It has been stated by many educators that, use of art can be very effective in students’ emotional well-being as well academic success. The power of expressions, words and imagery created through these art forms work much more than sources of entertainment. Bringing out relations from everyday life, story-telling and theater can be helpful in many ways.
- Creates interest and curiosity: When something is presented in such an interesting manner, with use of various props and characters, for e.g.: story of Mughal empire, it becomes eye-catching for students and creates curiosity to know more about the character and the story. Many topics and even chapters in syllabus can be taught in this way.
- Enhances verbal proficiency: When some new words are being used through story-telling or drama, they add to their vocabulary, as students relate its meaning with the context and learn the meaning easily. Also, use of pronunciation while speaking leads to correct phonetic usage in long term.
- Improves listening skills: Students usually have a short attention span and get distracted very easily. Through story-telling and drama, a teacher can get students to listen for more time and pay attention on what is being said.
- Improves creativity and imagination powers: During story-telling there are no visuals, a student imagines and creates imagery of the characters, plots and setting of the story narrated. This helps in developing imagination skills, as they learn to use their mind that way and think beyond reality. This also happens in drama, as many times setting of the play is very unrealistic and students use their senses to understand that.
- Improves memory and concentration: Once a mental image of particular thing is set in the student’s mind, it’ll surely stay for long. Audio-visual have very strong effect on a person’s memory, when something is seen or when an image is set in mind for a particular thing, it is not easily forgotten.
- Broadens horizons and opens minds: Young children usually don’t know much about various cultures and countries, using these arts they can be taught about various cultures, moral values and general life lessons.
- Develops verbal and non-verbal communication: Many times, students hesitate to ask questions about various topics, even though they have somethings going on in their minds. Through these arts, students would be intricated, discuss amongst each other or put up their points. Questions can be asked by teachers too, between or after the story, or when the play has ended.
- Develops problem solving and decision-making skills: When plays and stories are relate able, and when student connect to the character, they think what the character would or what they would do if they were in such situation. These presentations of situation help intricate thinking and use their own mind to solve problems instead of spoon feeding.
- Enhance psychological well-being: When a student sees a play or listen a story, or participate in performing them, they understand how the character is. What are the traits of the character and how he thinks. Students relate those to the people around him and understand general human behavior.
- Emotional and social development: When a particular story is told or show with various setting and plot, it brings out students’ emotions and they make connection with the character. Also, they understand various ways through which human emotions can be shown and expressed. They learn about humanity and how a society works, which are essential qualities to be developed in life.
There are many ways story-telling and theater can be used, and many things that can be demonstrated through these art forms. So, yes, teaching can be fun and effective at the same time, as story-telling and theater solve much more purposes than just entertainment.
