12
Miss K. Yates
Grade 8 Arts Education:
Drama Strand
Miss K. Yates
2010-2011
Table of Contents
Overview Page 3-6
Aims and Goals Page 7-8
Outcomes Page 9-12
Unit One: Drama in Context Page 13-20
Unit Two: Collective Creation Page 21-23
Unit Three: Dramatic Artists Page 24-25
Proposed Timeline Page 26
Proposed Daily Routine Page 26
Appendices Page 27
Journal Rubric Page 28
Story Telling Process Assignment Page 29
In Role Page 30
Monologue Page 31
Tableau Page 32
Peer Evaluation Page 33
Self Evaluation Page 34
Drama Glossary Page 35-39
Overview
The creative/productive, cultural/historical and critical/responsive components of the drama curriculum are designed to provide students with opportunities to:
· increase their understanding of others, themselves and the world around them
· increase their ability to construct and to communicate meaning through language and action
· deepen understanding of cultural and social traditions
· gain a lasting appreciation of the dramatic art form through critical reflection upon drama experienced as participant and as audience.
Statement of Approach: Drama in Context and the Collective Creation
As students enter the middle years, they are prepared to undertake drama work which affirms and extends their previous drama experiences.
The approach taken to the teaching and learning of drama in the elementary Arts Education curriculum is "drama in context". Drama in context means, as it suggests, that dramas are structured to provide a context, a situation or a metaphoric framework in which students and teacher work together. Within each drama, students and teacher assume roles and enter into a fictional world prepared to accept and "live through" an imagined situation.
A "collective creation" is a play or a collection of episodes or scenes which is developed and performed by a group.
The middle years drama curriculum recommends that students continue their exploration of ideas and dramatic art form within dramatic contexts and extend that work through a process of shaping, refining, polishing and, possibly, performing a collective creation. Thus, during the middle years drama program, students will become increasingly able to communicate their intended ideas through dramatic art form and may have the opportunity to do so for audiences beyond their classroom.
Teacher Note:Drama in context is also referred to as role drama, drama for understanding and whole group drama.
The Three Components
The three components are interwoven into the drama work to ensure that students become aware of the connections between their work and their world. Students should be encouraged to discuss and respond to these connections, and to individual and collective contributions at each step of the work.
Thecreative/productivecomponent is realized as the students work with their teacher within dramatic contexts and as they shape and refine their ideas toward more polished work. Through this component, the students will develop the ability to recall, react to and describe, both in and out of role, their drama experiences. Times for reflection provide the students with the opportunity to assess their work and the work of others. Reflection serves to deepen their understanding of the drama work and enables them to make more carefully considered contributions to the work. In this way the critical/responsive component acts within, and strengthens, the dramatic situations.
Drama work is directed and shaped by the connections that students make between the particular dramatic situation and the world around them. Thecultural/historicalcomponent encourages students to learn about the dramatic art form and how it relates to human existence. It strives to develop students' understanding of the role of drama in various cultures and societies. While this knowledge may at times be acquired in ways which are peripheral to their own dramas, it supports students in making and understanding the connections between their own work and the work of dramatic artists with which they will become familiar. More importantly, perhaps, it will enable the students to gradually begin to view their own work as worthy artistic endeavour, and will make them increasingly aware of some of the ways in which artists get ideas.
The goal of thecritical/responsivecomponent is to provide students with opportunities to gain a lasting appreciation of the dramatic art form. In their drama work, as in their lives (drama is, after all, a precise metaphor for life), the students are simultaneously participant and spectator. As dramatic situations unfold, the points-of-view of the students and the teacher shift back and forth between that of actor and that of audience. Those periods of reflection discussed above provide an effective means by which teachers can guide their students toward the achievement of this goal. As well, within their schools and communities most students will have opportunities to act as audience in the more formal sense; that is, as theatre-goers. The section "Looking at Plays" is provided to help teachers guide their students to greater understanding and enjoyment of those theatre experiences.
Elements of Theatre Form
Drama is an art form that is concerned with the representation of people in time and space, their actions and consequences of their actions. Dramatic art form is symbolic representation of experience. It seeks (as do all art forms) to uncover meaning. It strives to help us make sense of experience.
This curriculum is concerned with teaching and learning through dramatic art form. Teachers must, therefore, be aware of and apply the elements of theatre form when structuring, "living through", shaping and refining drama work with their students.
The following elements of theatre form are ones that teachers of middle years students should be familiar with:
Focus / Tension / Contrasts / Symbol Knowing what the drama and collective creations are about and structuring each step of the work so that the students are able to explore and make new discoveries about that particular concern.< / The "pressure for response" which can take the form of a challenge, a surprise, a time restraint or the suspense of not knowing. Tension is what works in a drama to impel students to respond and take action, and what works in a play to make the audience want to know what happens next. / Dynamic use of such things as movement/ still-ness, sound/ silence and light/ darkness. / Something which stands for or represents something else. Broadly defined, dramas and collective creations are symbolic or metaphoric representations of human experience. Within works of dramatic art, links often exist between the concrete experiences of those involved and abstract ideas.
Gavin Bolton (1986) has pointed out that the elements of theatre, applied by the teacher when structuring drama work, are the same ones used by the playwright.
As the playwright focuses the meaning for the audience, so the teacher helps to focus meaning for the children; as the play wright builds tension for the audience, the teacher builds tension for the children; as the playwright and the director and the actors highlight meaning for the audience by the use of contrast in sound, light and movement, so does the teacher -- for the children; as the playwright chooses with great care the symbolic actions and objects that will operate at many levels of meaning for the audience, so will the teacher help the children find symbols in their work. (p. 166)
The inclusion of these elements into drama lessons provides the aesthetic dimension; that which Cecily O'Neill (1983) refers to as the "intrinsic educational value that the process of art can have -- the quality of thinking and feeling that it can bring to children's understanding" (p. 29).
In the middle years drama class, it is this "quality of thinking and feeling" -- the internal actions which drama evokes, rather than the external actions of speaking and doing -- that is of primary concern.
Aims and Goals
Cultural/Historical (CH)- Students will investigate the content and aesthetics of the arts within cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and understand the connection between the arts and the human experience.
This goal focuses on the role of the arts in various cultures, the development of the arts throughout history, and factors that influence contemporary arts and artists. It includes the historical development of dance, drama, music, and visual art within its social, cultural, and environmental context. In addition, the goal includes learning about the arts in contemporary societies, popular culture, and interdisciplinary forms of expression. The intent is to develop students' understanding of the arts as important forms of aesthetic expression, and as records of individual and collective experiences, histories, innovations, and visions of the future.
Critical/Responsive (CR)- Students will respond to artistic expressions of Saskatchewan, Canadian, and International artists using critical thinking, research, creativity, and collaborative inquiry.
This goal enables students to respond critically and imaginatively to images, sounds, performances, and events in the artistic environment, including the mass media. Students become participants in the interactive process between artist and audience rather than passive consumers of the arts. Several processes are provided to help teachers guide discussion and encourage various responses to works of art; for example, visual art works, musical compositions, or dance and drama performances. The processes are intended to move students beyond quick judgement to informed personal interpretation, and can be used with each of the four strands and interdisciplinary works. These processes are described in "Responding to Arts Expressions", located in the curriculum support materials area of the Ministry of Education website. The intent of this goal is also to ensure that students are actively engaged with artists in their own communities and recognize that the arts are integral to the lives and cultures of every community.
Creative/Productive (CP)- Students will inquire, create, and communicate through dance, drama, music, and visual art.
This goal includes the exploration, development, and expression of ideas in the language of each strand or art form. Each art form involves students in different ways of thinking, inquiring, and conveying meaning. Each form involves students in creative processes and different means of inquiry that require students to reflect on big ideas, and investigate compelling questions using the language, concepts, skills, techniques, and processes of that discipline. In order for an activity to be creative, students must be engaged in critical thinking, observation and other forms of research, active exploration, and creative problem-solving processes. Students learn where ideas come from, and how ideas can be developed and transformed in each art form. Documentation is also an important part of the creative process, and can be used for purposes of idea development and refinement, assessment, and sharing learning with others. Reflection, both ongoing and summative, is an essential part of every creative process, and allows students to assess and evaluate their continued growth in their creative endeavours.
Outcomes
General Curriculum Outcomes / Realization of Outcomes / Assessments / ValueCreative/Productive / 45%
CP8.4: Demonstrate how dramatic characters interact in relationships within the drama and/or collective creation.
· Sustain belief in own roles and in the roles assumed by others for extended periods of time.
· Demonstrate confidence and curiosity when assuming different kinds of roles in drama work.
· Describe own roles and specific contributions to the collective drama work.
· Describe how focus, tension, and contrast function within the drama.
· Demonstrate awareness of how focus is maintained and shifts during pair, small, and whole group drama work.
· Reflect on sources and functions of tension expressed in relationships among roles or characters portrayed.
· Examine how contrasts among characters function within the drama. / · Drama Games
· In Role
· Tableau
· Monologues
· Group discussions
· Journal Reflections
· Improvisation
· Recurring Improvisation
· Group Debriefing / · Self-Evaluation/Participation
· In Role Rubric
· Tableau Rubric
· Monologue Rubric
· Self-Evaluation/Participation
· Journal Rubric
· Improvisation Rubric
· Recurring rubrics
· Self-Evaluation/Participation
CP8.5: Investigate how theatrical elements (e.g., story, character, design, space) are combined to achieve dramatic purpose.
· Identify how theatrical elements (e.g., story, role or character, technical design) can be manipulated to achieve a creative purpose and consider how such elements relate to own drama work.
· Analyze how each character’s actions and the consequences of those actions affect the progression of the drama.
· Consider and analyze how set, costumes, lighting, and sound/music design can be manipulated to achieve different effects in own work.
· Demonstrate imagination when creating imaginary places and situations in own drama work.
· Analyze the use of movement, and the use of space and time in own work. / · Tableau
· Improvisation
· In Role
· Collective Creation
· Group/Peer Evaluation
· Group Discussions
· Journal Reflections
· Group Debriefing / · Tableau Rubric
· Improvisation Rubric
· In Role Rubic
· Collective Creation Rubrics
· Evaluation Sheets
· Self-Evaluation/ Participation
· Journal Rubric
· Self-Evaluation/ Participation
CP8.6: Express student perspectives on social issues (e.g., poverty, racism, homophobia, sustainability, gangs) in drama and/or collective creation.
· Analyze and discuss how drama may be used to explore perspectives on social issues and promote understanding of topics of personal significance.
· Use inquiry in drama to investigate topics of importance to students (e.g., issues of concern to youth or recent news items):
o Collaborate with other students to explore compelling questions through drama (What if a new law was passed that ...?).
o Brainstorm and negotiate with other students to determine how fictional situations and dramatic episodes might be explored.
o Collaborate on the development and refinement of several drama episodes or collective creation to address the selected issue.
o Recognize how research contributes to the authenticity and significance of the drama work.
o Contribute to the creation of a plan to document the creative process (e.g., reflective journal entries, video, photography, blog, or web-based diary).
· Demonstrate awareness of how to use language and negotiate the use of drama strategies to achieve dramatic purpose.
· Analyze and describe the effectiveness of own drama to convey perspectives. / · Student directed topic choice