Redefining Drama

When I started to read Esmiston and Wilhelm's article about using drama in the ELA I was a little confused to begin with because they dive right into how they used it in the classroom then explained what exactly drama is.  Due to preconceived notions, I've always considered drama to only exist in stories such as plays, novels, and movies.  According to Esmiston and Wilhelm's definition, I have been wrong about the extent of what drama is exactly.  They explain that drama is asking "what if..." then imagining the possibilities of the "what if" in an imagined world.  "What if" opens up a new world of imagination and questions to be explored.

Okay, so I understand that drama is not what I always thought it was, but now I have to wonder how this applies to the ELA classroom.  They (Esmiston and Wilhelm) quote Dorothy Heathcote who says drama is when you, "put yourself in other people's shoes and by using their person experience to help you understand their point of view you may discover more than you knew when you started."  I was not really sure how drama would be used in a classroom, but one way Esmiston and Wilhelm give is to have the students put together what they would have in a museum in which students must decide what to put in the museum and why.  This process requires research and collaboration between students. 

How could researching history through drama be beneficial to students? After reading on a little more it started to make more sense to me how it could help.  Drama requires students to get involved and research and to put themselves in the shoes of those in the past which then adds to any material they might be reading in class around the time period they are studying.  Students are then able to connect to the literature in a different way than if they didn't have the background research and thought that drama requires to help them in comprehension.  Further exploration in how drama works in the classroom will be something to look forward to in the future.