your students ask you why reflections are important, here are five reasons you can give them: 1....
Reflection & Critical Thinking

The Reflection Collection: A Round-Up

We are all about reflecting here at Theatrefolk. You’ll notice that the vast majority of exercises and lessons here and in the Drama Teacher Academy include an exit slip or reflection questions....
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Embracing Failure in the Drama Classroom

Whether we choose it or it’s chosen for us, change is hard. Further, change is a risk, and when something is both hard and risky, it opens up the possibility of failure. And if there’s anything...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

What’s Changed? A Rehearsal Reflection

Countless hours are spent in rehearsal: learning, reviewing, and practicing material. Let’s focus on the first aspect: learning. At the beginning of the rehearsal process, everything is new. From...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Encouraging Process over Product: The 90/10 Idea

Theatre is a funny thing, isn’t it? Teachers and students spend hours upon hours rehearsing, exploring, practicing, and reviewing. And that’s not even counting the hours spent working on the show...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Reflection: Looking Back and Looking Forward

After a production closes, reflecting on your process and thinking about the future are the natural next steps. They’re definitely an important part of the process, for you as a teacher and for...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Drama Class Exercise: Poll Your Class

“I’ve got so much to say / if only you would listen!” That’s one of my favourite lyrics from School of Rock: The Musical. Students truly wish to be heard, and as teachers, it’s our responsibility...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

How Do You Measure Success in the Drama Classroom?

Success in the drama classroom can be a challenging thing to measure. Not all students who take drama want to go on to become professional performers or technicians. Many students take drama simply...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Sharing What We’ve Learned: Developing a Class Showcase

A class showcase is a great way to share and celebrate what your class has learned in drama class. It gives your students the opportunity to demonstrate the skills they have acquired and put those...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Coming to the End: Reflecting on Your Process

Coming to the end of a show’s run is an incredibly emotional experience. You’ve put hours and hours of work into a project that, in the end, has ceased to exist. Yes, you have the memories you’ve...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

5 Reasons to use an Online Journal in the Drama Classroom

Drama teacher Joshua Hatt started using Google Drive as a response to the frustration of having his students lose curriculum booklets time and time again. His work developed into a powerful online...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Preparing Drama Students to Close Read

What is close reading?Close reading is an analysis tool. Students read a text multiple times for in-depth comprehension: • First read: WHAT is being said in the text? What QUESTIONS do you have? •...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

The Drama Journal

Performances are rarely the only area where learning occurs in the drama classroom. What goes on during instruction, what happens in rehearsals and group work, how problems arise and are solved —...
Reflection & Critical Thinking

Connect to Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking is a buzzword. It’s one of the keystone 21st century skills. How do we incorporate critical thinking into the drama classroom? Provide steps not buzzwordsCritical thinking is a...