Improving students' writing through creative drama

Individuals face social, moral and ethical issues in their daily lives. Drama is the expression of these issues through body, words, gestures and writing. Drama not only helps individuals increase their communication skills but also help them develop their self-perception and creative thinking skills. This study investigates the effects of creative drama activities on fifth-grade students' creative writing skills. Through the mixed study design, the data of the study was collected in three different classrooms of a primary school located in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara. The school principle, teachers and students were willing to participate in the study. Students in the study classroom and the control classrooms were asked to write a story at the beginning and at the end of the study. However, the students in the study classroom participated in reading, creative writing and creative drama activities for a total of eight times and each of these activities lasted for approximately 40 minutes. During these activities, the students read a story book, discussed the elements of the story such as theme, characters, events, time, and the location of the events take place. After that the students were asked to participate in creative drama activities based on their daily readings. At the end of the study, students' written stories from all three classrooms were read and scored based on a story writing rubric and interviews were conducted with study classroom students regarding their experiences throughout the study. Recommendations and suggestions for educators were provided. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Ayse Cakir Ilhan