Outline
These resources provide a drama lesson on the 12th century story The Green Children of Woolpit,
an East Anglian medieval legend about a green boy and girl from another
world, who unexpectedly find themselves near a Suffolk village. The
villagers accept them into their community, but the boy pines for his
homeland and dies. The girl settles, marries a local boy and learns to
speak the language of the villagers.
The focus of this teaching and learning is on valuing, understanding
and accepting cultural similarities and differences, and on encouraging
empathy with and care of people who are new arrivals to a community or
country. The drama brings the feelings and dilemmas of the story alive
and supports active, positive, whole-class engagement, action and
reflection in role.
Drama Strategies and Conventions used include:
Teacher in role, Improvisation, Still Image, Freeze Frame,
Thought-Tracking, Conscience Alley, Small group playmaking, Performance
carousel, Ritual, Mime and movement, Image theatre.
Key learning objectives include gaining appreciation that cultural
diversity and migration into a community can be a positive change, and
that tolerance and empathy are a collective responsibility of that
whole community. |
Additional support
Websites
Picture Books
- The Green Children, by Kevin Crossley-Holland and Alan Marks (1997), published by Oxford University Press; New Ed edition ISBN 13: 978-0192799586
- Maudie and the Green Children, by Adrian Mitchell (1996), published by Tradewind Books; 1st edition ISBN 13: 978-1896580067
- Opera score of The Green Children, composed by Nicola Lefanu, Novello & Co http://www.chesternovello.com/Default.aspx?TabId=2432&State_3041=2&workId_3041=1234
Published drama schemes of work on The Green Children:
- School Improvement Through Drama – Drama Unit 2 – by Patrice Baldwin (Autumn 2009), published by Network Continuum Education ISBN 13: 9781855394568
- Beginning Drama 11-14, by Jonothan Neelands (2004), published by David Fulton; 2nd edition ISBN 13: 978-1843120865. A year 7 version of the legend is used with the green children being found in modern times.
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