Arts Ideas: Lesson Plan

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Week Nine: Defining Drama

Student Outcome Statement: Arts Ideas - Level Four – Solves problems within given structures to complete arts works which show clearly developed ideas.

Specific Areas:

Creating: Students choose and combine elements of drama (role, situation, voice, movement, space and time, language and texts, symbol, audience and dramatic tension) to create a range of simple roles, situations and dramatic action. They choose and combine ideas, drawing on familiar structures of drama and specific conventions. They use appropriate terminology to describe and give reasons for their choices.

Interpreting: Students interpret a range of age-appropriate drama texts, scripted or self devised, and perform literal interpretations of given roles or dramatic action. They use other arts to inspire and enhance their drama.

Exploring: Students explore a range of issues of relevance to themselves through scripted and devised drama. They experiment with a range of non-linear narrative structures and conventions of time, dramatic action and audience dynamics to find solutions to set tasks, with an increasing tendency to work with more abstract concepts.

Further Outcome:

- Arts Skills and Processes – Level Four

Technologies: Students design appropriate sets, costumes and props, use lighting and recorded sound under teacher direction to enhance performance. They are aware of health and safety procedures, and production roles and responsibilities: for example, they undertake specific roles such as ‘front of house’ duties with supervision. The student selects from a range of specific skills, techniques, processes and appropriate technologies in presenting arts works for identified audiences or purposes. 4

Teaching/Learning Purposes/Objectives: To enable the student to:

* Explore relevant terminology in the theatre setting (e.g. properties, backdrop etc)

* Create and interpret their understanding through symbolic codes

* Incorporate appropriate terminology into further developing and planning projects

Background planning and requirements[1]

Major Purpose: Development of, and use of, specific theatre terminology

Key Question: How will you stage your production?

The Hook: Imagine you’re the set designer for His Majesty’s Theatre

- What’s happening? You’re in charge of designing an appropriate set for your latest production

- Who’s it happening to? Yourself, as a set designer

- Where is it happening? At His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth

- When is it happening? A month before the production starts

- What’s at stake? You need to design a set for the latest production and money is no problem. If your set does not work, however, the production will fail and you will be in trouble with the producers.

Resources:

* Architect design of a theatre for an example

* Definition posters examples

* Designs of set pieces and backdrops

* Symbolic code hand-out

Lessons description

- Class Discussion – Take students through ideas for the latest production idea. Express the need to allow students to design and construct elements of their own set. Introduce the ‘Hook’, and allow students to discuss important elements in their production.

- Class activity – Display some examples to the class, ask students to identify elements of the set and stage. Use this information to identify the terms that the students are unfamiliar with, and record these terms.

- Individual Activities – List the terms (that require focus) on the board. Distribute the terms between the members of the class, allow at least two students to share the same term. Ask each student to individually look up his or her term, specifically to find either a book or Internet definition.

- Small Group Activity – Combine small groups together, specifically the individuals that shared the same term. Ask them to create a universal definition based on their combined findings. At this point, students need to create a poster with their researched definition. The poster can include what the object or stage terminology is, how it is used and/or the safety issues surrounding its use.

- Class Discussion – Introduce symbolic codes, asking students to add these elements to their poster as a means of improve its ‘message’. Present hand-out and ask students to add at least two symbolic pictures to their poster.

- Small Group Activity – Students need to complete their posters, and present them to the class. Students will be required to justify the definition of their term, and why they chose the symbolic codes they used. These posters can now be displayed in the classroom, and should be referred to in future teaching when applicable.

- Group Activity – Students need to combine their information together to design an appropriate plan of a stage for their production. Again, symbolic codes are important in the design. As the teacher/director, the choice in dividing the groups can be either by…

	separating students into creating particular scenes/acts
	separating groups in terms of the researched definitions
	separating students by production and cast points-of-view

- Class Presentation – Ask each group to present their designs. Focus on their choices for particular symbolic codes. Why did you choose this? How will it translate to the audience?

- Class Discussion – Discuss how some of the presented ideas could be used in the production. Formulate approaches and strategies to constructing the student’s ideas.

Lesson Evaluation:

Codes and Conventions

A code is a device which is used by filmmakers, photographers, advertisers and directors which has significance – that is it has meaning to our society.

For example – Frog (written code) =

A convention is a set of learnt rules by which we live our lives.

Symbolic Code

A symbolic code is an object, setting or sign which has meaning. For example…

_________________ ________________ __________________

What do you believe these pictures above communicate to an audience?

Symbolic codes are broken into five groups

1. Non-verbal communication or body language

- Gesture - Posture -Expression

2. Clothing – For example –Leather jacket, ‘cool character’

What is an item of clothing that may suggest my character is…?

Elegant - _________________________ Rich - ______________________________

Poor - ___________________________ Intelligent - __________________________

3. Colours – For example – Yellow, ‘coward’

What type of character may be suggested by the following colour…?

Red – ___________________________ White – ____________________________

Gold – ___________________________ Black – ___________________________

4. Setting – For example – Family dining room, ‘traditional values’

What type of emotions may be suggested by the following setting…?

Tropical beach – ______________________________________________________

Mountain stream - _____________________________________________________

5. Objects – For example – A walking stick, ‘an elderly person’

What type of character may be suggested by the following object…?

Gold lighter - _________________________________________________________

Bolle sunglasses – _____________________________________________________

What are these symbolic codes? What are they communicating to the reader?

_______________________________________________

___________________________ _____________________________

Can you think of the different ways a snowman communicates to the audience? What symbols does a snowman use? What does it mean for the viewer?

1. Non-verbal communication or body language -

_____________________________________________________________________

2. Clothing –

_____________________________________________________________________

3. Colours –

_____________________________________________________________________

4. Setting –

_____________________________________________________________________

5. Objects

_____________________________________________________________________

[1] Some parts modelled upon ‘The Giant who threw Tantrums’ in John O’Toole and Julie Dunn (2002) Pretending to Learn: Helping Children learn through Drama, Longman French’s Forrest.

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