Prescribed Learning Outcomes
- select language and movement appropriate to different roles
- demonstrate the ability to maintain focus within a drama structure
- demonstrate the ability to sustain a role
- use drama structures to tell stories
- demonstrate the ability to sustain belief in their imagined or created environment
To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Drama Skills in other grades click on an icon below.
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Suggested Instructional Strategies
- Divide the class into pairs (A and B) and have A and B role-play characters with opposing attitudes (e.g., A wants to go to one movie, while B wants to see another). After a set time, ask questions such as:
- What convinced you to change (not to change) your mind?
- What was your partner's attitude?
- How did your point of view change after your dialogue?
- Make cards listing characters, settings, and situations. Divide the class into groups of three and give each group cards for a character, a setting, and a situation. Ask students to develop short dramas based on their cards.
- Play the games "Yes, and. . . ." and "Yes, but. . . ." (see Appendix F) to focus on dialogue improvisation.
- Divide the class into groups of three or four and have each group choose a historic site (e.g., ghost town, frontier settlement, early Aboriginal village) to research. Then have students alternate as tour guides for their groups, describing the buildings, scenery, inhabitants, and activities of their chosen environments. Ask the groups how each tour guide helped them to sustain belief in the imagined environments.
- As a warmup activity for maintaining focus, ask students to play a lead-and-follow game such as "Mirroring" (see Appendix F).
- After a class discussion on characters, settings, and situations in dramatic work, divide the class into small groups and give each group a sentence to be used as part of the dialogue in a drama they are going to create. Each group decides who they are, where they are, and what the situation is, based on the information in the sentence. They then create an improvised drama.
Suggested Assessment Strategies
- When students are working in role, look for evidence that they are able to:
- initiate new ideas
- adjust to the words or actions of others
- use gesture to convey simple ideas
- change their language and body posture and movement to reflect the age, mood, or situation of their characters
- use energy and intensity appropriate to their characters
- integrate ideas and information from other subject areas or experiences to increase the credibility of what the characters say or do
- take risks to develop their characters
- share in the responsibility for creating dramatic works
- After students work with partners to create dialogues, have them reflect on and assess their work by responding to prompts such as:
- What do you know about the roles you were playing? Who are these people? What are they like? How do you know? Do you think your view of the roles matches what others observed?
- Which questions or prompts from your partner were hardest to respond to? Easiest? Why?
- What did you do to support each other in sustaining your roles?
- How did your partner's tone of voice affect the way you responded?
- After students create short dramas based on provided cards or other prompts, ask them to respond in learning logs or journals to requests such as:
- List three specific features you included that show that you understand drama.
- Tell about one problem you ran into and how you solved it.
- Tell about one thing you learned that you can use in future dramas.
Recommended Learning Resources
Print Materials
- Building Plays
- Center Stage
- Christmas On Stage
- The Complete Book of Speech Communication
- Creative Drama in Groupwork
- Drama Guidelines
- Dramathemes
- Elegantly Frugal Costumes
- In Role
- Story Drama
- Taking Time To Act
- Wings to Fly
Games and Manipulatives
