Connecting drama experiences to the curriculum

I've been thinking about how valuable of an experience going into role is and how it connects to building social and emotional skills among children in our classrooms today.  From what I can see, when a group of students and their teacher go into role it creates an environment where students are able to deepen their self awareness and in doing so strengthen relationships among themselves.

McLeod (1988) refers to a definition of role creates that creates a more defined understanding of how valuable role playing is as a means to "see the world from another perspective".  I believe that there are more and more of my students who have difficulty seeing things from another person's point of view. 

Dorothy Heathcote shows how collective drama works so well in classroom settings.  It is an incredible way to meet many of the social emotional deficiencies that we see in our students today.