Prescribed Learning Outcomes
It is expected that students will:
- express ideas and emotions using verbal and non-verbal communication
- accept constructive feedback and incorporate it into a dramatic work
- demonstrate the ability to reflect on a dramatic work
- demonstrate individual responsibility within the group when developing dramatic work
To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Exploration and Imagination in other grades click on an icon below.
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Suggested Instructional Strategies
- Show students paintings that portray gatherings of people. Encourage them to identify emotions that the paintings evoke, asking questions such as:
- How do you think the people in this picture are feeling?
- What tells us that?
- What do you think might happen next?
Help students work in role to represent the actions and emotions that happened before and after those depicted in selected paintings.
- Have students bring in objects that have distinct textures. As a class, discuss the characteristics of the textures. Then ask students to work in groups to create movement and sounds, using their bodies to represent qualities of a particular texture (e.g., rough, smooth, sharp, jagged, furry, slimy). The class analyses how the qualities were represented by the groups, then groups revise their work according to comments from the class.
- Invite the class to listen to a piece of music, then have students brainstorm a list of thoughts, images, and feelings evoked by the music. Divide the class into small groups and ask each group to choose one of the items from the list and develop an appropriate movement or dance drama to present to another group. Have students develop a list of individual and group criteria for the presentations using questions such as:
- How did the group represent the thoughts, images, and feelings of the music?
- How was it effective? Give examples.
- What did you do to help your group work toward its goal?
- What were your strengths in the group?
- What would you do differently next time?
Then have them critique the performances based on the criteria.
Suggested Assessment Strategies
- As students work on a variety of drama activities, look for evidence that they are willing and able to:
- explore different ways of advancing the action or deepening understanding
- consider the perspectives of others
- incorporate ideas of others into their dramas
- elicit and use feedback to refine their work in the dramas they are practising or rehearsing
- When students represent ideas and emotions in role, note the extent to which they are able to:
- change their voices to convey changes in feelings
- adapt the language they use to reflect specific feelings
- use language they have read or heard to develop specific roles (e.g., related to age, situation, occupation)
- use gestures and facial expressions to convey recognizable emotions
- include details and subtleties that increase the believability of their roles
- When students use criteria developed by the class to critique performances, look for evidence that they are able to:
- offer specific details and examples to support their judgments
- focus on the specified criteria rather than on their personal preferences
- Provide journal prompts to encourage reflection and self-assessment. For example:
- Make a web chart of words that describe how you felt and what you thought about during the activity.
- Draw a series of cartoons with speech and thought balloons to show the part of the activity that was most powerful for you.
- Make and label a diagram showing relationships among roles in the drama at the beginning, middle, and end.
- Find pictures of three objects that represent something important about the drama. Explain their connections to the drama.
- Write a journal entry or a letter in role.
Recommended Learning Resources
Print Materials
- 200+ Ideas for Drama
- Building Plays
- Center Stage
- Christmas On Stage
- The Complete Book of Speech Communication
- Creative Drama in Groupwork
- Drama Guidelines
- Dramathemes
- In Role
- Story Drama
- Taking Time To Act
- Wings to Fly
