Arts Skills and Processes: Lesson Plan

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Week Ten: Poetic Performance

Student Outcome Statement: Arts Skills and Processes - Level Three – Uses a range of specific arts skills, techniques, processes conventions and technologies in presenting arts works for identified audiences or purposes.

Specific Areas:

Skills, techniques and processes: Students use a range of specific skills, techniques, processes and the elements of drama (role, situation, voice, movement, space and time, language and texts, symbol, audience and dramatic tension) to create drama works within given structures. They use appropriate tone of voice and choice of language in

improvisation, speak with clarity, use pace and pitch to indicate mood, and project the voice to suit the performance space. They use gesture, stance and ways of moving to indicate character and interact with others in performance. Students move comfortably in a structured space and arrange and use the space according to the demands of the

action. They interact with others in ways that are consistent with the role undertaken and are able to present stereotypes, ‘stock characters’ and familiar others. Students use play-building processes, such as role-playing and improvisation, as the basis for developing, preparing and presenting short, but complete scenes for particular purposes. They use improvisation to explore role and make decisions about role and action appropriate to dramatic situations provided by the teacher. They use warm-up and rehearsal to prepare for performance and are able to give and accept direction

appropriately. They perform short scripts for particular purposes.

Conventions: Students show awareness of communicating with an audience and use different performance conventions for presenting to different audiences and purposes. They understand that drama works of different cultures and times have different conventions. They use specific, learned terminology to describe their drama works.

Further Outcomes:

- Arts and Society – Level Three

Valuing the arts: Students identify the purposes and functions of drama in contemporary society, such as entertainment, storytelling and advertising. They identify aspects of drama in contemporary life, such as the use of ritual in weddings, awards ceremonies, football matches, religious events and other rites of passage.

Australian arts: Students identify and discuss specific examples of drama in Australia and recognise the range of cultures that is represented in the contemporary Australian context.

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

* Understand and use specific skills in performing to a known audience

* Implement the skills and techniques to develop a recognised ‘stock character’

* Use specific conventions to show awareness of Australian arts

Background planning and requirements[1]

Major Purpose: To focus on individual performance skills

Key Question: How do I perform on stage appropriately for my audience’s need?

Inspiration: Scoring Guide: Drama Years 7 & 10 (2004) prepared by the Australian Council for Educational Research in consultation with the Department of Education and Training, Western Australia

The Hook: Imagine you’re appearing on Australian Idol

- What’s happening? You’re at the audition day

- Who’s it happening to? Yourself as a singer

- Where is it happening? At the Hyatt centre in the city

- When is it happening? In a five-minute audition period

- What’s at stake? You must sing well for the judges, or they will not pick you. How do you meet the need of the judges?

Resources:

* Australian poetry examples

Lesson descriptions

- Warm - ups – Use a variety of warm-ups, including some Aboriginal inspired examples from The Running and Stamping Book.[2]

- Small Group Activity – Introduce the ‘Hook’. Distribute examples of Australian poetry, and ask groups to read an example and discuss different ideas for presenting the text. How would you talk to the audience? What choices would you make in the language and symbolic codes? How would you assess this if you were a judge?

- Class Discussion – Present the activity. Ask students to select an Australian poem, and perform it to the class individually. Discuss and identify, from discussions, how this would be judged. Create a list of marking criteria for students to focus upon. Specifically, try to look at the individual’s use of space, voice, movement, characterisation and their sense of the audience.

- Rehearsal Time – Allow students the opportunity to rehearse, and have one-on-one presentation time with the teacher. Use this time to relay feedback for individual improvement.

- Performance – Set up an impromptu performance within the class’ time. In this performance, the students viewing the performance can ‘grade’ their peers work by referring back to the class discussion list produced earlier. Remember to give written and verbal feedback that instructs how the individual performances could be improved, thus obtaining a higher level.

Lesson Evaluation:

Individual performance marking key

Use of space –

Level 4 (-4) – The student’s use the space effectively by deliberately communicating meaning through their performance

Level 3 (+3) – The student appropriately used most of the space by linking literal actions to aspects of text and their surrounding area

Level –3 (+2) – The student maintained a minimal use of the performance area, however a lack of consistency was also noted

Level 2 (-2) – The student made no use of the surrounding space, and therefore produced little meaning from it

Voice –

Level 4 (-4) – The student controlled tone and volume well to successfully communicate aspects of the character or chosen mood

Level 3 (+3) – The student maintained some use of voice manipulation to communicate elements of the text

Level –3 (+2) – The student’s use of voice was inconsistent, yet some aspects of vocal characterisation and/or mood were visible

Level 2 (-2) – The student’s use of vocal manipulation was not displayed, and in some cases inaudible

Movement –

Level 4 (-4) – The student consistently used movement to successfully communicate a depth of character through their poetry

Level 3 (+3) – The student made some appropriate manipulation of posture, gestures and facial expression to communicate to their audience

Level –3 (+2) – The student produced minimal aspects of their characterisation through movement

Level 2 (-2) – The student made no attempt to introduce movement as a means to communicate to their audience

Sense of audience –

Level 4 (-4) – The student had a clear stage presence, constantly engaging with the audience when appropriate

Level 3 (+3) – The student awareness of the audience was fairly strong; yet at times, somewhat relaxed

Level –3 (+2) – The student maintained a clear role in front of the audience, however appeared quite nervous at times

Level 2 (-2) – The student showed little awareness of the audience, even frequently breaking out of character

Characterisation –

Level 4 (-4) – The student created a multi-dimensional and comprehensive character, which was appropriate to the given text

Level 3 (+3) – The student provide a sound performance, however a lack in appropriate characterisation was noted

Level –3 (+2) – The student maintained a consistent character, providing only a basic depth to the given text

Level 2 (-2) – The student’s characterisation was inconsistent and confusing

[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.

[2] N. Cameron (1995) The Running and Stamping Book, Currency Press: Sydney

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