In my short foray into teaching, I taught at a continuation high school, basically a last chance for students with academic, behavioral and attendance problems. It was an inner city school with bullet holes in the windows! These students had failed in school their entire lives and believed they were stupid--many had been told this by teachers as they were growing up.
On my lunch hour, I created a drama club at the students' request. All of a sudden students who hated school, who were only there because it was a condition of their probation, were so involved and enthusiastic. They were verbal/oral/tactile learners. Sitting still in a desk and learning from a lecture or reading a book is for visual/verbal learners, so they had consistently failed. But they took to theatre like ducks to water, learning all their lines easily, coming up with blocking and costumes. I had a rule: miss one class and you're out because it lets your group down. Not one student was ever absent and their attendance improved in all their classes. All their teachers noticed their academic improvement as well. It was because these students finally felt like school was a place where they could succeed, where they belonged.
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