Gothic Teachers’ Workshop Group Notes 31/1/13

WHAT SCHOOLS ARE DOING AT THE MOMENT?

YEAR 7

1. Philip Pullman Frankenstein play: Drama unit (several schools)

  • Classroom drama acting scenes
  • Extrapolating imagery to create atmosphere for drama and writing
  • S & L: ‘I thought I was constructing an angel’ stimulus quotation:
  • Creation of a monster despite creative intentions; what is a monster?
  • Discussion of the story’s morality and body image construction, cosmetic surgery.

2. Shaun the Sheep; Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

  • Investigation of the different types of humour and their conventions
  • Use of parody to identify gothic conventions (mostly narrative images, lighting) to make a later unit later in KS3 on the Gothic genre more accessible.
  • Comedy and gothic learning applied to making an animation story using iMotion.

3. Jason Cobley Dracula: The Graphic Novelandextracts from Dracula, Bram Stoker

  • Pupils bring in representations of Dracula / develop own ideas about his appearance and character
  • Comic strip stories of selected narrative events
  • Letter from Jonathan Harker

YEAR 8

3. SOW following a unit on Macbeth that introduced Gothic conventions:

Philip Pullman Frankenstein play, extracts from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,

and The Sandman animation.

  • Identify types of settings, key imagery, and descriptions of the ‘monster.
  • Creative writing: outline of being locked in school at night and meeting a monster.
  • Analytical essay comparing representations of the monster.
  • Adaptation of the play: write a 5-minute version of the story & discussion comparing what pupils selected and why.
  • Science dept. input about the science developments contemporary to Shelley’s novel, Darwin.
  • History dept. history of medical research and training, gravediggers
  • Discussion about ethics and morality of the time.

4. Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker)

Identify gothic conventions and narrative perspective (1st person, untrustworthy narrator)

  • Creative writing: short story
  • Production work: radio play focus on sound effects creating atmosphere

5. The Apprentice style pitch for a gothic horror movie

S&L task, but a student also independently constructed a trailer on iMovie to include in the pitch

[Gemma: BFI Special Collections of posters – look at what is selected to market films]

Links to Year 11 GCSE non-fiction work on analyzing presentational features (though film posters have not been on exam papers to date, teachers thought such analysis would be useful).

YEAR 9

6. Stephen Mallatratt The Woman in Black play (1987)

  • Analytical writing: discussion of adaptation of the book to the play - conventions of the novel and play forms, and gothic genre.

[Gemma: Screenonline reference in the TV Literary Adaptation page to the 1989 TV film adapted by Nigel Kneale

  • Used as preparation for GCSE Macbeth: disorientation techniques, building fear and suspense through suggestion, the unseen, powerful iconography – rocking chair, fog.

7. End of year unit on Zombies

Writing: adventure stories and diary entries about dealing with a zombie apocalypse following several stimulus discussion sources:

  • Film extracts: The Zombie Diaries; opening sequence of film 28 Days Later (after the naked shots of Cillian Murphy); I Am Legend
  • Edexcel resources website – girl surviving a zombie apocalypse
  • Suggestion for future use - TV: Derren Brown: Apocalypse

8. Year 11 Edexcel GCSE text R.L. Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Prose style extremely problematic for the students.

  • Role-play: CSI style investigation of three locations in the text to deduct evidence of Hyde’s activities and write evidence tags.

WHAT WOULD TEACHERS LIKE TO DO, AND HOW CAN THE BFI HELP?

KS3

1. Film extracts compilations: Adaptations

Representations of Dracula (unit no. 3)

Representations of Frankenstein’s monster (unit no. 4)

Representations of Mr Hyde and other extracts from the film to make the book more accessible (unit no.8)

2. Gothic film extracts compilation: Film Language

Gothic genre conventions and technical codes

3. Progression materials: KS3 materials on the gothic with a view to revisiting the topic for GCSE

e.g. Year 8 & 10 work on Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter

4. Editing activity: screen grabs to re-edit a gothic film using its conventions, motifs, narrative structure such as suspense

5. Themed materials

The roles of women

Gothic styles and conventions

Cultural contexts and influences (architecture and ornamentation, art, literature, science – history of medicine, Darwin …)

Typical themes, e.g. duality (Jekyll/Hyde, Dorian Gray)

6. Discussion forum – why do Gothic texts continue to be so interesting?

what is being explored about the human condition?