Prescribed Learning Outcomes
It is expected that students will:
- use vocal elements appropriately when developing a variety of roles
- use a variety of movements to express an idea, mood, or role
- demonstrate the ability to take on a role
- tell stories that have a beginning, middle, and end
- create suitable environments for drama
To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Drama Skills in other grades click on an icon below.
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Suggested Instructional Strategies
- Show the class three objects that represent the beginning, middle, and end of a story they will create. As a class, develop a story based on the three objects. Then form small groups and give each group three new objects. Ask them to create and tell stories based on the objects. Have the groups develop a Story Theatre based on the new stories (emphasizing the use of appropriate vocal elements for the characters and narrators).
- Invite students working in groups to create tableaux depicting the beginning, middle, and end of stories and present them to the class. Take photographs of the tableaux and have students analyse them for story structure, mood, and characterization.
- As students listen to recorded sound effects or music, challenge them to represent these sounds with movement. Ask students how their movements represent the mood in the sound effects and music.
- As a class, discuss ways of moving in various environments (e.g., cave, space ship). Ask groups of students to move through chosen environments in role, considering interior dimensions (height, width) and surface qualities (e.g., smooth, steep) as they move. Have each group perform while classmates guess the environment.
- Using a large space (e.g., gymnasium), have students move to the narration of a particular moment in a familiar story (e.g., the giant realizes Jack has stolen the goose that lays the golden eggs). Give directions such as: "Show me how the giant would move as he chases Jack."
Suggested Assessment Strategies
- When students participate in drama activities, note the extent to which they are able to:
- speak clearly--be easily heard and understood
- control volume to match space, desired effect, and group size
- change their voices to show changes in how characters feel
- assume different voices for different roles or characters
- Provide a variety of opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of stories while creating them. Use questions such as the following to offer insights into their decisions:
- How do you know that a story has a good beginning? Tell me about a story you created that had a strong beginning.
- What makes a story interesting or exciting? How do you try to make your story interesting to perform and watch?
- How do you decide when it's time to end a story? What is one of the best endings you've created?
- As students participate in a variety of activities, note and encourage their abilities to convey ideas through movement. Note the extent to which individual students are able to:
- use facial expressions and gesture to convey a mood
- use movement to convey a narrative storyline
- respond to imagined physical spaces and constraints
- show originality in the movements and gestures they choose
- offer more than one physical interpretation of a mood, event, or space
- When students engage in role plays, note evidence that they are able to:
- sustain their attention when others are taking on roles
- show interest and curiosity about a variety of roles
- use voice and movement to interpret roles
- remember and use attributes or movements they have seen
Recommended Learning Resources
Print Materials
- Building Plays
- Center Stage
- Christmas On Stage
- Creative Drama in Groupwork
- Drama Guidelines
- Dramathemes
- Elegantly Frugal Costumes
- In Role
- Readers Theatre for Beginning Readers
- Story Drama
