Using Drama in Health Education

The outline of the Creative Process has been excerpted from page 16 of the Ontario Ministry of Education's The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: The Arts to support educators in fostering creative expression and critical thinking when using a drama-based approach to explore Healthy Living education. Each step of the Creative Process includes specific examples of how the Creative Process may be used to support students in exploring healthy living concepts. Educators may use the examples provided for each step of the Creative Process in combination with the activities to support students in conceptualizing, creating and performing their original art piece to demonstrate their learning.

  1. Challenging and inspiring
    • Possible activities for the student: Responding to a creative challenge from the educator or another student, using creative ideas inspired by a stimulus
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Using a news story, a scenario, a social media clip or a quotation related to the selected healthy living concept as an inspiration to explore the concept through the creative process
  2. Imagining and generating
    • Possible activities of the student: Generating possible solutions to the creative challenge by using brainstorming, thumbnail sketches, choreographic sketches, musical sketches, or mindmaps
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Generating possible responses, decisions, solutions, outcomes to a story, scenarios, a social media clip, or a quotation through brainstorming, researching, or mind mapping based on the selected healthy living topic
  3. Planning and focusing
    • Possible activities of the student: Creating a plan for an artwork by choosing ideas, determining and articulating a focus, and choosing an appropriate art form
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Creating a plan for skits, choreographed sketches (creative dance), or musical sketches (songs) by choosing ideas and then determining and articulating a focus related to the selected healthy living topic (such as ‘using decision making and communication skills to resist pressures to use substances, and choose an appropriate art form to communicate their perspective (e.g., skit, dance, song)’)
  4. Exploring and experimenting
    • Possible activities of the student: Exploring a range of elements and techniques and making artistic choices for a work
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Exploring a range of drama elements and techniques and making artistic choices for a work, facilitated with the support of drama colleagues, senior drama students in the school, or members from a community theatre
  5. Producing preliminary work
    • Possible activities of the student: Producing a preliminary version of the work, sharing the preliminary work with peers and educators, and seeking their opinions and responses
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Producing a preliminary version of their work, sharing their preliminary work with peers and/or the educator, and seeking their opinions and responses as feedback to refine their work
  6. Revising and refining
    • Possible activities of the student: Refining the initial work on the basis of their own reflection and others’ feedback
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Refining their initial work on the basis of their own reflection and others’ feedback
  7. Presenting and performing
    • Possible activities of the student: Completing the artwork and presenting it to or performing it for an audience (e.g., their peers, an educator, the public)
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Completing their work and presenting it to or performing it for an audience (e.g., their classmates, their peers, an educator, a younger audience, the public)
  8. Reflecting and evaluating
    • Possible activities of the student: Reflecting on the degree of success of the work with reference to specific aspects that went well or that could be improved, using the results of this reflection as a basis for starting another arts project
    • Example within the context of healthy living: Reflecting on the degree of success of their work with reference to specific aspects that went well or that could be improved (e.g., as part of an exit strategy or self assessment at the end of the Healthy Living unit)